# New name for the CLI binary

**URL:** <https://discourse.asciinema.org/t/new-name-for-the-cli-binary/932>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [February 17, 2025, 8:26pm UTC](https://discourse.asciinema.org/t/new-name-for-the-cli-binary/932 "2025-02-17T20:26:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ku1ik](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/discourse.asciinema.org/ku1ik/32/171_2.png) [@ku1ik](https://discourse.asciinema.org/u/ku1ik)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 8:26pm UTC](https://discourse.asciinema.org/t/new-name-for-the-cli-binary/932/1 "2025-02-17T20:26:41Z")

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For the upcoming CLI 3.0 I’m considering renaming the binary from `asciinema` to something shorter, which resembles the original name but is just easier to type.

“asciinema” is 9 letters, easy to make a typo, and autocompletion in shell often stops at “ascii”, if you press tab after “asc” and your system has `ascii` program installed…

Do you like any of these options?

- `ama`
- `anm`
- `ciin`
- `cin`
- `cine`
- `cnm`
- `nema`
- `nma`

The names above don’t seem to conflict with existing binaries available in debian/ubuntu/nixos repositories.

Suggestions welcome!

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**Author:** ![balupton](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/discourse.asciinema.org/balupton/32/472_2.png) [@balupton](https://discourse.asciinema.org/u/balupton)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2025, 2:25am UTC](https://discourse.asciinema.org/t/new-name-for-the-cli-binary/932/2 "2025-02-21T02:25:07Z")

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Please no, this is what dotfile aliases are for. Different names presents unneeded complexities and even worse conflicts for system maintainers.

Sounds like you also need a better autocompleted for your shell. Fish has a brilliant builtin one, carapace is cross-shell and great. [Dorothy](https://dorothy.bevry.me) supports both.

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**Author:** ![ku1ik](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/discourse.asciinema.org/ku1ik/32/171_2.png) [@ku1ik](https://discourse.asciinema.org/u/ku1ik)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2025, 9:07pm UTC](https://discourse.asciinema.org/t/new-name-for-the-cli-binary/932/3 "2025-02-21T21:07:35Z")

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Thanks for the feedback.

I do use fish and yet it doesn’t help much with auto-completing `asciinema` for me. I have `ascii` and `asciiquarium` programs also installed, so in order to get `asciinema` completed I need to type `asciin{tab}` - too much for me 🙂

I assumed many people feel the same. But apparently it’s not a problem for majority of users (who might not have `ascii/asciiquarium` installed). It was just an idea.

I’ll probably just `alias aa=asciinema` and forget about it.

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**Author:** ![J\_Scott\_Elblein](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/discourse.asciinema.org/j_scott_elblein/32/597_2.png) [@J\_Scott\_Elblein](https://discourse.asciinema.org/u/J_Scott_Elblein)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 4:36am UTC](https://discourse.asciinema.org/t/new-name-for-the-cli-binary/932/4 "2025-02-22T04:36:12Z")

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I just use my aliases file for it as well. 👍

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**Author:** ![Mox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mox](https://discourse.asciinema.org/u/Mox)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 3:19am UTC](https://discourse.asciinema.org/t/new-name-for-the-cli-binary/932/5 "2025-03-08T03:19:16Z")

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If you were to change it nema sounds good, thats what I use for it on my site(since I run it on a subdomain). I do find the name inconveniently long but I don’t find myself running it often enough for it to become an issue. Just adding my thoughts sorry.

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**Author:** ![ku1ik](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/discourse.asciinema.org/ku1ik/32/171_2.png) [@ku1ik](https://discourse.asciinema.org/u/ku1ik)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 10:41am UTC](https://discourse.asciinema.org/t/new-name-for-the-cli-binary/932/6 "2025-03-26T10:41:16Z")

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Thanks for the feedback. I’ll just keep it as is, to avoid confusion and breakages.

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**Author:** ![ku1ik](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/discourse.asciinema.org/ku1ik/32/171_2.png) [@ku1ik](https://discourse.asciinema.org/u/ku1ik)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://discourse.asciinema.org/t/new-name-for-the-cli-binary/932/7 "2025-05-29T13:27:18Z")

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