Show HN: Pobshell: A Bash-like shell to explore live Python object hierarchies
github.comMeet Pobshell. Think cd, ls, cat, and find — but for Python objects instead of files.
Stroll around your code, runtime state, and data structures. Inspect everything: modules, classes, live objects. Plus recursive search and CLI integration.
40s video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d4DgVnqWjQ
What it's for:
- Exploratory debugging: Inspect live object state on the fly
- Understanding APIs: Examine code, docstrings, class trees
- Shell integration: Pipe object state or code snippets to LLMs or OS tools
- Code and data search: Recursive search for object state or source without file paths
- REPL & paused script: Explore runtime environments dynamically
- Teaching & demos: Make Python internals visible and walkable
Pobshell is pick‑up‑and‑play: familiar commands plus optional new tricks.
Install: pip install pobshell
Pobshell is open source, and in alpha release. Tested on MacOs, Linux and Windows (Python 3.12) Simple use case: What version of the json module is this live code running?
(when you don't even know the attribute name) # At a pdb prompt, from a frame where json is global or local:
(Pdb) import pobshell; pobshell.shell()
Welcome to Pobshell - type 'help' for commands, 'quit' to exit
/ ▶ find json --name *version* -i -a -l
/json/__version__ str '2.0.9'
/json/codecs/sys/api_version int 1013
/json/codecs/sys/hexversion int 51055600
/json/codecs/sys/version str '3.11.11 | packaged by
# -i case insensitive
# -a include hidden attributes (_ and __ prefixed names)
# -l give an 'ls -l' listing of the matched objects