Fish Shell & Modern CLI Reference Guide

The Fish Shell (Friendly Interactive Shell) paired with modern CLI utilities (written in Rust and Go) transforms the terminal from an arcane prompt into a responsive, color-coded, and highly interactive productivity engine.

This reference guide covers the modern command-line tools, shell keybindings, fuzzy search shortcuts, navigation helpers, and custom automation functions configured in this setup.

1. Modern CLI Tools Cheat Sheet

Traditional Unix tools (ls, cat, grep, find, top, ps, df, du, rm) have modern replacements with syntax highlighting, Git integration, safe deletion, and intuitive visual formatting.

Tool	Replaces	Primary Aliases	What It Does & When to Use It
eza	`ls`, `tree`	`ls`, `ll`, `la`, `lt`, `tree`	File listing with icons, color-coded permissions, Git status badges, and tree hierarchies.
bat	`cat`, `less`	`cat`, `catp`, `view`, `page`	Smart file viewer with automatic syntax highlighting, line numbers, and mouse-scrollable pagination.
yazi	—	`files`, `fm`	Blazingly fast visual terminal file explorer with arrow navigation and instant file previews.
trash	`rm`	`trash`	Safely moves files to macOS Trash (recoverable from GUI Trash) instead of permanent deletion.
nano	`vi`, `nvim`	`edit`, `e`	Friendly, intuitive terminal text editor with an on-screen keyboard shortcut bar.
ripgrep	`grep`	`rg`, `rgi`	Ultra-fast recursive code search. Respects `.gitignore` by default.
fd	`find`	`fd`	Intuitive, colorized file search with regex and fuzzy pattern matching.
duf	`df`	`df`	Clean, visual disk space and filesystem usage table.
dust	`du`	`du`	Instant graphical tree showing which folders consume the most disk space.
btop	`top`, `htop`	`top`	Interactive visual dashboard monitoring CPU, memory, disks, network, and processes.
procs	`ps`	`ps`	Human-readable process viewer with colored PID, memory, user, and TCP port columns.
delta	`diff`	`diff`	Side-by-side syntax-highlighted git diffs with intra-line word-level change highlights.
zoxide	`cd`	`z`, `zi`	Smarter `cd` that learns your most frequent directories for instant fuzzy jumping.
fzf	—	`Ctrl+P`, `Ctrl+R`, `Ctrl+F`	General-purpose interactive fuzzy finder for files, history, git commits, and processes.

Smart CD with Zoxide

Instead of typing lengthy relative paths (cd ../../../Documents/Git/project), zoxide tracks your history and lets you jump directly by typing partial folder names:

# Jump to the highest-scoring directory matching "studio"
z studio

# Open an interactive fzf picker of recent matching directories
zi audio

# Quick jump to home
~h

# Go back to the previous directory (cd -)
cdd

Quick Traverse Shortcuts

..      # cd ..      (up 1 level)
...     # cd ../..   (up 2 levels)
....    # cd ../../.. (up 3 levels)

Make & Enter Directory (`mkcd`)

Creates the entire directory path (including nested parent folders) and immediately enters it:

mkcd my-new-project/src/components

3. Interactive FZF Keybindings & Search

FZF is preconfigured with Catppuccin Mocha theme styling, rounded borders, and real-time bat preview windows.

Keybinding	Action	Description
`Ctrl` + `P` / `Ctrl` + `R`	Fuzzy History	Search through full command history; press `Enter` to run or `Tab` to edit.
`Ctrl` + `F`	Fuzzy File Search	Interactive file/folder picker with live `bat` syntax preview.
`Ctrl` + `G`	Git Log Search	Interactive Git commit history browser with commit diff previews.
`Ctrl` + `S`	Git Status Search	Fuzzy-pick modified files from `git status` with staged/unstaged diffs.
`Ctrl` + `X`	Fuzzy Process Killer	Select running processes and terminate them interactively (`fkill`).
`Ctrl` + `Z`	Interactive Zoxide	Trigger `zi` directory jumper modal.
`Right Arrow` `→`	Accept Autosuggestion	Complete Fish’s subtle inline autocomplete suggestion.
`Ctrl` + `E`	Edit in Nano	Open current command buffer in Nano (`$EDITOR`) with on-screen shortcuts.
`Ctrl` + `L`	Clear Screen	Clears screen while preserving terminal scrollback history.
`Ctrl` + `/`	Toggle Preview	Toggle FZF preview pane on or off.
`Ctrl` + `Y`	Copy to Clipboard	Copy selected FZF line to macOS clipboard (`pbcopy`).

