5 Terminal Tricks That Replace Your Favorite IDE Plugins

I used to have 12 extensions installed in VS Code. Then I spent an afternoon learning my terminal properly. Now I have 3.

Here are the terminal tricks that killed most of my IDE plugins.

---

1. fd — The find Killer

Forget find . -name "*.ts". fd is faster, ignores .gitignore by default, and has color output.

# Find all TypeScript files
fd -e ts

# Find files containing "TODO"
fd -e ts -x grep -l "TODO"

# Find files modified in last 2 days
fd --changed-within 48h

Install: brew install fd (macOS) or apt install fd-find (Linux)

Plugin killed: Project Search extensions, File Finder plugins

---

2. fzf — Fuzzy Everything

Once you install fzf, you'll fuzzy-find your way through your entire workflow.

# Fuzzy search file contents
rg --files | fzf

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

# Fuzzy kill processes
ps aux | fzf --preview 'echo {}' | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill

Install: brew install fzf && $(brew --prefix)/opt/fzf/install

Plugin killed: Quick open, file navigator, git log viewers

---

3. jq — JSON Surgery

Stop opening JSON files in your editor. Pipe, filter, and reshape JSON directly in the terminal.

# Get all error messages from a log file
cat app.log | jq '. | select(.level == "error") | .message'

# Extract specific fields from API response
curl -s api.example.com/users | jq '.[] | {name, email}'

# Pretty-print minified JSON
cat config.json | jq .

Install: brew install jq

Plugin killed: JSON formatters, API response viewers

---

4. bat — cat With Syntax Highlighting

cat is fine for quick checks. bat is better for everything else — syntax highlighting, git integration, and line numbers built in.

# View a file with syntax highlighting
bat server.ts

# View specific lines
bat config.json -r 10:25

# Compare two files side by side
bat file1.ts file2.ts

Install: brew install bat

Plugin killed: Syntax highlighting extensions, file preview panels

---

5. zoxide — Smarter Directory Navigation

cd makes you type full paths. zoxide learns where you go and gets you there with partial names.

# Jump to any directory you've visited before
z codcompass     # jumps to /Users/kol/Desktop/CyberPunkWeb/
z api            # jumps to your API project

# Show directory ranking
z -l

# Add to your shell
eval "$(zoxide init zsh)"

Install: brew install zoxide

Plugin killed: Project manager extensions, workspace switchers

---

The Bottom Line

I'm not saying ditch your IDE. But learn these five tools and you'll reach for extensions way less often. The terminal is always available — no marketplace, no updates breaking your setup, no extension conflicts.

Plus, when you're SSH'd into a production server at 2 AM, you'll be glad you know these.

---

What terminal tools can't you live without? Drop them in the comments — I'm always looking for new ones.