SMV - Smart Move

A powerful, Rust-based CNP (Canopy) ecosystem tool that replaces the standard Unix mv command with intelligent filename transformation capabilities and full CNP grammar support.

• POSIX-compatible mv/cp commands with all standard flags (-r, -f, -n, -L, -P, --preserve)
• Drop-in replacement for the standard Unix mv command
• CNP Grammar Support - Full Canopy ecosystem integration with filters, routes, and tool delegation
• Interactive REPL Interface with command history and tab completion
• Smart File Renaming with multiple transformation strategies:
  • Convert to snake_case (document-name.pdf → document_name.pdf)
  • Convert to kebab-case (document_name.pdf → document-name.pdf)
  • Convert to Title Case (document_name.pdf → Document Name.pdf)
  • Convert to camelCase (document_name.pdf → documentName.pdf)
  • Convert to PascalCase (document_name.pdf → DocumentName.pdf)
  • Convert to lowercase or UPPERCASE
  • Clean up spaces and special characters
  • Split camelCase/PascalCase then apply any transformation (featureWishList.md → feature_wish_list.md)

• Filter Keywords: NAME:, TYPE:, EXT:, SIZE:, DEPTH:, MODIFIED:, ACCESSED:
• Semantic Groups: FOR:notes, FOR:media, FOR:scripts, FOR:projects, FOR:configs
• Tool Delegation: TO:say, TO:dff, TO:xfd, TO:dsc for specialized operations
• Output Routing: INTO:file.txt, FORMAT:json/csv/yaml for structured output
• Advanced Filtering: Complex file discovery with logical grouping

• Directory Organization:
  • Group files by basename into directories
  • Flatten directory structures by moving all files to the root
  • Clean up empty directories after flattening
• Preview Mode - See changes before they're applied, with detailed source → destination mapping and deduplication annotations
• Batch Processing - Apply transformations to multiple files at once
• Undo Functionality - Safely revert changes
• Safety Features - File backups and conflict detection

cargo install smv

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/jwliles/smv.git
cd smv

# Build and install
cargo install --path .

SMV supports the full CNP (Canopy) grammar for advanced file operations with filters, semantic groups, and tool delegation:

# Transform with extension filter
smv snake . EXT:md -p                    # Convert markdown files to snake_case

# Filter by file type
smv kebab . TYPE:file EXT:txt -r         # Only process .txt files, recursively

# Use semantic groups
smv title . FOR:notes -p                 # Transform all note files (md, txt, etc.)
smv clean . FOR:media                    # Clean up media filenames

# Size-based filtering
smv pascal . SIZE>1MB TYPE:file -p       # Large files only

# Date-based filtering
smv lower . MODIFIED>2024-01-01 -r       # Files modified after Jan 1, 2024

# Prefix removal
smv CHANGE: "IMG_" INTO "" . EXT:jpg -p    # Remove "IMG_" prefix from all JPG files
smv CHANGE: "DSC" INTO "" . EXT:png        # Remove "DSC" prefix from PNG files

# Split camelCase/PascalCase then transform
smv split snake . EXT:md -p              # Split camelCase files then convert to snake_case
smv split kebab . EXT:js TYPE:file       # Split PascalCase files then convert to kebab-case

# Tool delegation - delegate complex operations to specialized tools
smv snake . EXT:epub TO:say split_and_titlecase  # Use SAY for word segmentation
smv organize . FOR:media TO:dff find_duplicates  # Use DFF to find duplicate media

# Output routing - save results to files
smv clean . FOR:scripts INTO:cleaned_files.txt   # Save file list to text file
smv title . TYPE:file FORMAT:json -p             # Output as JSON format

# Complex filtering with multiple criteria
smv kebab . TYPE:file EXT:md SIZE<1MB NAME:draft -p

Semantic groups provide an intelligent way to categorize files by their purpose rather than just file extensions:

• FOR:notes - Documentation and note files (.md, .txt, .org, .rst, .adoc)
• FOR:media - Images, videos, and audio files (.jpg, .png, .mp4, .wav, .gif, etc.)
• FOR:scripts - Executable and source code files (.sh, .py, .rs, .js, .go, etc.)
• FOR:projects - Project directories and build files (Cargo.toml, package.json, .git/, etc.)
• FOR:configs - Configuration files (.yaml, .json, .toml, .ini, .conf, etc.)

