Highly recommend Josean Martinez’s blog post on how to setup an awesome terminal with WezTerm.

In this post, I’m sharing some handy command-line tools that have really boosted my productivity in day-to-day work. I’ll keep it up to date as I come across new tools that worth a try. Since I use macOS, all the instructions here are for macOS. You may refer to their official documentation for other platforms.

Getting Started: Terminologies and Homebrew

Before diving into the tools, let’s quickly clarify some terminology:

• Terminal: The program providing a text-based interface to your computer.
• Command Line: The interface where you type commands.
• Shell: The program that interprets your commands. Typical shells include:
  • Zsh (default on macOS)
  • PowerShell (default on Windows)
  • Bash (default on many Linux systems)

Homebrew is a package manager for macOS. It is a great way to install and manage software on your Mac. If you haven’t installed it yet, I highly recommend you to do so by runnning

 /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

If you are using an Apple Silicon Mac, you may need to run the following additional command to add it to path:

echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> ~/.zprofile
eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

ShellGPT: Talk to your terminal using English

ShellGPT is an open-sourced lightweight command-line tool powered by large language models. It allows you write commands in natural language, and converts them into proper shell commands for you – it’s like you can talk to your terminal using English! With it, you never need to memorize complex commands. It’s also very affordable if you’re just using it to generate commands—I’ve only spent less than 1 dollar over four months of use.

On most systems, simply run:

pip install shell_gpt

On Debian-based Linux, where pip usage in system environment may be restricted, use pipx instead:

apt install pipx
pipx install shell_gpt
pipx ensurepath

Then you can run ShellGPT with any prompt:

sgpt "what is command line"

The first time, it will ask for your OpenAI API key. You can generate one at the OpenAI API Platform.

Later, you can update your key by editing the config file:

sed -i 's/^OPENAI_API_KEY=.*/OPENAI_API_KEY=<your_new_api_key_here>/' ~/.config/shell_gpt/.sgptrc

To generate commands from natural language:

sgpt --shell "find all .txt files in this folder"

You can also install shell integration:

sgpt --install-integration

Then you can directly type in natural language in your terminal and press Ctrl+l to convert them into proper shell commands.

zoxide: Smarter Directory Navigation

zoxide is a smarter alternative to cd. Instead of typing full paths, Zoxide remembers where you’ve been and lets you jump back with just a keyword.

Install and setup Zoxide with Homebrew:

brew install zoxide
eval "$(zoxide init zsh)"

Optional: You may also install fzf for better fuzzy matching:

brew install fzf

cd into a path once.

z ~/Documents/StudyMaterials/Courses/stat992_s25

Zoxide will remember this path and you can go to it anytime by simply typing:

z stat992_s25

If you have installed fzf, you can also use it to fuzzy match the path:

zi stat
# Then press Enter to select the path

Want to completely replace cd with Zoxide? Just run:

zoxide init --cmd cd

eza: A Modern Replacement for ls.

brew install eza

Replace ls with eza that always shows icons and display entries as hyperlinks.

alias ls="eza --icons=always --hyperlink"

Then you can simply run ls to list files and directories with icons, highlights and hyperlinks.