Tools I Use A Lot

I will write a bit about tools I use as I remember

Z

Originally rupa/z but I have switched to zoxide

I have generally bad memory so to cd into a commonly used directory with just a part of the name I remember is really useful.

Mise

It took me a while to understand mise-en-place because I got in thinking it replaces direnv + adds more features (See my note under direnv. I'll keep it). I relized it's value when I used it to install (compile) a newer Python. I already used Pyenv but I found Mise process at least a tad bit easier.

The pipx backend support is also a huge positive for me as I already used pipx quite a lot.

Gitui

A TUI for viewing git can come handy sometimes. I used tig originally but had trouble installing it in a corporate environment. I tried gitui as a replacement and I really like it!

Direnv

Direnv can load/unload environment variables depending on your current directory. Combined with other tools/strategies, direnv can give boring looking 'super powers' that greatly improves quality of life.

One practical example is working with cloud environments. Especially if you work with multiple cloud accounts, cloud regions etc. you can strategically use environment variables to auto-configure the environment when you switch into the respective directory.

I have also tested out mise-en-place, which in my opinion tries to cover a lot more ground for better or worse. Hence it has been a bit slow for me to adopt it. But it may suit your style so take a look.

Zellij

I use this mainly behind corporate barbed wires. I initially tried it because it was a tmux like thing which I can take behind the barbed wires. Something I really like about zellij is how discoverable it's features are.

FZF

Fzf is fuzzy finder that is really versatil. You can use it in many places and hence, for a long time I didn't not understand where and how to use it.

Treats me well for not reading the docs! It has integrations for popular shell environments that will put ctrl+r on steroids!

Also zoxide picks up fzf and works with it!

Ripgrep (rg)

A very fast Grep with nice default behaviour including filters.

See why you may want to try ripgrep

za

My own shell script to go back up the path.

Find za here. For Fish shell, za.fish is here

Another idea I have explored is going up to directory by name. bash/zsh/fish implementations are found here

tenv

I used to use tfenv for managing multiple Terraform versions. This is actually a real use case at work. It helps you testing things with different Terraform versions. Also, corporate environment sometimes don't let you kill things so easily so sometimes gotta hang on to some old versions.

Since tfenv is not maintained anymore, I switched to tenv. It allows to manage opentofu, terragrunt, terramate and atmos as well. I can manage multiple Terraform versions with mise as well but have not thought of switching.

Mailhog

Testing emails from a web app you are building? Start here

I really liked Mailhog when I did this type of work but it's been a while since I had test sending e-mail. Mailhog is not maintained anymore and Mailpit seems to want to carry the baton!

There's also MailCrab, written in Rust!

Vegeta

Want to load test your web app? Vegeta is easy to get started with.