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Useful cli tools for Claude code

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Useful cli tools for Claude code

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NzCBIcIqD0 Here is a Markdown summary of the CLI tools featured in the video.

12 CLI Tools for the Claude Code Workflow

This list covers command-line tools that pair well with AI coding assistants (like Claude Code) to improve terminal productivity, system monitoring, and file management.

Git & Version Control

1. Lazygit

A terminal UI for git commands.

  • Use Case: Monitoring changes made by Claude Code in real-time.
  • Features: Visualizes file changes, branch management, commit history, and stashing without leaving the terminal.
  • Why it’s useful: Helps audit the rapid changes an AI agent makes to your codebase.

File Viewing & Editing

2. Glow

A markdown reader for the command line.

  • Use Case: Quickly reading CLAUDE.md, documentation, or readme files.
  • Features: Renders markdown with proper formatting and colors directly in the terminal.

3. Neovim

  • Use Case: A more powerful alternative to Glow when deep editing is required.
  • Features: Configurable hotkeys for jumping between headers, sections, and code blocks.

AI & Hardware Analysis

4. LLMfit

  • Use Case: Determining which local LLMs your computer can run.
  • Features: Displays current hardware stats and ranks models (Llama, Mistral, etc.) by “fit” based on your VRAM/RAM.

5. Models

  • Use Case: Checking pricing and specs for AI providers.
  • Features: Prints tables showing pricing per token, context window sizes, agent changelogs, and benchmarks for various providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.).

Package & File Management

6. Taproom

  • Use Case: Managing Homebrew installations.
  • Features: specific to MacOS; lists all installed Casks and Formulas to help clean up or audit installed software.

7. Ranger

  • Use Case: navigating the file system.
  • Features: A file browser with keybindings similar to VI. Essential for headless Linux servers where you don’t have a GUI Finder.

Navigation & Utilities

8. Zoxide

A smarter replacement for the cd command.

  • Use Case: Jumping between directories quickly.
  • Features: Remembers your most frequently used directories. Allows “fuzzy jumping” (e.g., typing z muse to jump to /desktop/pixelmuse without typing the full path).

9. Chafa

  • Use Case: Viewing images inside the terminal.
  • Features: Renders images (PNG/JPG) using ASCII/ANSI characters. Useful for checking assets generated by AI without opening a preview window.

10. CSVlens

  • Use Case: Viewing and filtering CSV files.
  • Features: A terminal UI specifically designed for reading large dataset files.

11. Eza

A modern replacement for ls.

  • Use Case: Listing files with better visuals.
  • Features: Adds icons, git status integration, and grid views.
  • Tip: Alias ls to eza in your shell config for a permanent upgrade.

System Monitoring

12. Btop

  • Use Case: System resource monitoring.
  • Features: Shows CPU, Memory, Network, and Process usage. Useful for watching resource consumption when running heavy AI tasks or VMs.

13. Mactop

  • Use Case: Apple Silicon specific monitoring.
  • Features: Displays real-time metrics for Apple M-series chips (Power usage, GPU usage, Neural Engine usage).

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