Sometimes, diving deep into documentation and manual pages to understand a tool inside out can be overwhelming. Sometimes, we just need a quick reference for common usages of popular tools. Enter cheatsheetify, a Python tool that generates PDF cheatsheets for popular command-line tools on demand.

GitHub Repo: HYP3R00T/Cheatsheetify

A Bit of Story

Creating cheatsheets manually using word processors like Microsoft Word or Google Docs can be tedious. I realized it would be more efficient to fetch information from already available sources. Nearly every popular tool has a manual or help page accessible with the Linux tool called man. While man is useful, it often provides more information than necessary for a cheatsheet. After some searching, I came across a tool called tldr, which I had used previously when Linux was my daily driver.

Once I found the source of information, the next challenge was finding a tool to generate PDFs. After seeking guidance from ChatGPT, I tried the reportlab library, but it didn’t quite meet my needs. So, I went back to the traditional method of searching the internet and discovered fpdf2, a library capable of creating beautifully formatted PDFs.

With these pieces in hand, I merged them together and added a few features, and after two days of work, cheatsheetify was born.

Setup and Usage

Cheatsheetify is now available on the Python Package Index (PyPI), making installation a breeze:

pip install cheatsheetify

To use the tool, simply type the following command in your terminal:

python cheatsheetify [# list of commands]
# example
python cheatsheetify ls

For more information, check out the documentation at cheatsheetify.hyperoot.dev.