These groups make it easy to operate on files by their semantic meaning:

# Clean up all documentation files in a project
smv clean . FOR:notes -r

# Convert all script filenames to snake_case
smv snake . FOR:scripts -p

# Organize all media files
smv title . FOR:media

SMV provides full POSIX-compatible file operations with all standard flags:

# Move a file to another location
smv mv file.txt /path/to/destination/

# Move multiple files to a directory
smv mv file1.txt file2.txt destination_directory/

# Multi-source move with CNP grammar (regex or glob, deduplication, preview)
smv -move EXT:png FROM:a/,b/ TO:c/ -p
smv -move NAME:'^img\d+' FROM:a/,b/ TO:c/ -r -p
smv -move EXT:png FROM:a/*.png,b/*.png TO:c/ -gr -p

# Preview output shows:
# a/img1.png   →  c/img1.png   [NEW]
# b/img2.png   →  c/img2.png   [NEW]
# b/img3.png   →  c/img3.png   [OVERWRITE]
# [DEDUP] b/img1.png matched multiple patterns, processed once

# Rename a file
smv mv old_name.txt new_name.txt

# Move with flags
smv mv source dest -f              # Force overwrite
smv mv source dest -n              # No-clobber (don't overwrite)
smv mv *.txt backup/ -r            # Recursive move
smv mv file dest --interactive-confirm  # Prompt before overwrite

# Copy a file
smv cp file.txt backup/

# Copy multiple files
smv cp file1.txt file2.txt *.md backup/

# Copy directories recursively
smv cp source_dir/ backup_dir/ -r

# Copy with metadata preservation
smv cp important.txt backup/ --preserve

# Copy with symbolic link handling
smv cp -L symlink dest             # Dereference symlinks
smv cp -P symlink dest             # Preserve symlinks

• -r - Recursive (for directories)
• -f - Force (overwrite without confirmation)
• -n - No-clobber (never overwrite existing files)
• -L - Dereference symbolic links
• -P - Do not follow symbolic links
• --preserve - Preserve file attributes, ownership, and timestamps
• --interactive-confirm - Prompt before overwriting files

SMV follows the CNP command philosophy: <tool> [scope] [targets] [modifiers]

SMV features an Excel-like command guidance system that shows available options as you type:

$ smv snake EXT:pdf
[smv] [snake] [EXT:pdf] [-p|-r|-f]
 cmd   transform  filters    flags (optional)

• F1: Get context-sensitive help for current position
• Tab: Cycle through valid options
• Backspace: Navigate to previous position

Apply transformations using the new sequential structure:

# Convert filenames to snake_case
smv -snake . txt

# Convert filenames to kebab-case with preview
smv -kebab . pdf preview

# Clean up spaces and special characters recursively
smv -clean /path/to/messy/files/ recursive

# Convert to Title Case for specific extensions
smv -title documents/ md txt

# Multiple file types with preview
smv -pascal . pdf txt docx preview

Organize or flatten directory structures:

# Group files by basename into directories
smv -group /path/to/files/

# Preview grouping without making changes
smv -group /path/to/files/ preview

# Flatten all files from subdirectories into the root directory
smv -flatten /path/to/nested/folders/

# Sort files by type with grouping
smv -sort downloads/ type group

SMV is designed to work within the CNP REPL environment:

# Start CNP REPL
$ cnp
CNP> smv snake EXT:pdf -p
CNP> smv pascal documents/ EXT:txt
CNP> exit
$

Launch the interactive REPL interface:

# Start interactive session
smv -interactive

Type exit to quit the REPL. All operations are saved to history automatically.

Launch the TUI file explorer with Vim-style navigation:

# Start TUI mode
smv -tui

The TUI mode features:

• File explorer with Vim motions (hjkl, gg, G)
• Visual selection mode for multiple files
• Fuzzy search using Skim integration
• GParted-style operation queue
• Preview of file transformations

In the interactive shell:

smv> ls
document.pdf document.docx image.jpg notes.txt

smv> preview snake *.pdf
document.pdf → document.pdf (no change needed)

smv> rename notes.txt
...
Select transformation:
  1. Clean up spaces and special characters
  ...
  4. Convert to Title Case
...
Preview of changes:
  "notes.txt" → "Notes.txt"
Apply these changes? [y/N] y
Renamed: "notes.txt" → "Notes.txt"

smv> undo
Operation undone successfully.

smv> help
Commands:
  preview <transform> <files>  - Show transformation without applying
  apply <transform> <files>    - Apply transformation
  rename <files> --options     - Interactive renaming wizard
  undo                        - Revert last operation
  cd <directory>              - Change directory
  ls [pattern]                - List files
  help                        - Show this help
  quit                        - Exit program

smv <COMMAND> <PATH> [FILTERS] [ROUTES] [FLAGS]

Commands: snake, kebab, pascal, camel, title, lower, upper, clean, split TRANSFORMATION, CHANGE: "old" INTO "new", CHANGE: "prefix" INTO "" (prefix removal), REGEX "pattern" INTO "replacement"

