--- title: A terminal setup for the modern developer (2026 edition) description: A detailed walkthrough of a developer's dotfiles setup for macOS, covering modern Rust-based CLI replacements (eza, bat, ripgrep, fd, delta, zoxide), shell... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-terminal-setup-for-the-modern-developer-2026-edition--2qlwadrc7 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A terminal setup for the modern developer (2026 edition) | daily.dev og:description: A detailed walkthrough of a developer's dotfiles setup for macOS, covering modern Rust-based CLI replacements (eza, bat, ripgrep, fd, delta, zoxide), shell... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-terminal-setup-for-the-modern-developer-2026-edition--2qlwadrc7 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/2qlwAdrc7.png og:image:alt: A terminal setup for the modern developer (2026 edition) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A terminal setup for the modern developer (2026 edition) **[FREEK.DEV](https://daily.dev/sources/freek)** · 15 min read · 5 upvotes · 2 comments ## Summary A detailed walkthrough of a developer's dotfiles setup for macOS, covering modern Rust-based CLI replacements (eza, bat, ripgrep, fd, delta, zoxide), shell aliases and functions for Laravel/PHP/git workflows, Oh My Zsh configuration, a Brewfile for reproducible installs, and Claude Code integration. Key highlights include zoxide for smart directory jumping, delta for readable git diffs, a p() function that auto-detects Pest vs PHPUnit, a commit function that uses Claude to generate commit messages, and a symlink-based install script that sets up a fresh Mac in ~5 minutes. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What does zoxide do and how do I set it up in zsh? Zoxide is a smarter cd replacement that learns which directories you visit and lets you jump to them by typing a fragment of the name via the z command, ranking matches by frequency and recency. Setup requires one line in .zshrc: eval "$(zoxide init zsh)". An ambiguous fragment opens an interactive picker with the zi command. _daily.dev is where developers compare shell productivity tools like zoxide before rebuilding their workflow._ ### How can I make git diff output easier to read with syntax highlighting? Configure delta (git-delta) as your git pager to get side-by-side diffs with line numbers and syntax highlighting that marks exactly which characters changed within a line, not just the whole line. Set it in .gitconfig under [core] pager = delta, plus [interactive] diffFilter = delta --color-only and delta options like navigate, side-by-side, and line-numbers. _developers refining their git workflow often browse setups like this on daily.dev before adopting a new diff tool._ ### How do I automatically switch Node.js versions when changing directories using fnm? fnm can switch Node versions automatically when you cd or jump into a project directory containing a .node-version file, by enabling the --use-on-cd flag in its shell integration. This also triggers when using zoxide's z command since it hooks into the same directory-change mechanism as cd. _engineers standardizing Node version management across projects track tool integrations like this on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@pdfopsdev** · 1 upvotes > One thing worth adding for anyone copying a setup like this: alias the Rust replacements interactively, but never in scripts. eza/bat/fd aren't flag-compatible drop-ins for ls/cat/find, so an alias ls=eza that leaks into a shell script (or a tool that shells out to ls) breaks in subtle ways. Keep them interactive-only, or better, under distinct names. The zoxide + delta combo is the highest-leverage part of the whole list though. **@michalfilo** · 0 upvotes > I'll add one more note for rust replacements -> my AI was a really confused (mainly with eza bat and fd) ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A tour of my dotfiles](https://daily.dev/posts/a-tour-of-my-dotfiles-da1v7cmp0) · FREEK.DEV · 85 upvotes · 5 comments - [My Rust dev setup in 2026 — Bitfield Consulting](https://daily.dev/posts/my-rust-dev-setup-in-2026-bitfield-consulting-t1ultt2tg) · Bitfield Consulting · 67 upvotes · 4 comments - [Setting Up a macOS Development Environment](https://daily.dev/posts/setting-up-a-macos-development-environment-1js0iw3z4) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Supercharge Your Terminal With Zsh](https://daily.dev/posts/supercharge-your-terminal-with-zsh-idvukriuz) · Callstack Blog · 14 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#laravel](https://daily.dev/tags/laravel), [#cli](https://daily.dev/tags/cli), [#bash](https://daily.dev/tags/bash), [#dotfiles](https://daily.dev/tags/dotfiles) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-terminal-setup-for-the-modern-developer-2026-edition--2qlwadrc7) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A terminal setup for the modern developer (2026 edition)","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-terminal-setup-for-the-modern-developer-2026-edition--2qlwadrc7","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-terminal-setup-for-the-modern-developer-2026-edition--2qlwadrc7"},"datePublished":"2026-07-10T13:19:31.675Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T20:52:39.924Z","description":"A detailed walkthrough of a developer's dotfiles setup for macOS, covering modern Rust-based CLI replacements (eza, bat, ripgrep, fd, delta, zoxide), shell...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/210a0f3e1b14664dd3f5ef10c1538abd?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/210a0f3e1b14664dd3f5ef10c1538abd?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"FREEK.DEV","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"FREEK.DEV","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/286e833d1aaa453d99849cd4dbb7a106","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/freek"},"commentCount":2,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-terminal-setup-for-the-modern-developer-2026-edition--2qlwadrc7","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}],"keywords":"laravel,cli,bash,dotfiles","timeRequired":"PT15M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"FREEK.DEV","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/freek"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"A terminal setup for the modern developer (2026 edition)"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-terminal-setup-for-the-modern-developer-2026-edition--2qlwadrc7","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"One thing worth adding for anyone copying a setup like this: alias the Rust replacements interactively, but never in scripts. eza/bat/fd aren’t flag-compatible drop-ins for ls/cat/find, so an alias ls=eza that leaks into a shell script (or a tool that shells out to ls) breaks in subtle ways. 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Setup requires one line in .zshrc: eval \"$(zoxide init zsh)\". An ambiguous fragment opens an interactive picker with the zi command. daily.dev is where developers compare shell productivity tools like zoxide before rebuilding their workflow."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How can I make git diff output easier to read with syntax highlighting?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Configure delta (git-delta) as your git pager to get side-by-side diffs with line numbers and syntax highlighting that marks exactly which characters changed within a line, not just the whole line. 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