---
name: using-modern-cli
description: >-
  Prefer modern CLI tools for better performance: rg (ripgrep) instead of grep
  for text searching, fd instead of find for file discovery, bat instead of cat
  for viewing files, sd instead of sed for text replacement, eza instead of ls
  for directory listing, dust instead of du, procs instead of ps. Use when
  writing bash scripts, optimizing command chains, working with file searches,
  or replacing grep/find/cat in workflows. These tools are faster, respect
  .gitignore, and have better output formatting.
user-invocable: false
allowed-tools:
  - Bash
---

# Modern CLI Tools

Use faster, ergonomic command-line tools installed on this system.

## Quick Reference

| Task         | Modern  | Traditional | Why Modern                          |
| ------------ | ------- | ----------- | ----------------------------------- |
| Search text  | `rg`    | grep        | 10-100x faster, respects .gitignore |
| Find files   | `fd`    | find        | Simpler syntax, ignores .git        |
| View files   | `bat`   | cat         | Syntax highlighting, line numbers   |
| List files   | `eza`   | ls          | Icons, git status, tree view        |
| Replace text | `sd`    | sed         | Intuitive regex, preview mode       |
| Disk usage   | `dust`  | du          | Visual tree, sorted by size         |
| Processes    | `procs` | ps          | Tree view, sortable columns         |
| Diff files   | `delta` | diff        | Syntax highlighting, side-by-side   |

## Examples

```bash
# Search: rg instead of grep
rg "TODO" --type go           # Search Go files
rg -A 3 "error"               # 3 lines after match
rg -l "import"                # List files only

# Find: fd instead of find
fd "\.go$"                    # Find Go files
fd -e json src/               # By extension in src/
fd -x wc -l {}                # Execute on matches

# View: bat instead of cat
bat main.go                   # With syntax highlighting
bat -n file.py                # Line numbers only

# List: eza instead of ls
eza -la --git                 # Long format with git status
eza --tree -L 2               # Tree view, 2 levels

# Replace: sd instead of sed
sd "old" "new" file.txt       # Simple replacement
sd -p "pattern" "new"         # Preview changes first

# Disk: dust instead of du
dust -d 2                     # 2 levels deep

# Processes: procs instead of ps
procs --tree                  # Process tree
```

## Productivity Tools

```bash
# Fuzzy finder (pipe with fd/rg)
vim $(fd . | fzf)
rg "pattern" | fzf

# Benchmarking
hyperfine "rg pattern" "grep -r pattern"

# Code statistics
tokei .

# Markdown preview
glow README.md

# JSON/YAML processing
jq '.key' file.json
yq '.key' file.yaml
```