Storg

Problem

I kept running into the same tedious task: a directory full of files with no meaningful names or structure — downloads, exports, screenshots all piled together. Manually sorting and renaming them was a time sink. I wanted a single command I could run from anywhere that just handled it.

Approach

Go was the natural choice — it compiles to a single binary, starts fast, and has excellent standard library support for filesystem operations. I used Cobra to structure the CLI so that adding new subcommands later wouldn't require restructuring the whole program. MIME-type detection from file content (not just extension) made the classification more reliable on files with missing or wrong extensions.

What I learned

• Go's standard library covers most CLI needs — reaching for external packages too early adds complexity without proportional benefit.
• MIME detection by content is significantly more reliable than extension-based detection, especially for files created by tools that don't follow conventions.
• Cobra's command structure is easy to grow — the time spent setting it up correctly at the start paid off when adding the rename subcommand later.
• Real-time progress feedback matters more in CLI tools than I expected — silent bulk operations feel broken even when they're working.