Essential Developer Productivity Tools

After years of development, here are the tools that actually made us more productive.

CLI Tools

bat

Better cat with syntax highlighting:

bat src/main.go

ripgrep (rg)

Insanely fast code search:

rg "TODO" --type rust

fzf

Fuzzy finder for everything:

git checkout $(git branch | fzf)

jq

JSON processing:

curl api.example.com | jq '.data.users'

Development Environment

tmux

Terminal multiplexer. Run multiple sessions, detach/reattach:

tmux new -s dev

neovim

Modern Vim with LSP support. Lightning fast.

VS Code

When you need a full IDE. Great debugging, extensions.

Automation

Make

Simple task automation:

build:
    go build -o bin/app

test:
    go test ./...

Just

Better task runner than Make for project commands.

Monitoring

htop

Better top for process monitoring.

ncdu

Disk usage analyzer.

Sysmon-CLI (shameless plug)

Real-time system monitoring with export capabilities.

Version Control

lazygit

TUI for Git operations. Makes rebasing easy.

tig

Text-mode interface for Git.

Zvezda (another plug)

Manage multiple repos efficiently.

Principles

The best tools:

• Do one thing well
• Compose with others
• Are fast
• Work offline
• Have great docs

Your Stack?

What tools make you more productive? Let us know on GitHub or Twitter.