Awesome Modern CLI

A curated list of modern alternatives to classic command-line tools.

Faster, prettier, smarter replacements for the Unix utilities you use every day.

What is this? · Contribution guide · Code of conduct

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Highlights

bat cat with syntax highlighting	btop beautiful system monitor
lazygit terminal UI for git	delta syntax-aware diff viewer
starship customizable shell prompt	fzf fuzzy finder for everything
gping ping with a graph	lazydocker terminal UI for Docker

More highlights (eza, ripgrep, zoxide, hyperfine)

eza modern ls replacement	ripgrep extremely fast grep
zoxide smarter cd	hyperfine command benchmarking

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Contents

• File Listing
• File Search
• File Management
• Text Search
• Text Processing
• Text Viewing
• Text Editors
• JSON / YAML / CSV
• Shell & Prompt
• Shell History
• Navigation
• Fuzzy Finding
• Version Control
• Diff Tools
• System Monitoring
• Process Management
• Disk Usage
• Network Tools
• HTTP Clients
• API Testing
• DNS Tools
• Benchmarking
• Compression
• File Transfer
• Terminal Emulators
• Terminal Multiplexers
• Task Runners
• Version Managers
• JS / TS Toolchain
• Static Site Generators
• Container Tools
• Kubernetes
• Database Clients
• Security Tools
• Calculator
• Documentation
• Presentation
• Media
• Messaging
• Productivity
• Code Counting
• Spelling & Linting
• Tunneling
• Web
• Miscellaneous
• Resources

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File Listing

Replacements for ls and tree.

• broot - A new way to see and navigate directory trees with fuzzy search. Rust
• eza - A modern, maintained replacement for ls with colors, icons, and git integration. Rust
• lla - A fast ls alternative with a plugin system for extended functionality. Rust
• lsd - The next gen ls command with pretty colors and file icons. Rust
• pls - ls for the pros, with developer-friendly features and Nerd Font icons. Rust
• tre - A tree command improved with git awareness and editor integration. Rust

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File Search

Replacements for find.

• fd - A simple, fast, and user-friendly alternative to find. Rust
• fselect - Find files with SQL-like queries. Rust

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File Management

Replacements for ranger, rm, cp, and file managers.

• clifm - A command-line file manager that lives in the shell. C
• f2 - Cross-platform tool for fast, safe, and flexible batch renaming. Go
• fclones - Efficient duplicate file finder and remover. Rust
• fuc - Fast cp and rm commands for modern hardware. Rust
• joshuto - Ranger-like terminal file manager with vi keybindings. Rust
• kondo - Find and delete software project build artifacts to reclaim disk space. Rust
• lf - Fast, extensively customizable terminal file manager. Go
• nnn - The unorthodox terminal file manager, tiny and blazing fast. C
• nomino - Batch rename utility using regex, sort, and map. Rust
• rip - A safe and ergonomic alternative to rm with a graveyard for recovery. Rust
• superfile - Pretty and modern terminal file manager. Go
• xplr - A hackable, minimal, fast TUI file explorer. Rust
• yazi - Blazing fast terminal file manager with async I/O and image preview. Rust

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Text Search

Replacements for grep and ag.

• ast-grep - Structural code search, lint, and rewriting using AST patterns. Rust
• rare - Real-time regex-powered aggregation and analytics on the command-line. Go
• ripgrep - An extremely fast alternative to grep that respects gitignore. Rust
• ripgrep-all - ripgrep, but also searches PDFs, e-books, Office documents, zip, and archives. Rust
• sig - Interactive grep for streaming data. Rust
• srgn - A grep-like tool that understands source code syntax. Rust

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Text Processing

Replacements for sed, awk, cut, and uniq.

• choose - A human-friendly and fast alternative to cut and awk. Rust
• grex - Generate regular expressions from user-provided test cases. Rust
• hck - A faster and more featureful drop-in replacement for cut. Rust
• rargs - xargs + awk with pattern matching support. Rust
• runiq - Efficient way to filter duplicate lines from unsorted input. Rust
• ruplacer - Find and replace text across multiple source files. Rust
• scooter - Interactive find and replace in the terminal. Rust
• sd - An intuitive find-and-replace CLI, a simpler sed alternative. Rust

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Text Viewing

Replacements for cat, less, and hexdump.

