Command-Line Tools - Kartones Blog

A small note before the list: I use Linux so I have only tested them there, not even looking at if they are cross-platform or not.

ag (The Silver Searcher): A better grep (really ack), really fast.
bat: A better cat. I like it because highlights syntax of many file formats and shows non-printable characters if desired.
caffeine/caffeinate: Prevent system from sleeping, optionally waiting for a pid to finish.
curl: The ultimate tool to perform all kind of calls via the command line (often HTTP-related).
fd: A better find. Simplified syntax and also noticeably faster.
fzf: A command-line fuzzy filter. Improves reverse searches (history) searches, processes outputs (displaying nice keyboard-navigable menus) and also provides a handy preview-window. Just for not having to exactly type every single character when doing reverse searches is worth it 😉
htop: My favourite process viewer. Not too complex and fast.
ImageMagick: The ultimate toolkit for image edition from the command-line. Not always easy to use, but really powerful.
jq: The best companion for curl, formats input JSON data.
MultiTail: Self-explanatory, allows to tail multiple files at once, with many options.
vim: A text editor. Since I learned how to save changes and exit the program, it's the one I rely upon for quick editing from a terminal.
yt-dlp: An actively maintained Youtube-dl fork, because I'm a big fan of downloading when I find them, but watching them whenever and wherever I want.

Cool retro term: Nostalgic of either the 80s or Fallout 3-like terminals? Then this is your replacement.
mosh: A "mobile shell", specially adapted for intermittent connectivity and high latency.
tmate: A fork of tmux based on sharing the terminal. Perfect for interactive pair programming if you use command-line editors like vim or emacs.
tmux: Fine-grain control of multiple terminals in a single window.