---
title: Useful Command Line Tools
date: 2026-09-16T09:00:00+02:00
description: Command-line tools I use every day in Alacritty, on CachyOS with fish.
permalink: useful-command-line-tools/
---

I use **[fish](https://fishshell.com/)** in **[Alacritty](https://alacritty.org/)** on [CachyOS](https://cachyos.org/). Hardware, editors, and the rest of the setup are on the [uses](/uses/) page.

These are the extra tools that stayed. Not a POSIX starter kit.

## Modern core replacements

- **[bat](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat)**: `cat` with syntax highlighting and Git annotations.
- **[delta](https://github.com/dandavison/delta)**: Readable `git diff` (and grep) with syntax highlighting.
- **[eza](https://eza.rocks/)**: `ls` with better defaults and visuals.

## Search and navigation

- **[fd](https://github.com/sharkdp/fd)**: Fast, sane `find`.
- **[fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf)**: Fuzzy finder. Pipes into everything.
- **[ripgrep](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep)**: Recursively search code, fast.
- **[zoxide](https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide)**: `cd` that learns the directories I actually use.

## Workflow

- **[chezmoi](https://www.chezmoi.io/)**: Dotfiles, the same way on every machine.
- **[mise](https://mise.jdx.dev/)**: Runtime and tool versions per project.
- **[lazygit](https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit)**: Git as a terminal UI when the index is messy.

## Network, sync, and backup

- **[aria2](https://aria2.github.io/)**: Downloads over HTTP, FTP, and BitTorrent.
- **[restic](https://restic.net/)**: Encrypted, deduplicated backups.
- **[Syncthing](https://syncthing.net/)**: Private, peer-to-peer file sync. No cloud account.