Filters:

• NAME:value - Match filenames containing value
• TYPE:directory - Filter to directories only (files are default)
• EXT:extension - Filter by file extension
• SIZE:1MB / SIZE:500KB - Filter by file size
• DEPTH:2 / DEPTH:1 - Filter by directory depth
• MODIFIED:2024-01-01 / MODIFIED:2023-12-31 - Filter by modification date
• ACCESSED:2024-01-01 / ACCESSED:2023-12-31 - Filter by access date
• FOR:notes|media|scripts|projects|configs - Semantic file groups

Routes:

• TO:tool - Delegate operation to another CNP tool (say, dff, xfd, dsc)
• INTO:filename - Save output to file
• FORMAT:json|csv|yaml|text - Format output

Flags: -r (recursive), -p (preview), -f (force), -i (interactive), -T (TUI), -u (undo)

Options:
  -i, --interactive              Launch interactive REPL interface
  -p, --preview                  Preview changes without applying them
  -r, --recursive                Process subdirectories recursively
  -f, --force                    Skip confirmations
  -T, --tui                      Launch terminal UI mode
  -u, --undo                     Undo the last operation
      --exclude <PATTERNS>       Comma-separated patterns to exclude
      --max-history-size <SIZE>  Maximum number of operations in history [default: 50]
  -h, --help                     Print help
  -V, --version                  Print version

• snake - Convert to snake_case
• kebab - Convert to kebab-case
• pascal - Convert to PascalCase
• camel - Convert to camelCase
• title - Convert to Title Case
• lower - Convert to lowercase
• upper - Convert to UPPERCASE
• clean - Clean up spaces and special characters
• split TRANSFORMATION - Split camelCase/PascalCase then apply transformation

SMV automatically creates backups of modified files in ~/.config/smv/backups/. This allows the undo functionality to work even after the program has been closed and reopened.

The undo command reverts the most recent operation.

In interactive mode, you can use:

smv> undo

In command-line mode, you can use:

smv --undo

SMV will not overwrite existing files unless explicitly instructed to do so, preventing accidental data loss.

• Rust (Minimum supported version: 1.85.0)
• GNU/Linux or other free operating system
• Standard system libraries

Note: SMV is developed exclusively for free operating systems. It is not officially tested or supported on proprietary platforms.

See DEVELOPMENT_PLAN.md for the current roadmap and development priorities.

• CNP Grammar Support: Full Canopy ecosystem integration with filters, routes, and tool delegation
• Advanced Filtering: NAME:, TYPE:, EXT:, SIZE:, DEPTH:, MODIFIED:, ACCESSED: filters
• Semantic Groups: FOR:notes, FOR:media, FOR:scripts, FOR:projects, FOR:configs
• Tool Delegation: TO:tool routing for specialized operations
• Output Routing: INTO:file and FORMAT:json/csv/yaml support
• DSC Integration: Ultra-fast file discovery using DSC instead of broken glob patterns
• New Command Structure: Implemented CNP command philosophy
• Interactive Guidance System: Excel-like command preview and help (designed)
• Sequential Command Parsing: Position-based argument validation
• CNP REPL Integration: Designed for use within CNP environment
• Simplified Syntax: No more -- clutter after scope declaration

• Interactive Guidance Implementation: Build the Excel-like command preview system
• F1 Help System: Context-sensitive help for each command position
• Tab Completion: Cycle through valid options at each position
• CNP Library Integration: Extract shared command guidance into CNP library
• Complete Tool Delegation: Finalize integration with SAY, DFF, XFD tools
• WHERE Filter Groups: Implement logical grouping of multiple filters

• Multi-step transformation pipelines: Chain multiple transforms together

  # Example: Clean, convert to snake_case, then replace spaces with underscores
  smv -pipeline "clean,snake,replace:space:_" file.txt

• Regular expression-based transformations: Advanced pattern replacement

  # Example: Replace "old" with "new" in filenames
  smv -replace "old:new" file.txt
  # Example: Replace all digits with 'X'
  smv -char-replace "digits:X" file*.txt

• Custom user-defined transformations: Save your own transform combinations

  # Example: Save a custom transformation
  smv -save "my-format:clean,snake,upper"
  # Use the custom transformation
  smv -custom my-format file.txt

• Configuration file system: Persistent settings and defaults

• Directory synchronization features: Keep renamed files in sync

• Plugin system for add-ons: Extend functionality

• Enhanced REPL with syntax highlighting: Improved interactive mode

• Color-coded preview output: Visual differentiation of changes

MIT License