10 CLI Tools Every Developer Should Use with AI Coding Agents

If you're spending more time in the terminal using AI coding assistants like Claude Code, your standard terminal environment might need an upgrade. When an AI agent is editing files, writing code, and traversing your directories, having the right CLI tools helps you monitor changes, navigate faster, and read outputs more effectively.

This is the companion guide to my YouTube video on 10 CLI tools I'm using alongside Claude Code. Every tool below includes installation instructions and the essential commands to get started.

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Table of Contents

• LazyGit
• Glow
• LLM Fit
• Models CLI
• Taproom
• Ranger
• Zoxide
• Btop
• Chafa
• CSV Lens
• Bonus: eza

1. LazyGit

When an AI agent is making autonomous changes to your codebase, you need a fast way to review what it just did. LazyGit is a terminal UI for git that lets you visually review diffs, stage files, and commit — all without memorizing git commands.

# Install
brew install lazygit

# Launch
lazygit

Key bindings:

LazyGit is especially useful after letting Claude Code run — open it up, scan the diff, and commit with confidence.

2. Glow

Claude and other LLMs constantly generate Markdown files — plans, READMEs, documentation. Instead of opening a separate editor, Glow renders Markdown beautifully right in your terminal.

# Install
brew install glow

# Read a file
glow README.md

# Paginated view (scrollable)
glow -p README.md

Glow is perfect for reading Claude Code's plan files, CLAUDE.md configs, or any Markdown output without leaving the terminal. If you want deeper editing capabilities, pair it with NeoVim.

3. LLM Fit

If you run local models, it's hard to know which ones your machine can actually handle. LLM Fit analyzes your hardware — memory, CPU, GPU — and prints a ranked table of which local AI models you can run, estimating memory usage and performance scores.

# Install via Homebrew
brew tap AlexsJones/llmfit
brew install llmfit

# Or via Cargo
cargo install llmfit

# Launch the interactive TUI
llmfit

# CLI mode (table output)
llmfit --cli

# Show detected hardware
llmfit system

This saves you from downloading a 70B parameter model only to discover your machine can't load it. Run llmfit once, know your limits, and pick models accordingly.

4. Models CLI

A terminal dashboard for comparing AI model providers. Models CLI lets you check pricing, context window sizes, and benchmark results for 2000+ models across 85+ providers without opening a browser.

# Install via Homebrew
brew install arimxyer/tap/models

# Or via Cargo
cargo install modelsdev

# Launch the interactive TUI
models

# List all providers
models list providers

# Search for a model
models search "claude sonnet"

# Show model details
models show <model-id>

When you're deciding between GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet, or Gemini for a specific task, this gives you a quick side-by-side comparison from your terminal.

5. Taproom

If you use Homebrew, you know that brew search can be slow and clunky. Taproom is an interactive TUI for Homebrew that lets you browse available casks, installed packages, and formula details.

# Install via Homebrew
brew install gromgit/brewtils/taproom

# Launch
taproom

Use it to filter by installed vs. outdated packages, search for new tools, and manage your Homebrew setup without chaining multiple brew commands.

6. Ranger

When working on remote Linux VMs or navigating deep directory trees, cd and ls get tedious. Ranger is a VIM-inspired file manager that gives you a multi-pane visual view of your directory tree with file previews.

# Install
brew install ranger        # macOS
sudo apt install ranger    # Ubuntu/Debian

# Launch
ranger

Key bindings:

Ranger is especially useful when you need to visually explore a project structure that an AI agent has been modifying.

7. Zoxide

Zoxide is a smarter cd command. It learns which directories you visit most frequently and lets you jump to them with fuzzy matching instead of typing full paths.

# Install
brew install zoxide

# Add to your shell profile (~/.zshrc)
eval "$(zoxide init zsh)"

# Restart shell, then jump to directories
z projects        # Jumps to most-visited directory matching "projects"
z star            # Jumps to ~/Desktop/sm-core/StarBlog (if that's your habit)
zi                # Interactive fuzzy finder mode

After a few days of normal terminal use, Zoxide learns your patterns. Instead of cd ~/Desktop/sm-core/StarBlog, you just type z star. It's one of those tools that feels invisible once you're used to it — until you try to work without it.

8. Btop

When you're running local AI models or letting Claude Code execute heavy tasks, you need to watch system resources. Btop is a gorgeous, highly customizable system monitor that shows CPU, memory, disk, and network usage in real time.

# Install
brew install btop          # macOS
sudo apt install btop      # Ubuntu/Debian

# Launch
btop

Key bindings:

Mac users: check out mactop for Apple Silicon-specific metrics (CPU efficiency/performance cores, GPU usage, Neural Engine).

9. Chafa

Chafa renders images directly in your terminal. If an AI agent generates a chart, diagram, or screenshot, you can view it without leaving the command line.

# Install
brew install chafa         # macOS
sudo apt install chafa     # Ubuntu/Debian

# View an image
chafa image.png

# Control output size
chafa --size=80x40 screenshot.png

# Higher quality with symbols
chafa --symbols all image.jpg

Chafa works best in terminals with good Unicode and color support (iTerm2, Ghostty, Kitty, WezTerm). It's surprisingly useful when you're working over SSH and need a quick visual check.

10. CSV Lens

Data analysis tasks often involve CSV files, which look like a mess in standard terminal editors. csvlens is a TUI built specifically for inspecting CSVs — think less but formatted perfectly for tabular data with columns, search, and sorting.

# Install
brew install csvlens

# View a CSV
csvlens data.csv

Key bindings:

When Claude Code generates a CSV report or you're debugging data pipelines, csvlens makes the data actually readable.

Bonus: eza

If you're still using ls, it's time to upgrade. eza is a modern replacement with color coding, file type icons, and git integration built in.

# Install
brew install eza

# Basic usage
eza -la --icons         # List all files with icons and details
eza --tree              # Tree view
eza --tree --level=2    # Tree view, 2 levels deep
eza -la --git           # Show git status for each file

Add these aliases to your ~/.zshrc to make it your default:

alias ls="eza --icons"
alias ll="eza -la --icons --git"
alias lt="eza --tree --level=2 --icons"

Getting Started

You don't need to install all 10 at once. Start with the three that have the highest immediate impact:

1. LazyGit — review AI-generated code changes visually before committing
2. Zoxide — stop typing long directory paths forever
3. eza — make every ls output actually readable

Once those are in your muscle memory, layer in the rest as you need them.

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