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.