After trying such history-based automatic tools I found they lacked predictability for me.

So the very small 50 LOC kd was born:

    kd # jumps to project top level (based on .git/Gemfile)
    kd foobar "$PWD" # saves an entry named foobar pointing to $PWD
    kd foo # jumps to foobar
    cp qux $(kd foo) # expands to foobar's value

I should probably make it expand to absolute paths so that I could change "$PWD" to .

https://github.com/lloeki/dotfiles/blob/master/shell/kd

I use `autojump` (aliased as `j`), which sounds quite similar as it also records your most frequently visited directories. It's as simple as entering `j down` to enter /some/path/to/MyDownloadFolder.

For exploring massive file trees, a terminal file manager that allows you to preview the contents of subdirectories without entering them is huge time saver. I use `lf`.

https://github.com/wting/autojump

https://github.com/gokcehan/lf

I use (and develop) `goat`. It's like a shortcut manager for aliases for directories you go to often. And a way to make "cd ...." work for any number of dots.

https://github.com/0mp/goat

zsh, oh-my-zsh and z are the must haves that I add to any new environment immediately. Z and similar tools is such an elegant solution to directory navigation.