CLI Tools - Terminal Guide

Terminal Guide

4 min read Original article ↗

108 tools across 10 categories

Discover tools that make working in the terminal faster and more enjoyable. From modern replacements for classic utilities to entirely new productivity boosters.

Faster Workflows

Modern tools optimized for speed and efficiency in your daily terminal tasks.

Better Search

Find files and text instantly with fuzzy finders and fast search tools.

Enhanced Output

Syntax highlighting, better diffs, and improved readability for terminal output.

Terminal Emulators

(17)

alacritty icon

Alacritty

macOSLinuxWindows

GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal focused on simplicity and performance.

Cmux

macOS

Native macOS terminal built on libghostty, designed for AI coding agents with notification rings and vertical tabs.

foot icon

Foot

Linux

Lightweight and fast Wayland-native terminal emulator.

ghostty icon

Ghostty

macOSLinux

High-performance terminal emulator written in Zig with native platform integration.

gnome-terminal icon

GNOME Terminal

Linux

Default terminal emulator for the GNOME desktop environment.

hyper icon

Hyper

macOSLinuxWindows

Electron-based modern terminal with extensive plugin ecosystem.

iterm2 icon

iTerm2

macOS

Feature-rich terminal emulator for macOS with split panes, search, autocomplete, and shell integration.

kitty icon

Kitty

macOSLinux

GPU-accelerated terminal with image display, tabs/windows, and Python extensions.

konsole icon

Konsole

Linux

Default terminal emulator for the KDE desktop environment.

rio icon

Rio

macOSLinuxWindows

High-performance Rust terminal with WebGPU rendering.

tabby icon

Tabby

macOSLinuxWindows

Highly customizable cross-platform terminal with SSH manager and serial console support.

terminator icon

Terminator

Linux

Terminal emulator supporting grid layout and broadcast input.

tilix icon

Tilix

Linux

GTK3-based tiling terminal emulator with quake mode.

warp icon

Warp

macOSLinux

AI-powered modern terminal with block-based output and team collaboration features.

webterm icon

WebTerm

macOSLinuxWindows

Browser-based terminal emulator with instant access. No installation required.

wezterm icon

WezTerm

macOSLinuxWindows

GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator configurable with Lua.

windows-terminal icon

Windows Terminal

Windows

Official Microsoft terminal integrating WSL, PowerShell, and Cmd with modern features.

Multiplexers

(6)

abduco

macOSLinux

Session management tool that works with dvtm or any other program.

byobu icon

Byobu

macOSLinux

Enhanced wrapper for tmux/screen with pre-configured keybindings and status bar.

dvtm

macOSLinux

Dynamic virtual terminal manager inspired by dwm window manager.

screen icon

GNU Screen

macOSLinux

Traditional terminal multiplexer with decades of stability and reliability.

tmux icon

tmux

macOSLinux

Terminal multiplexer for session management, window splitting, and detach/attach.

zellij icon

Zellij

macOSLinux

Modern Rust-based terminal multiplexer with intuitive UI and WebAssembly plugins.

Modern CLI

(17)

atuin icon

Atuin

macOSLinux

Magical shell history with sync and search.

bat icon

bat

macOSLinuxWindows

Cat clone with syntax highlighting and Git integration.

choose

macOSLinuxWindows

Human-friendly cut/awk alternative.

delta icon

delta

macOSLinuxWindows

Syntax-highlighting pager for git diff output.

dog

macOSLinux

User-friendly DNS lookup tool (dig alternative).

duf icon

duf

macOSLinuxWindows

Better df alternative with user-friendly output.

dust icon

dust

macOSLinuxWindows

Intuitive disk usage visualization like du but better.

eza icon

eza

macOSLinuxWindows

Modern ls replacement with colors, icons, and Git status.

fd icon

fd

macOSLinuxWindows

Simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to find.

gping

macOSLinuxWindows

Ping with a graph visualization.

McFly

macOSLinux

Intelligent shell history search with neural network.

procs icon

procs

macOSLinuxWindows

Modern ps replacement with color output and tree view.

ripgrep icon

ripgrep

macOSLinuxWindows

Ultra-fast recursive grep alternative.

sd icon

sd

macOSLinuxWindows

Intuitive find & replace CLI (sed alternative).

tealdeer icon

tealdeer

macOSLinuxWindows

Fast tldr client for simplified command documentation.

xh

macOSLinuxWindows

Friendly and fast HTTP client (HTTPie-compatible).

zoxide icon

zoxide

macOSLinuxWindows

Smarter cd command that learns your habits.

Fuzzy Finders

(4)

fzf icon

fzf

macOSLinuxWindows

General-purpose command-line fuzzy finder.

peco icon

peco

macOSLinuxWindows

Interactive filtering tool for UNIX pipes.

percol

macOSLinux

Interactive grep/filter tool for UNIX pipes.

skim icon

skim

macOSLinux

Rust-based fzf alternative with async support.

File Managers

(9)

broot icon

broot

macOSLinuxWindows

Tree view file manager with fuzzy search.

joshuto

macOSLinux

Ranger-like terminal file manager written in Rust.

lf icon

lf

macOSLinuxWindows

Lightweight and fast terminal file manager.

mc icon

Midnight Commander

macOSLinux

Classic dual-pane file manager with built-in editor.

nnn icon

nnn

macOSLinux

Ultra-lightweight and blazing fast file manager.

ranger icon

ranger

macOSLinux

Vim-inspired TUI file manager with preview.

vifm icon

vifm

macOSLinuxWindows

Vim-like file manager with dual panes.

xplr icon

xplr

macOSLinux

Hackable, minimal, and fast TUI file explorer.

yazi icon

yazi

macOSLinuxWindows

Blazing fast Rust terminal file manager with async I/O.

