DirectriX

DirectriX is a Windows PowerShell helper for jumping to a directory by name. Instead of navigating through several levels with repeated cd commands, call:

dirx <directory-name>

For example, dirx Projects searches the indexed directories for a folder named Projects and changes the current PowerShell location to it when there is exactly one match.

How it works

The PowerShell function runs the Java cli module, which asks the navigator to find the requested directory. The navigator looks up the directory name in a map built by recursively scanning the configured directory tree.

The map has directory names as keys and lists of absolute paths as values. For example:

"Projects" -> ["C:\Users\<user>\Projects"]
"A"        -> ["C:\Coding Projekte\Express cd\Playground\A",
               "C:\Coding Projekte\Express cd\Playground\A\A"]

Keeping a list for each name allows the index to represent duplicate folder names rather than silently choosing one. The scan starts at C:\ but only visits the configured top-level locations (C:\Users, C:\Coding Projekte, C:\Program Files, C:\Program Files (x86), and C:\Python312). Hidden directories are skipped.

This map is currently an in-memory index, not a persistent cache: the loader and saver are not implemented, so each dirx invocation rebuilds the map by scanning the directories which is very consuming at the moment and will be fixed with the release of version 2.0.

Ambiguous directory names

If a name matches more than one directory, DirectriX does not guess. It reports that the name is ambiguous and prints all matching absolute paths; the current command does not offer a selector or an extra argument to choose one (also shipping with 2.0). Use the full path with Set-Location in this case.

If there is no match, the CLI reports that no path was found. PowerShell changes location only when the call to the Java program succeeds and returns a path that still exists as a directory.

PowerShell setup

Build the Maven modules in dependency order (util, core, then cli) so the shaded CLI JAR is available under cli\target. Then dot-source the script in your PowerShell session:

. .\cli\src\main\pwsh\change-directory.ps1
dirx Projects

Dot-sourcing defines dirx in the current session, allowing its Set-Location to change your prompt's working directory.