• bat - A cat clone with syntax highlighting and Git integration. Rust
• fblog - Small command-line JSON log viewer with smart formatting. Rust
• glow - Render markdown beautifully in the terminal. Go
• hexyl - A command-line hex viewer with colored output. Rust
• lnav - An advanced log file viewer with automatic format detection. C++
• mdcat - Render Markdown in the terminal with syntax highlighting, links, and inline images. Rust
• tailspin - A log file highlighter that works out of the box. Rust

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Text Editors

Modern terminal-based editors.

• amp - A complete text editor for your terminal inspired by Vi/Vim. Rust
• edit - A simple terminal text editor from Microsoft, paying homage to MS-DOS Editor. Rust
• fresh - A TUI code editor with IDE features like LSP, git integration, and file tree. Rust
• helix - A post-modern modal text editor with built-in LSP and tree-sitter. Rust
• kakoune - Modal editor with multi-selection first design. C++
• Lapce - A lightning-fast and powerful code editor with native GUI. Rust
• micro - A modern and intuitive terminal-based text editor, replaces nano. Go
• neovim - Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability with Lua plugin system. C
• ox - An independent terminal text editor, simple and practical. Rust
• zed - A high-performance multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom. Rust

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JSON / YAML / CSV

Replacements for jq, data viewers, and structured data tools.

• csvlens - A TUI CSV file viewer, like less but made for tabular data. Rust
• dasel - Query and modify JSON, YAML, TOML, and XML from the command line. Go
• dyff - A diff tool for YAML files with semantic awareness. Go
• fx - Terminal JSON viewer and processor with interactive mode. Go
• gron - Make JSON greppable by flattening it to discrete assignments. Go
• jaq - A jq clone focused on correctness, speed, and simplicity; a near drop-in replacement for jq for most queries. Rust
• jless - A command-line JSON viewer with vim-like navigation. Rust
• jnv - Interactive JSON filter using jq expressions with live preview. Rust
• jq - The original lightweight command-line JSON processor. C
• jsongrep - Fast search tool for JSON, YAML, and TOML with path query syntax. Rust
• qsv - A high-performance CSV toolkit, xsv fork with 34+ extra commands. Rust
• sc-im - A vim-like spreadsheet calculator for the terminal. C
• Tabiew - Lightweight TUI to view and query CSV, TSV, and Parquet files. Rust
• visidata - A terminal spreadsheet multitool for exploring and arranging data. Python
• xq - XML and HTML beautifier and content extractor. Go
• xsv - A fast CSV command line toolkit for slicing, indexing, and searching. Rust
• yq - jq wrapper for YAML, XML, and TOML documents. Python

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Shell & Prompt

Modern shells and prompt customization.

• elvish - An expressive shell with a real programming language built-in. Go
• fish - The user-friendly command-line shell with autosuggestions. Rust
• nushell - A new type of shell with structured data pipelines. Rust
• oh-my-posh - A prompt theme engine for any shell with extensive themes. Go
• starship - Minimal, blazing-fast, and infinitely customizable prompt for any shell. Rust

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Shell History

Replacements for ctrl+r history search.

• atuin - Magical shell history stored in a SQLite database with optional encrypted sync. Rust
• mcfly - Fly through shell history with intelligent context-aware search. Rust

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Navigation

Replacements for cd and directory jumping.

• autojump - A cd command that learns from your navigation patterns. Python
• tere - A faster alternative to cd + ls for navigating directories. Rust
• zoxide - A smarter cd command that learns your habits. Rust

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Fuzzy Finding

Interactive filtering and selection tools.

• fzf - A general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder. Go
• skim - A general-purpose fuzzy finder in Rust, similar to fzf. Rust
• television - A blazing fast general-purpose fuzzy finder TUI. Rust

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Version Control

Git TUIs and enhanced git workflows.

• gh-dash - A beautiful TUI dashboard for GitHub pull requests and issues. Go
• git-cliff - A highly customizable changelog generator following Conventional Commits. Rust
• git-extras - Git utilities like repo summary, changelog, and commit percentages. Shell
• gita - Manage multiple git repos side by side. Python
• gitui - Blazing fast terminal client for git. Rust
• jj - A Git-compatible VCS with simpler CLI, first-class conflicts, and auto-rebasing. Rust
• lazygit - A simple terminal UI for git commands. Go
• onefetch - Command-line Git information tool showing repo stats. Rust
• sapling - A scalable, user-friendly source control system from Meta. Rust
• serie - A rich git commit graph viewer for the terminal. Rust
• soft-serve - A tasty, self-hostable Git server for the command line. Go
• tig - Text-mode interface for git with browse and blame modes. C

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Diff Tools

Better alternatives to diff.

