# Building Shellporter: From Idea to Production in a Week

DevFeed: [Building Shellporter: From Idea to Production in a Week](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/building-shellporter-from-idea-to-production-in-a-week-25589.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.marcogomiero.com/posts/2026/building-shellporter/>)

Author: Marco Gomiero

Published: 2026-02-14T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Posts on Marco Gomiero](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/posts-on-marco-gomiero.md>)

Topics: [macOS](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/macos.md>), [Terminal](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/terminal.md>), [ide](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ide.md>)

Tags: [app](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/app.md>), [ide](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ide.md>), [jetbrains](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/jetbrains.md>), [macos](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/macos.md>), [terminal](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/terminal.md>)

## AI overview

The author describes building Shellporter, a macOS menu bar utility that opens a terminal in the project directory of the active IDE. It uses window information, macOS Accessibility API attributes, IDE-specific resolution strategies, metadata files, and a cache, with support for several IDEs and terminal applications.

## Source excerpt

I work with multiple projects at the same time. My typical macOS setup is one Desktop/Workspace per project, with my IDE and a terminal window. I prefer using a standalone terminal over the one built into the IDE because TUIs, especially those from AI agents, tend to perform better there: no scrolling jank, no weird jumps, and a generally smoother experience. And also I prefer to have a full big window dedicated to the terminal with more stuff to read rather than a small window in the IDE.