Building a Portfolio CLI in 2026 (and Why CLIs Feel Cool Again)

Building a Portfolio CLI in 2026 (and Why CLIs Feel Cool Again)

Over a single weekend, I decided to build a portfolio tracker that lives entirely in the terminal. Not a web app. Not a spreadsheet. A real, interactive CLI with panels, charts, and daily tracking.

I also wanted it to fit how I actually work: Excel as the source of truth, but with a console experience that makes daily updates fast and visual.

This was vibe-coded with Chat GPT-5-2-Codex over a weekend, which made it surprisingly fun to iterate on UI tweaks, edge cases, and the overall feel.

Why a CLI?

CLIs are back. Not because they're nostalgic, but because they're fast, distraction-free, and feel like tools instead of products. A good CLI lets you focus on the data and decisions rather than the UI chrome.

What I Built

The result is my-portfolio-cli, an interactive portfolio dashboard that:

• Reads data from an Excel workbook.
• Renders a rich TUI with Spectre.Console.
• Shows daily PnL, MTD performance, and FY summaries.
• Displays a simple PnL bar chart right in the terminal.
• Lets you add a new daily snapshot instantly.
• Creates new monthly sheets when you need them.

The Flow

Start it and it opens directly in interactive mode. Use arrow keys to move across days and months. Press A to add a new entry. If the month doesn't exist yet, it creates it automatically.

If you're starting from scratch (no workbook or no month sheets), the CLI prompts you to create the first month, add accounts, and enter initial values.

Design Notes

The key was making it feel like a real console app:

• Clean layout with strong visual hierarchy.
• Color-coded gains and losses.
• A compact FY summary that's readable at a glance.
• A minimal bar chart for quick trend cues.

It isn't about being fancy. It's about being useful and enjoyable to use every day.

What's Next

This project is going online soon, which means:

• A demo workbook and screenshots.
• A short walkthrough.
• Possibly a minimal installer or single-file publish.

For now, it's a tight little tool that does exactly what I need.

If you want to build your own CLI tool, I highly recommend it. The feedback loop is short, and it's easy to keep refining the experience until it feels right.