• delta - A syntax-highlighting pager for git, diff, and grep output. Rust
• difftastic - A structural diff that understands syntax across 30+ languages. Rust

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System Monitoring

Replacements for top, htop, and system info tools.

• bandwhich - Terminal bandwidth utilization tool showing per-process usage. Rust
• bottom - A cross-platform graphical process/system monitor. Rust
• btop - A resource monitor with beautiful TUI and extensive features. C++
• fastfetch - A fast system information tool, neofetch replacement. C
• glances - An eye on your system with a top/htop alternative and web mode. Python
• gotop - Terminal-based graphical activity monitor. Go
• kmon - Linux Kernel Manager and Activity Monitor. Rust
• macmon - Sudoless performance monitoring for Apple Silicon. Rust
• nvtop - GPU process monitoring for AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA. C
• procs - A modern replacement for ps written in Rust. Rust
• systeroid - A more powerful alternative to sysctl with a terminal UI. Rust
• zenith - In-terminal graphical metrics with CPU, GPU, network, and disk charts. Rust

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Process Management

Replacements for nohup, bg, and kill.

• mprocs - Run multiple commands in parallel and view their output in a TUI. Rust
• pik - TUI tool to find and kill processes interactively. Rust
• process-compose - A scheduler and orchestrator for non-containerized processes with TUI. Go
• pueue - Manage long-running shell commands with a daemon and TUI. Rust

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Disk Usage

Replacements for du and df.

• diskonaut - Terminal visual disk space navigator. Rust
• dua-cli - Disk usage analyzer with interactive navigation. Rust
• duf - A better df alternative with color-coded output and filtering. Go
• dust - A more intuitive version of du with visual output. Rust
• gdu - Fast disk usage analyzer with console interface. Go
• ncdu - A disk usage analyzer with an ncurses interface. Zig

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Network Tools

Tools for network diagnostics, scanning, traffic analysis, and file serving/transfer.

• copyparty - Portable file server with resumable uploads, dedup, WebDAV, SFTP, FTP, TFTP, and media indexing. Python
• gping - Ping, but with a graph. Rust
• miniserve - Serve files over HTTP from the terminal with a single command. Rust
• netscanner - A TUI network scanner. Rust
• nibble - A fast local network scanner with hardware vendor detection and service names. Go
• sniffnet - Monitor your network traffic easily with a cross-platform TUI. Rust
• termshark - A terminal UI for tshark, inspired by Wireshark. Go
• trippy - A network diagnostic tool combining ping and traceroute with rich TUI. Rust

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HTTP Clients

Replacements for curl and wget.

• aria2 - Ultra-fast download utility supporting HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent, and Metalink. C++
• curlie - The power of curl, the ease of use of httpie. Go
• httpie - A modern, user-friendly command-line HTTP client for the API era. Python
• xh - A friendly and fast tool for sending HTTP requests, an HTTPie reimplementation. Rust

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API Testing

Replacements for Postman and API debugging tools.

• ATAC - A feature-full TUI API client, free, offline, and account-less. Rust
• HTTP Prompt - An interactive HTTP client with autocomplete and syntax highlighting. Python
• posting - A powerful HTTP client that lives in your terminal. Python

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DNS Tools

Replacements for dig and nslookup.

• doggo - Command-line DNS client for humans with color-coded output. Go

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Benchmarking

Replacements for time and load testing tools.

• hyperfine - A command-line benchmarking tool with statistical analysis. Rust
• oha - HTTP load generator with a real-time TUI. Rust

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Compression

Replacements for tar, gzip, and unzip.

• crabz - Multi-threaded compression and decompression CLI tool. Rust
• ouch - Painless compression and decompression, smart format detection. Rust

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File Transfer

Replacements for scp and rsync.

• croc - Easily and securely send things from one computer to another. Go
• portal - Send files between computers through an encrypted peer-to-peer tunnel. Go
• rclone - Sync files with any cloud provider, an rsync for cloud storage. Go
• termscp - TUI file transfer and explorer with SCP, SFTP, FTP, and S3 support. Rust

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Terminal Emulators

Modern GPU-accelerated terminal emulators.

