Jargon utility

Small CLI for browsing the Jargon File from your terminal — random entries, term lookups, colored output.

"The Jargon File is a glossary and usage dictionary of slang used by computer programmers. The original Jargon File was a collection of terms from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI Lab (SAIL) and others of the old ARPANET AI/LISP/PDP-10 communities, including Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), Carnegie Mellon University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It was published in paperback form in 1983 as The Hacker's Dictionary (edited by Guy Steele) and revised in 1991 as The New Hacker's Dictionary (ed. Eric S. Raymond; third edition published 1996)." — Wikipedia

Data source

Uses the community-maintained agiacalone/jargonfile (~2300 entries). A baseline snapshot is bundled with the package; run jargon fetch to update to the latest.

Install

uv tool install jargon-file
# or:
pipx install jargon-file

From source

gh repo clone rdubar/jargon && cd jargon
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e .

Usage

jargon                  # random entry
jargon endian           # look up a term (case-insensitive, partial match ok)
jargon -a endian        # show all senses
jargon -s hack          # list all matching terms without showing content
jargon hack -a          # show all entries that match 'hack' in full

If a lookup has multiple partial matches, jargon lists them so you can narrow down. Use -a to dump all matches at once.

Commands

Command	What it does
jargon [term]	Random entry, or look up a term
jargon fetch	Update community data to the latest
jargon info	Show version, data stats, and credits
jargon update	Check for a newer release and print the upgrade command
jargon build	Rebuild JSON from a local DocBook XML file

Flags: -a / --all show all senses (or all matching entries) · -s / --search list matches without showing content · --json override data path

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Author

Roger Dubar — rdubar@gmail.com — github.com/rdubar

Credits

Original Jargon File by Eric S. Raymond esr@snark.thyrsus.com — catb.org/jargon

Community edition maintained at agiacalone/jargonfile — submissions and corrections welcome there.