explaingit

alebcay/awesome-shell

36,929Audience · developerComplexity · 1/5QuietLicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

A curated list of command-line tools, shells, and plugins to boost terminal productivity and discover the best tools for common shell tasks.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((awesome-shell))
    What it does
      Curated tool list
      Organizes by category
      Discovers new tools
    Categories
      Alternative shells
      Productivity tools
      System utilities
      Developer tools
    Use cases
      Setup new machine
      Find specific tool
      Learn shell skills
    Shells covered
      Bash
      Zsh
      Fish

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Discover productivity tools like fuzzy finders and file navigators when setting up a new development machine.

USE CASE 2

Find the best terminal multiplexer, diff viewer, or clipboard manager for a specific workflow.

USE CASE 3

Learn about alternative shells like Fish or Nushell and decide which fits your needs.

USE CASE 4

Browse curated guides and resources to improve your command-line skills and shell scripting.

Tech stack

MarkdownBashZshFish

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

Awesome Shell is a curated reference list of command-line tools, frameworks, plugins, and guides for working in the terminal and shell environments. The problem it solves is discoverability: there are hundreds of useful command-line tools that improve productivity, but they are scattered across GitHub, package managers, and blog posts. This list collects and categorizes the best ones in one place so you can browse rather than search. The list is organized into categories. The Shells section lists alternative shell programs to the default bash, including fish, zsh, nushell (written in Rust), and others, with brief descriptions of what makes each distinctive. Command-Line Productivity covers tools for navigating directories faster, fuzzy searching files and history, bookmarking locations, managing clipboard content, and getting quick help. Customization covers prompt themes and terminal appearance tools. For Developers covers tools for testing, debugging, and building shell scripts. System Utilities covers monitoring, process management, and system information tools. Additional sections cover multimedia processing from the terminal, downloading and serving files, games playable in the terminal, shell plugin managers, and shell script development helpers. A Guides section links to learning resources. You would use Awesome Shell when setting up a new development machine and wanting to discover productivity tools for your terminal, or when looking for the best tool for a specific terminal task (for example, a fuzzy file finder, a better diff viewer, or a multi-pane terminal multiplexer). The repository has no primary programming language since it is a curated markdown document, not code. It covers tools for bash, zsh, and fish shells.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I'm setting up a new dev machine. Based on awesome-shell, what are the top 5 terminal productivity tools I should install first?
Prompt 2
Show me the best fuzzy file finder and fuzzy history search tools from awesome-shell and how to set them up.
Prompt 3
Compare Fish, Zsh, and Bash shells using awesome-shell. Which one should I switch to and why?
Prompt 4
What are the best system monitoring and process management tools listed in awesome-shell for a Linux developer?
Prompt 5
Find me a terminal multiplexer alternative to tmux from awesome-shell and explain its key features.
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