• alacritty - A cross-platform, GPU-enhanced terminal emulator focused on speed. Rust
• Ghostty - Fast, feature-rich, cross-platform terminal emulator with native platform UI. Zig
• rio - A hardware-accelerated GPU terminal emulator powered by WebGPU. Rust
• Warp - AI-powered modern terminal with structured command history and IDE-like features. Rust
• wezterm - A GPU-accelerated terminal emulator and multiplexer with Lua config. Rust

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Terminal Multiplexers

Replacements for tmux and screen.

• tmux - The classic terminal multiplexer with extensive plugin ecosystem. C
• zellij - A terminal workspace with batteries included, a tmux alternative. Rust

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Task Runners

Replacements for make and build tools.

• bacon - Background code checker, designed for Rust but works for any language. Rust
• entr - Run arbitrary commands when files change. C
• just - A handy command runner for project-specific tasks, a modern make. Rust
• watchexec - Execute commands in response to file modifications. Rust

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Version Managers

Replacements for nvm, pyenv, and asdf.

• fnm - Fast Node Manager, a cross-platform nvm replacement. Rust
• mise - A polyglot tool version manager and task runner, asdf replacement. Rust
• volta - JavaScript toolchain manager that pins exact versions per project. Rust

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JS / TS Toolchain

Modern JavaScript and TypeScript build tools and runtimes.

• Bun - All-in-one JavaScript runtime, bundler, test runner, and package manager. Zig
• Deno - A secure JavaScript/TypeScript runtime with built-in tooling. Rust
• oxc - A high-performance collection of JS/TS tools, 50-100x faster than ESLint. Rust
• SWC - A super-fast TypeScript/JavaScript compiler, replaces Babel. Rust
• Turborepo - High-performance build system for JavaScript/TypeScript monorepos. Rust

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Static Site Generators

Build static websites from templates and content.

• hugo - The world's fastest static site generator with multi-language support. Go
• zola - A fast static site generator in a single binary with built-in Sass and syntax highlighting. Rust

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Container Tools

Docker TUIs and container management.

• ctop - Top-like interface for container metrics. Go
• dive - Tool for exploring each layer in a Docker image. Go
• lazydocker - The lazier way to manage everything Docker. Go
• nerdctl - Docker-compatible CLI for containerd with Compose and rootless support. Go
• oxker - A simple TUI to view and control Docker containers. Rust

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Kubernetes

kubectl alternatives and K8s TUIs.

• k9s - TUI for managing Kubernetes clusters. Go
• kdash - A simple and fast dashboard for Kubernetes. Rust
• lfk - Yazi-inspired, vim-like keyboard focused Lightning Fast Kubernetes navigator. Go

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Database Clients

Replacements for psql, mysql, and database GUIs.

• harlequin - The SQL IDE for your terminal. Python
• iredis - Redis client with autocompletion and syntax highlighting. Python
• lazysql - A cross-platform TUI database management tool. Go
• mycli - MySQL client with autocompletion and syntax highlighting. Python
• pgcli - Postgres client with autocompletion and syntax highlighting. Python
• rainfrog - Database management TUI for Postgres, MySQL, and SQLite. Rust
• usql - Universal command-line SQL client with autocompletion. Go

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Security Tools

Password managers, encryption, and security utilities.

• cotp - Encrypted command-line TOTP/HOTP authenticator. Rust
• feroxbuster - A fast, simple, recursive content discovery tool. Rust
• flawz - A terminal UI for browsing security vulnerabilities (CVEs). Rust
• gopass - Fully-featured password manager compatible with pass. Go
• gpg-tui - A terminal user interface for GnuPG. Rust
• rage - A simple, modern, and secure file encryption tool (age implementation). Rust

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Calculator

Replacements for bc and calc.

• fend - Arbitrary-precision unit-aware calculator. Rust
• kalker - Scientific calculator with math-like syntax, complex numbers, and vectors. Rust

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Documentation

Man page alternatives and documentation tools.

• cheat - Create and view interactive cheatsheets on the command-line. Go
• mdBook - Create books from Markdown, like GitBook but in Rust. Rust
• navi - An interactive cheatsheet tool for the command-line. Rust
• tealdeer - A very fast tldr client with offline caching. Rust
• tectonic - A self-contained TeX/LaTeX engine that downloads packages on demand. C
• thefuck - Corrects your previous console command when you mistype. Python
• tldr - Simplified man pages with practical examples. Multi
• Typst - A modern markup-based typesetting system, a LaTeX alternative. Rust

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Presentation

Terminal-based presentation tools.

