opentag (ot)

opentag (binary: ot) is a command-line utility for opening tagged files or URLs using the system’s default applications.

It provides a convenient way to manage frequently accessed resources—such as websites, documents, or directories—without relying on browser bookmarks or manual path entry. Resources are organized using user-defined tags, which can be nested hierarchically via subtags. Each tag may also include a description for reference.

All tags are configured through a structured JSON file. For setup instructions and usage examples, see the following sections.

• Usage
• Defining Tags
  • Structure
  • Location
• Installation
• License
  • Contribution

Usage

Some example commands based on the configuration in the Defining Tags section:

# Opens https://example.com
$ ot example
# Same as above
$ ot exa
# Opens the file at `~/opentag/README.md`
$ ot exa readme
# Opens `https://github.com`
$ ot web github
# Same as above
$ ot web gh

# Lists all global level tags
$ ot -l
# Lists all subtags under the "example" tag
$ ot example -l

# Prints "https://example.com"
$ ot example -p
# Opens "https://github.com" and copies the URL to the clipboard
$ ot web gh -c
# Copies "https://github.com" to the clipboard
$ ot web gh -C
# Opens "https://github.com" with Firefox (if installed)
# instead of the default browser
$ ot web gh -A firefox

# Adds a new subtag "google" under "example" with a URL,
# aliases "alphabet" and "search", and a description
$ ot example add google --path https://google.com --aliases alphabet,search --about "Opens google.com"

# Removes the subtag we added above
$ ot example google remove

# Updates the "web" tag by adding "net" as an alias
$ ot web update --alias net
# Updates the "web" tag by removing all aliases and the about text
# (passing a flag with no value clears it)
$ ot web update --alias --about

Run ot -h to see a brief overview (shown below), or ot --help for the full help text. You can also view help for specific commands (add, remove, update) and for any tags you define.

opentag 1.0.0
Sujal Bolia <sujalbolia@gmail.com>

opentag (ot) opens tagged files or URLs using the default system application.

Usage: ot [OPTIONS] [COMMAND-OR-TAG]

Commands:
  add     Add a new tag [aliases: -a]
  remove  Remove an existing tag [aliases: -r]
  update  Update an existing tag [aliases: -u]

Options:
  -p, --print           Print the path or the URL instead of opening it
  -A, --app <APP-NAME>  Specify the app to open the path or the URL with
  -c, --copy            Copy the path or the URL to the system clipboard
  -C, --silent-copy     Copy the path or the URL to the system clipboard without opening it
  -l, --list            List all global tags or subtags of specified tag
  -h, --help            Print help (see more with '--help')
  -V, --version         Print version

Defining Tags

Tags are defined in a json data file. You should use the add, remove, and update commands to manage tags instead of editing the file directly.

Structure

The structure of the configuration file is described in the following example.

[
  {
    "names": ["example", "exa"],
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "about": "Opens example.com",
    "subtags": [
      {
        "name": "readme",
        "path": "~/opentag/README.md",
        "about": "Opens the README of `opentag`"
      },
      {
        "name": "main",
        "path": "~/opentag/src/main.rs",
        "about": "Opens the `main.rs` file of `opentag`"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "name": "web",
    "about": "Defines web tabs. A subtag must be used.",
    "subtags": [
      {
        "names": ["github", "gh"],
        "url": "https://github.com/",
        "about": "Opens GitHub"
      }
    ]
  }
]

This will create two "global" tags: example and web. The example tag has two subtags: readme and main, and one alias: exa. The web tag has one subtag: github. The github subtag has one alias: gh.

Note that the names key has an alias (name) and can either be a string or a list of strings. Similarly, url is an alias of path.

Location

By default, the location of this file is $DATA_DIR/opentag/tags.json where $DATA_DIR is as follows:

Platform	$DATA_DIR
Linux	/home/Alice/.local/share
macOS	/Users/Alice/Library/Application Support
Windows	C:\Users\Alice\AppData\Roaming

You can override this by setting the OPENTAG_DATA environment variable as the path of the tags file. The environment variable takes precedence over the default location.

Installation

You need Rust to compile opentag.

cargo is usually installed with Rust. If you don't have cargo installed, follow the cargo installation documentation.

Once you have cargo installed, you can simply use cargo install or compile from the source.

To use cargo install:

cargo install --git https://github.com/nextonesfaster/opentag

cargo will install opentag in its bin directory, which should already be in your PATH.

To compile from source:

# Clone this repository
$ git clone https://github.com/nextonesfaster/opentag.git

# cd into the cloned repository
$ cd opentag

# Compile using cargo with the release flag
$ cargo build --release

The executable will be at ./target/release/ot. You can move it to your PATH to invoke ot from any directory.

License

opentag is distributed under the terms of both the MIT License and the Apache License 2.0.

See the LICENSE-MIT and LICENSE-APACHE files for more details.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.