shist

Shell history (shist) backed by Valkey. A minimal alternative to Atuin — record commands, search, and scroll through history without a local SQLite database.

Requirements

• .NET 10 SDK (to build)
• Valkey or Redis server
• Bash

Build

I recommend AOT compilation both for speed and simplicity of use. The line below give you a AOT compiled binary that is dumped into the dist folder.

dotnet publish -c Release -r linux-x64 --self-contained true /p:PublishAot=true -o ./dist/x64

The binary lands at bin/Release/net10.0/shist. Add it to your PATH, or reference the full path in your shell config.

Bash setup

Point every machine at your shared Valkey instance (e.g. a Pi on your LAN), then enable bash integration.

Option A — config file (recommended; background record picks this up automatically):

mkdir -p ~/.config/shist
echo 'valkey=pi.local:6379' > ~/.config/shist/config

Option B — environment variable in ~/.bashrc:

export SHIST_VALKEY="pi.local:6379"

Then add shist to your path and load the bash hook:

export PATH="$PATH:/path/to/shist/dist/x64"
eval "$(shist init bash)"

Then reload:

source ~/.bashrc

After setup:

• Every command is recorded to Valkey in the background
• Ctrl+R opens the interactive history picker (replaces default reverse-search)

Commands

Command	Description
shist	Interactive picker (recent history)
shist pick [query]	Picker with optional initial filter
shist list [-n N]	List recent commands (default: 50)
shist search <query> [-n N]	Search history (default: 50 results)
shist record -- <cmd>	Manually store a command
shist init bash	Print bash integration snippet

Picker keys

• ↑ / ↓ — scroll
• Type — filter results
• Enter — run the selected command immediately
• Tab — put the command on the line without running (edit first)

After upgrading, refresh the bash hook: eval "$(shist init bash)"

• Esc — cancel

What gets recorded

Each entry stores three fields:

Field	Description
Command	The bash command line
Timestamp	UTC time when the command finished
Working directory	Shell cwd at record time

Stored in Valkey as tab-separated values: timestamp, cwd, command.

Duplicate commands in a row are skipped. The picker shows commands only; shist list also shows date and time.

Limits

• 10,000 entries max — oldest entries are pruned automatically on each record
• Picker loads 50 entries at a time; scrolling near the bottom fetches more

Valkey connection

The server does not need to be local. Use a shared instance so every computer sees the same history.

Priority (first match wins):

1. CLI flag: shist --valkey pi.local:6379 list
2. Environment: SHIST_VALKEY or SHIST_REDIS
3. Config file: ~/.config/shist/config
4. Alternate config: ~/.shist
5. Default: localhost:6379

Config file format:

# ~/.config/shist/config
valkey=192.168.1.50:6379

With authentication or TLS:

valkey=pi.local:6379,password=secret,ssl=true

One-off override:

shist -H pi.local:6379 search dotnet

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
SHIST_VALKEY	—	Valkey/Redis connection string
SHIST_REDIS	—	Alias for SHIST_VALKEY
SHIST_CONFIG	—	Path to a custom config file
(default)	localhost:6379	Used when nothing else is set