• presenterm - A terminal slideshow tool that renders Markdown presentations. Rust
• slides - Terminal-based presentation tool using Markdown. Go

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Media

Music players, image viewers, and media tools.

• asciinema - Record and share terminal sessions as lightweight text. Rust
• freeze - Generate images of code and terminal output. Go
• kew - A terminal music player that plays anything from your library with a single command. C
• ncspot - Cross-platform ncurses Spotify client. Rust
• oxipng - Multithreaded lossless PNG optimizer. Rust
• pastel - Generate, analyze, convert, and manipulate colors. Rust
• spotify-player - A Spotify player in the terminal with full feature parity. Rust
• termusic - A terminal music player. Rust
• vhs - Write terminal GIFs as code for documentation and demos. Go
• yt-dlp - Download videos from YouTube and other sites, a youtube-dl fork. Python

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Messaging

Terminal-based chat and email clients.

• aerc - A pretty good email client for the terminal. Go
• gomuks - A Matrix client for the terminal. Go
• himalaya - CLI email client supporting IMAP, JMAP, and Maildir with scriptable interface. Rust
• iamb - A Matrix client for Vim addicts. Rust
• newsboat - An RSS/Atom feed reader for the text console. C++

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Productivity

Task managers, clipboard, calendars, and shell utilities.

• calcure - Modern TUI calendar and task manager. Python
• Clipboard - Cut, copy, and paste anything from the terminal. C++
• clipse - TUI clipboard manager. Go
• envio - Modern environment variable manager with encrypted profiles. Rust
• espanso - A cross-platform text expander. Rust
• gum - A tool for glamorous shell scripts with prompts, spinners, and input widgets. Go
• mods - AI on the command line, pipe stdin to LLMs and get structured output. Go
• nb - A note-taking, bookmarking, and knowledge base application. Shell
• topgrade - Upgrade all your tools at once. Rust

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Code Counting

Replacements for cloc and wc -l.

• scc - A very fast accurate code counter with complexity calculations. Go
• tokei - Count lines of code quickly and accurately across many languages. Rust

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Spelling & Linting

Code quality tools for the terminal.

• biome - A fast formatter and linter for web projects, replaces ESLint + Prettier. Rust
• ruff - An extremely fast Python linter and formatter. Rust
• typos - Source code spell checker that finds and corrects common misspellings. Rust
• uv - An extremely fast Python package and project manager. Rust

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Tunneling

Replacements for ngrok and port forwarding tools.

• bore - A simple CLI tool for exposing local ports to the internet. Rust
• rathole - A lightweight, high-performance reverse proxy for NAT traversal. Rust

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Web

Browsers, proxies, and web utilities.

• browsh - A fully interactive, modern text-based browser. Go
• carbonyl - Chromium running inside your terminal. Rust
• mitmproxy - A free, interactive HTTPS proxy for debugging and testing. Python
• monolith - Save complete web pages as a single HTML file with all assets embedded. Rust

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Miscellaneous

Tools that defy easy categorization but are too good to leave out.

• GQL - A SQL-like query language for .git repositories. Rust
• httm - Interactive file-level Time Machine-like tool for ZFS/btrfs. Rust
• prqlc - PRQL compiler, a pipelined modern alternative to SQL. Rust
• rustic - Fast, encrypted, deduplicated backups, a restic alternative. Rust
• uutils coreutils - Cross-platform Rust rewrite of the GNU coreutils (adopted by Ubuntu). Rust
• vaultwarden - Lightweight Bitwarden server implementation. Rust
• wttr.in - The right way to check the weather from the terminal. Python

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Resources

• awesome-cli-apps - A curated list of command line apps.
• awesome-shell - A curated list of awesome command-line frameworks, toolkits, guides, and gizmos.
• awesome-tuis - List of projects that provide terminal user interfaces.
• Charm - Tools to make the command line glamorous (bubbletea, lipgloss, glow, etc.).
• The Art of Command Line - Master the command line in one page.

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Contributing

Contributions welcome! Read the contribution guidelines first.

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License

To the extent possible under law, the author has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.