Recommended Apps & Libs
As you might expect I enjoy a wide variety of cli apps myself. I install most of these with mise or brew, and I try to curate this list to stuff I actually use. Enjoy.
Apps
I think every dev should use these, personally.
| app | ⭐ stars | what it does |
|---|---|---|
| atuin | 31k | better shell history, with sync |
| bat | 60k | cat replacement |
| delta | 32k | colorful diff viewer |
| doggo | 4k | nslookup replacement |
| dust | 12k | du replacement |
| eza | 23k | ls replacement |
| fd | 44k | find replacement |
| fx | 21k | interactive json browser |
| ghostty | 59k | preferred terminal |
| gron | 14k | fully expand json for grepping |
| just | 35k | command runner |
| mise | 32k | dev tool manager |
| oh-my-posh | 23k | my prompt |
| ripgrep | 67k | grep replacement |
| sd | 7k | sed replacement |
| tennis | 785 | stylish terminal tables |
| watchexec | 7k | run a command when things change |
Many of these pair nicely. For example, I use mise to install just and use a just test-watch rule with watchexec to run tests whenever something changes. Once you get used to working this way it's hard to go back. All wrapped in nice ansi color output with banner/warning/fatal, of course.
Apps - More Exotic
Here are apps that I like that feel more niche.
| app | ⭐ stars | what it does |
|---|---|---|
| autossh | - | auto reconnect ssh when it dies |
| elio | 819 | file browser, great for bulk rename |
| fastfetch | 24k | quickly get machine info |
| gum | 24k | charm's cli helper |
| hexyl | 10k | hex viewer |
| hunk | 8k | gorgeous diff viewer |
| mg | 603 | emacs-lite for headless |
| pastel | 6k | cli color tool |
| qsv | 4k | csv toolkit |
| ruplacer | 490 | find and replace across many files |
| vhs | 21k | scripted cli demo maker |
| vivid | 2k | LS_COLORS generator |
| zmx | 2k | persistent terminal sessions |
| zoxide | 39k | cd replacement |
Libs
Here are libraries that I personally have used and recommend. I have awarded each library a complimentary chicken, for fun.
| lib | lang | ⭐ stars | what |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐔 bubbletea | go | 44k | tui builder |
| 🐔 colorprofile | go | 125 | term color depth & downsampling |
| 🐔 kong | go | 3k | cli arg parser |
| 🐔 lipgloss | go | 12k | styling |
| 🐔 termenv | go | 2k | bg color detection |
| 🐔 amazing_print | ruby | 1k | object pretty printer |
| 🐔 slop | ruby | 1k | cli arg parser |
| 🐔 table_tennis | ruby | 208 | stylish terminal tables |
| 🐔 anstyle | rust | 170 | color depth, downsampling & styling |
| 🐔 clap | rust | 17k | cli arg parser |
| 🐔 termbg | rust | 110 | bg color detection |
| 🐔 terminal-colorsaurus | rust | 77 | bg color detection |
Listed Elsewhere
Also see Progress Bars & Spinners, along with our extensive TUIs section.