--- title: Essential CLI Tools for Senior Software Engineers in the... description: A senior developer lists CLI tools worth learning even in the agentic AI era. Recommendations include Zoxide as a smarter 'cd' replacement that weights... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/essential-cli-tools-for-senior-software-engineers-in-the-ai-era-5ogqs9nzb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Essential CLI Tools for Senior Software Engineers in the AI era | daily.dev og:description: A senior developer lists CLI tools worth learning even in the agentic AI era. Recommendations include Zoxide as a smarter 'cd' replacement that weights... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/essential-cli-tools-for-senior-software-engineers-in-the-ai-era-5ogqs9nzb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/5Ogqs9nzb.png og:image:alt: Essential CLI Tools for Senior Software Engineers in the AI era 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. # Essential CLI Tools for Senior Software Engineers in the AI era **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 5 min read · 124 upvotes · 11 comments ## Summary A senior developer lists CLI tools worth learning even in the agentic AI era. Recommendations include Zoxide as a smarter 'cd' replacement that weights recently visited folders, Neovim or Vim for editing, Lazygit for a visual view of staged files and commits, Tmux for a terminal multiplexer that works across different setups, Oh My Zsh for Git aliases, and Starship for a prettier prompt. The author also plugs several Udemy courses on these tools, including a Tmux course described as the best seller. ## 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 differently from the regular cd command? Zoxide replaces cd by tracking recently visited directories and assigning them a weight based on how often you visit them. This lets you jump to a frequently used folder from anywhere by typing a partial name, such as running 'cd private' from your home directory to land in a nested path like ~/Documents/GitHub/private/. _Developers tuning their shell workflow can find more terminal tool picks like this on daily.dev._ ### Why would I use tmux instead of my terminal's built-in tabs? Tmux is recommended over native terminal tabs because it works the same way across different machines and setups. Even if a work development environment differs from a personal one, tmux provides a consistent, universal multiplexing experience on both, unlike relying on a specific terminal app's tab feature. _Anyone standardizing their dev environment across machines can keep up with tooling comparisons on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@oscarpearson** · 3 upvotes > I recently went through my setup for the Terminal and ended up with; > > - Ghostty > - Oh My Zsh > - Zinit and a bunch of plugins like zoxide etc. > - Power10k > - Neovim and kickstart.nvim > > All of these things are old and been around for a while, but using AI tools moves the work more and more to the terminal so it's nice to have that environment set up properly. **@jonathangraf** · 2 upvotes > Isn't this list a bit Vanilla? And where is the AI relation? I'd expect tools like herdr or pi mentioned. **@divyesh\_vekariya** · 2 upvotes > AI tools are making terminal skills even more useful, not less. I’d add that knowing your way around Git, shell commands, and a good terminal workflow makes it much easier to review and debug AI-generated code. The tools may be old, but the productivity gains are still real. **@vigneshraj** · 2 upvotes > jq/jaq - for querying json > > wt - worktrunk for managing worktrees > > gum - for making interactive bash scripts > > zsh abbreviations - as an alternative to zsh aliases > > mprocs/dekit - for managing processes (i have a tmux popup where this is running) **@adiaga** · 1 upvotes > mycli - mysql > pgcli - postgres ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [4 Terminal Tools I Recommend to New Developers](https://daily.dev/posts/4-terminal-tools-i-recommend-to-new-developers-ncgc7kqeb) · Atomic Spin · 16 upvotes · 1 comments - [AI power tools: 6 ways to supercharge your terminal](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-power-tools-6-ways-to-supercharge-your-terminal-txighsnc8) · InfoWorld · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [A terminal setup for the modern developer \(2026 edition\)](https://daily.dev/posts/a-terminal-setup-for-the-modern-developer-2026-edition--2qlwadrc7) · FREEK.DEV · 6 upvotes · 2 comments - [Best AI tools for Developers](https://daily.dev/posts/best-ai-tools-for-developers-p8qvyy89q) · Serokell · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#devtools](https://daily.dev/tags/devtools), [#bash](https://daily.dev/tags/bash) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/essential-cli-tools-for-senior-software-engineers-in-the-ai-era-5ogqs9nzb) ```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":"Essential CLI Tools for Senior Software Engineers in the AI era","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/essential-cli-tools-for-senior-software-engineers-in-the-ai-era-5ogqs9nzb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/essential-cli-tools-for-senior-software-engineers-in-the-ai-era-5ogqs9nzb"},"datePublished":"2026-10-31T20:04:21.552Z","dateModified":"2026-10-31T20:06:01.639Z","description":"A senior developer lists CLI tools worth learning even in the agentic AI era. Recommendations include Zoxide as a smarter 'cd' replacement that weights...