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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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Developer Tools Nobody Talks About (But Should)

#discuss #webdev #beginners #productivity

Everyone knows about VS Code, Docker, and Postman. Here are tools that deserve more attention.

1. HTTPie — curl for humans 

# curl version
curl -X POST https://api.example.com/data -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"name": "test"}'

# HTTPie version
http POST api.example.com/data name=test
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Same result, 70% fewer characters. Colored output, JSON by default.

2. jq — JSON Swiss Army knife 

# Extract nested data from API response
curl -s https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/simple/price?ids=bitcoin\&vs_currencies=usd | jq '.bitcoin.usd'
# Output: 67234

# Transform arrays
echo '[{"name":"a","val":1},{"name":"b","val":2}]' | jq '.[].name'
# Output: "a" "b"
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3. ripgrep (rg) — grep but 10x faster 

# Search all Python files for 'import requests'
rg 'import requests' --type py

# Find TODO comments across entire codebase
rg 'TODO|FIXME|HACK' --type-add 'code:*.{py,js,ts,go,rs}' -t code
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Respects .gitignore, blazing fast on large codebases.

4. fzf — fuzzy finder for everything 

# Fuzzy search files
find . -type f | fzf

# Fuzzy search git log
git log --oneline | fzf --preview 'git show {1}'

# Fuzzy search and open in vim
vim $(fzf)
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5. direnv — per-directory environment variables

Create .envrc in your project:

export DATABASE_URL=postgres://localhost/mydb
export API_KEY=abc123
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cd into the directory and env vars are loaded. cd out and they're unloaded. No more .env conflicts.

6. watchexec — run commands on file change 

# Re-run tests when Python files change
watchexec -e py -- pytest

# Rebuild on save
watchexec -e ts,tsx -- npm run build
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Simpler than nodemon, works with any language.

7. bat — cat with syntax highlighting 

bat config.yaml
# Shows line numbers, syntax highlighting, git diff markers
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8. dust — du but actually readable 

dust
# Shows directory sizes as a visual tree
# Instantly see which folders eat your disk space
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9. tldr — man pages for humans 

tldr tar
# Shows 5 practical examples instead of 500 lines of man page
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10. hyperfine — benchmark shell commands 

hyperfine 'python script.py' 'python3.12 script.py'
# Runs both commands 10 times, shows mean/min/max/stddev
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Bonus: Free APIs as developer tools

Sometimes the best "tool" is knowing the right API:

  • IP lookup: curl ip-api.com/json/ (no auth)
  • JSON placeholder: curl jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1 (mock data)
  • Weather: curl 'api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast?latitude=40.71&longitude=-74.01&current_weather=true' (no auth)
  • Crypto: curl 'api.coingecko.com/api/v3/simple/price?ids=bitcoin&vs_currencies=usd' (no auth)

Full list: Awesome No-Auth APIs

What developer tools do you use that nobody talks about?

More lists: Awesome Python Automation | Awesome Scraping APIs

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