Command line tools

Useful CLI utilities, mostly modern Rust/Go rewrites of classic Unix tools. On macOS install via Homebrew (brew install <name>).

Search & navigation

• ripgrep (rg) — fast recursive code search; respects .gitignore and skips binaries by default; powers search in VS Code and Helix
• ack — older grep-like source code search tool, predecessor to ripgrep
• fd — fast, user-friendly alternative to find with sane defaults
• sd — intuitive find & replace alternative to sed

File viewing & manipulation

• bat — cat clone with syntax highlighting, line numbers, and Git diff integration
• eza — modern replacement for ls (maintained fork of the now-archived exa); colored output, Git status, tree mode
• trash — moves files to the macOS Trash instead of permanent deletion (rm-safe alternative)

HTTP & networking

• curl — universal data transfer; included on macOS by default but brew install curl gives you the latest
• HTTPie — human-friendly HTTP client; intuitive flags, JSON-aware syntax, formatted output
• dog — modern DNS client, alternative to dig

Data processing

• jq — command-line JSON processor with its own query language

Productivity

• git — distributed version control
• tldr — simplified, community-driven man pages with practical examples