4. Git Productivity Shortcuts

Common multi-word Git commands are aliased into fast two- and three-letter shortcuts:

# Status & Staging
gs        # git status -sb (compact, branch-aware status)
ga <file> # git add <file>
ga .      # git add all

# Committing
gc        # git commit -v (opens Nano with full diff context)
gcm "msg" # git commit -m "msg"

# Branching & Switching
gb        # git branch (list local)
gba       # git branch -a (list local + remote)
gco <br>  # git checkout <branch>
gcb <br>  # git checkout -b <new-branch>
gcof      # Fuzzy checkout: interactive fzf branch picker

# Syncing & History
gp        # git push
gpl       # git pull
gl        # git log --oneline -20 (compact last 20 commits)
gla       # git log --oneline --all -30 (all branches graph)
gd        # git diff (unstaged changes via delta)
gds       # git diff --staged (staged changes via delta)
gr        # git remote -v
gf        # git fetch
gm <br>   # git merge <branch>
grb <br>  # git rebase <branch>

# Stashing
gst       # git stash
gstp      # git stash pop

# GitHub PR Automation
ghpr      # Opens GitHub PR comparison in your browser for current branch

5. System, Network & Helper Functions

Everyday & Beginner-Friendly Shortcuts

tips           # Visual, color-coded cheatsheet of all essential shortcuts
files / fm     # Open Yazi visual terminal file manager (arrow keys to browse & preview)
view <file>    # Open document in paginated reader (trackpad scrollable, 'q' to quit)
edit <file>    # Open file in friendly Nano editor with shortcut guide
o              # Instantly open current directory in macOS Finder (open .)
trash <file>   # Move file safely to macOS Trash (recoverable from GUI Trash)
copy / paste   # Copy to / paste from macOS system clipboard (pbcopy / pbpaste)
ip             # Clean dual display of local network IP and public IP
paths          # Prints system $PATH line-by-line for clean, readable inspection
reload         # Reload Fish configuration instantly (exec fish)
ports          # List all active listening TCP/UDP ports (lsof -i -P -n)
weather        # Quick 1-line weather forecast summary
h              # View shell history
hgrep <term>   # Search command history using ripgrep (e.g. hgrep docker)
c              # Clear terminal screen

Universal Archive Extractor (`extract`)

Extracts any supported compressed archive format without remembering flags:

extract backup.tar.gz
extract dataset.zip
extract archive.7z
extract package.tar.bz2

Tmux Session Management

tm <name>      # Create a new tmux session or attach if it already exists
tms            # Interactive fzf switcher between active tmux sessions

Fuzzy Process Killer (`fkill`)

fkill          # Interactive fzf list to kill a rogue process (sends SIGKILL)
fkill 15       # Send graceful SIGTERM (15) instead of SIGKILL (9)

6. OpenCode AI Agent Shortcuts

Direct CLI triggers for specialized OpenCode task agents:

ocf <query>      # opencode --agent finance
och <query>      # opencode --agent health
ochome <query>   # opencode --agent home
ocl <query>      # opencode --agent learning
oclog <query>    # opencode --agent logistics
ochob <query>    # opencode --agent hobbies
oco <query>      # opencode --agent cooking
oclib <query>    # opencode --agent librarian
occrit <query>   # opencode --agent brutal-critic
ocdist <query>   # opencode --agent distiller
ocsetup <query>  # opencode --agent project-setup

# Scaffold new project workspace in Obsidian vault
ocl-new "Market Analysis"
# Creates: ~/Documents/Obsidian/beep-notes/5. Opencode/Inbox/YYYY-MM-DD_Market-Analysis

7. Configuration & Plugins Architecture

Primary Config File: ~/.config/fish/config.fish

Plugin Manager (Fisher):

fisher install jorgebucaran/fisher    # Package manager
fisher install patrickf1/fzf.fish     # Interactive FZF integration
fisher install jethrokuan/z           # Zoxide / directory tracking
fisher list                           # List installed plugins
fisher update                         # Update all plugins

Prompt: Starship configured with Catppuccin Mocha floating capsules ( / ), folder badges, and dynamic execution timers (~/.config/starship.toml).
Terminal Emulator: cmux (libghostty engine) styled via ~/.config/ghostty/config with Catppuccin Mocha, 90% background opacity, native macOS background blur, and 16px padding.
Keybindings: Standard macOS / Emacs bindings (fish_default_key_bindings). Familiar arrow key navigation and typing without Vi modal locks or accidental Escape traps.
Default Editor: Configured to nano ($EDITOR and $VISUAL) with on-screen shortcuts for quick, hassle-free file edits.
Environment & Toolchains:
- cmux CLI shims (/Applications/cmux.app/Contents/Resources/bin) for live cmux markdown previews and cmux diff side panels.
- uv (fast Python toolchain) sourced via ~/.local/bin/env.fish.
- OrbStack Docker engine integration.
- LM Studio CLI & Antigravity bin paths pre-configured in $PATH.