Text Editors

(14)

antigravity icon

Antigravity

macOSLinuxWindows

Google's agent-first IDE with autonomous AI agents for development.

cursor icon

Cursor

macOSLinuxWindows

AI-first code editor built on VS Code with advanced AI integration.

emacs icon

Emacs

macOSLinuxWindows

Extensible editor/environment with infinite customization via Emacs Lisp.

fresh icon

Fresh

macOSLinuxWindows

Zero-config terminal IDE in Rust with familiar keybindings, mouse support, and built-in LSP.

helix icon

Helix

macOSLinuxWindows

Modern modal editor inspired by Kakoune/Neovim with built-in LSP.

kakoune icon

Kakoune

macOSLinux

Selection-first modal editor with a different paradigm than Vim.

lapce icon

Lapce

macOSLinuxWindows

Lightning-fast Rust code editor with modal editing.

micro icon

micro

macOSLinuxWindows

Modern and intuitive terminal editor (nano alternative).

nano icon

nano

macOSLinux

Simple and beginner-friendly text editor.

neovim icon

Neovim

macOSLinuxWindows

Modern Vim fork with Lua configuration and built-in LSP.

sublime-text icon

Sublime Text

macOSLinuxWindows

Fast and sophisticated text editor with powerful features.

vim icon

Vim

macOSLinuxWindows

Classic modal text editor with high efficiency and extensibility.

vscode icon

Visual Studio Code

macOSLinuxWindows

Popular code editor by Microsoft with extensive extension marketplace.

zed icon

Zed

macOSLinux

High-performance code editor with real-time collaboration.

Shell Enhancements

(9)

Fisher

macOSLinux

Plugin manager for the Fish shell.

oh-my-zsh icon

Oh My Zsh

macOSLinux

Zsh configuration framework with plugins and themes.

powerlevel10k icon

Powerlevel10k

macOSLinux

Fast Zsh theme with extensive customization options.

Pure

macOSLinux

Minimal and beautiful Zsh prompt.

starship icon

Starship

macOSLinuxWindows

Minimal, fast, and customizable cross-shell prompt.

tide icon

Tide

macOSLinux

Modern Fish prompt inspired by Powerlevel10k.

zinit icon

zinit

macOSLinux

Flexible and fast Zsh plugin manager.

zsh-autosuggestions icon

zsh-autosuggestions

macOSLinux

Fish-like autosuggestions based on command history.

zsh-syntax-highlighting icon

zsh-syntax-highlighting

macOSLinux

Fish-like syntax highlighting for Zsh.

Git Tools

(12)

commitizen icon

Commitizen

macOSLinuxWindows

Interactive commit message creator for Conventional Commits.

git-delta icon

delta (Git)

macOSLinuxWindows

Syntax-highlighting pager for git diff/log/show.

fork icon

Fork

macOSWindows

Fast and friendly Git GUI client.

git-lfs icon

Git LFS

macOSLinuxWindows

Git extension for versioning large files.

git-flow

macOSLinuxWindows

Git branching model extension commands.

gh icon

GitHub CLI

macOSLinuxWindows

Official GitHub command-line tool.

gitkraken icon

GitKraken

macOSLinuxWindows

Visual Git client with team collaboration features.

gitui icon

gitui

macOSLinuxWindows

Blazing fast Git TUI written in Rust.

lazygit icon

lazygit

macOSLinuxWindows

Simple terminal UI for git commands.

pre-commit icon

pre-commit

macOSLinuxWindows

Git hooks framework for code quality.

sourcetree icon

Sourcetree

macOSWindows

Free Git GUI client by Atlassian.

tig icon

tig

macOSLinux

Text-mode interface for Git.

Dev Tools

(12)

curl-tool icon

curl

macOSLinuxWindows

Command-line tool for transferring data with URLs.

dasel icon

dasel

macOSLinuxWindows

Query and modify data in JSON, TOML, YAML, XML, CSV.

fx

macOSLinuxWindows

Terminal JSON viewer with interactive navigation.

glow icon

glow

macOSLinuxWindows

Markdown renderer for the terminal.

httpie icon

HTTPie

macOSLinuxWindows

User-friendly command-line HTTP client.

hyperfine icon

hyperfine

macOSLinuxWindows

Command-line benchmarking tool.

jq icon

jq

macOSLinuxWindows

Lightweight command-line JSON processor.

miller icon

Miller

macOSLinuxWindows

Like awk/sed/cut for name-indexed data (CSV, JSON, etc.).

navi icon

navi

macOSLinux

Interactive cheatsheet tool for command-line.

tokei icon

tokei

macOSLinuxWindows

Fast code statistics tool with multi-language support.

xsv

macOSLinuxWindows

Fast CSV toolkit written in Rust.

yq icon

yq

macOSLinuxWindows

YAML/JSON/XML/CSV/TOML processor with jq-like syntax.

System Monitoring

(8)

bottom icon

bottom

macOSLinuxWindows

Cross-platform graphical system/process monitor.

btop icon

btop

macOSLinux

Resource monitor with beautiful UI and customization.

dstat

Linux

Versatile resource statistics tool.

glances icon

glances

macOSLinuxWindows

System monitoring tool with web interface and REST API.

htop icon

htop

macOSLinux

Interactive process viewer (better top).

iotop

Linux

I/O monitor showing disk read/write by process.

nethogs

Linux

Network traffic monitor showing bandwidth per process.

nmon

Linux

Performance monitor for Linux with data capture.