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b97d7c15cdd3f757e0854ca442d43efc?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b97d7c15cdd3f757e0854ca442d43efc?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Medium","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":"Medium","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/medium","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},"commentCount":11,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/essential-cli-tools-for-senior-software-engineers-in-the-ai-era-5ogqs9nzb","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":124},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":11}],"keywords":"devtools,bash","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Medium","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Essential CLI Tools for Senior Software Engineers in the AI era"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/essential-cli-tools-for-senior-software-engineers-in-the-ai-era-5ogqs9nzb","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"I recently went through my setup for the Terminal and ended up with;\n\nGhostty\nOh My Zsh\nZinit and a bunch of plugins like zoxide etc.\nPower10k\nNeovim and kickstart.nvim\n\nAll of these things are old and been around for a while, but using AI tools moves the work more and more to the terminal so it’s nice to have that environment set up properly.","datePublished":"2026-11-03T15:12:38.118Z","dateModified":"2026-11-03T15:13:56.755Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/5Ogqs9nzb#c-QVRUmw2nR","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Oscar Pearson","url":"https://daily.dev/oscarpearson","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--QnXAEQGE--/f_auto/v1780119425/avatars/avatar_bPCgf4qQE?_a=BAMAMiWQ0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Isn’t this list a bit Vanilla? And where is the AI relation? I’d expect tools like herdr or pi mentioned.","datePublished":"2026-11-02T11:56:11.295Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/5Ogqs9nzb#c-ULnvVmlaG","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jonathan Graf","url":"https://daily.dev/jonathangraf","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/39404597?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"AI tools are making terminal skills even more useful, not less. I’d add that knowing your way around Git, shell commands, and a good terminal workflow makes it much easier to review and debug AI-generated code. The tools may be old, but the productivity gains are still real.","datePublished":"2026-11-05T03:56:17.175Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/5Ogqs9nzb#c-MzsmlJ11R","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Divyesh Vekariya","url":"https://daily.dev/divyesh_vekariya","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--RDCl1xsD--/f_auto/v1728905544/avatars/avatar_WXcnVdXbQljWuHJCBcViw"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"jq/jaq - for querying json\nwt - worktrunk for managing worktrees\ngum - for making interactive bash scripts\nzsh abbreviations - as an alternative to zsh aliases\nmprocs/dekit - for managing processes (i have a tmux popup where this is running)","datePublished":"2026-11-02T07:30:21.115Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/5Ogqs9nzb#c-BoaLqwHUy","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Vignesh Raj","url":"https://daily.dev/vigneshraj","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/53948153?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"mycli - mysql\npgcli - postgres","datePublished":"2026-11-02T19:57:35.306Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/5Ogqs9nzb#c-fpcu8Wq8j","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Adi Agafitei","url":"https://daily.dev/adiaga","image":"https://avatars1.githubusercontent.com/u/338271?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/essential-cli-tools-for-senior-software-engineers-in-the-ai-era-5ogqs9nzb#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What does zoxide do differently from the regular cd command?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Zoxide replaces cd by tracking recently visited directories and assigning them a weight based on how often you visit them. This lets you jump to a frequently used folder from anywhere by typing a partial name, such as running 'cd private' from your home directory to land in a nested path like ~/Documents/GitHub/private/. Developers tuning their shell workflow can find more terminal tool picks like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why would I use tmux instead of my terminal's built-in tabs?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Tmux is recommended over native terminal tabs because it works the same way across different machines and setups. Even if a work development environment differs from a personal one, tmux provides a consistent, universal multiplexing experience on both, unlike relying on a specific terminal app's tab feature. Anyone standardizing their dev environment across machines can keep up with tooling comparisons on daily.dev."}}]} ```