10 More CLI Tools for AI Coding: Part 2 Terminal Workflow Guide

After the first 10 CLI tools post blew up, the most common comment was "you need to check out Yazi." The second most common request was for resources to actually discover new tools. This part 2 covers both — 10 more CLI tools I've added to my workflow, plus the package explorers and curated lists I use to find them.

This is the companion guide to my YouTube video: 10 More CLI Tools (Part 2). Every tool below includes installation instructions and the commands to get started.

Table of Contents

• Yazi — Terminal File Manager
• Zoxide Interactive Mode
• Tealdeer (tldr)
• bat
• tmux
• Pixelmuse CLI — AI Image Generation
• Mole — Mac Deep Clean
• Jolt — Battery and Hardware Monitor
• ttyper — Terminal Typing Test
• Discovering New Tools
• Quick Reference

Yazi — Terminal File Manager

The most requested tool from part 1's comments — and for good reason. Yazi is a blazing-fast, async, Rust-powered terminal file manager with image previews, tabs, and a Lua plugin system. It makes Ranger feel slow.

# Install
brew install yazi        # macOS
cargo install --locked yazi-fm yazi-cli  # via Cargo

# Launch
yazi

Key bindings:

Yazi handles large directories without freezing because every I/O operation is non-blocking. You can sort by size to find your biggest folders, reverse the order, open files directly, and even copy file paths to paste into other terminal windows.

I wrote a full deep-dive on Yazi with plugin setup, configuration, and advanced workflows — check out the complete Yazi guide.

Zoxide Interactive Mode

I covered Zoxide in part 1, but missed the best feature: interactive mode. Instead of z projects (which jumps to the top match), use zi to get a fuzzy finder with all matching directories.

# Standard jump (top match wins)
z pixelmuse

# Interactive mode — pick from multiple matches
zi pixelmuse

# Browse all tracked directories interactively
zi

This is a lifesaver when you have similarly named directories. I have both pixelmuse-studio and pixelmuse-cli repos — zi pixelmuse lets me pick which one instead of guessing. Check the part 1 post for installation and initial setup.

Tealdeer (tldr)

Man pages are comprehensive but overwhelming. Tealdeer (tldr) gives you the top 5-10 practical examples for any command — the stuff you actually need.

# Install
brew install tealdeer    # macOS
sudo apt install tealdeer  # Ubuntu/Debian (may also be `tldr`)
cargo install tealdeer   # via Cargo

# Update the local page cache (run once after install)
tldr --update

# Get quick examples for any command
tldr tar
tldr ffmpeg
tldr yazi
tldr docker

Example output for tldr tar:

tar - Archiving utility

- Create an archive from files:
    tar cf target.tar file1 file2 file3

- Extract an archive in the current directory:
    tar xf source.tar

- Create a gzipped archive:
    tar czf target.tar.gz file1 file2

- Extract a gzipped archive to a directory:
    tar xzf source.tar.gz -C directory

Compare that to man tar which is hundreds of lines. When you install a new package and want a quick overview of what it can do, tldr is the first thing to run.

bat

bat is cat with syntax highlighting, line numbers, and git integration. It's a drop-in replacement that makes reading files in the terminal actually pleasant.

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

# View a file (with syntax highlighting)
bat script.ts
bat README.md
bat config.yaml

# Use as a pager (scrollable)
bat --paging=always long-file.log

I alias cat to bat in my shell config so every file I read gets automatic formatting:

# Add to ~/.zshrc
alias cat="bat"

When you cat a Markdown file, instead of seeing raw # and ** symbols, you get properly highlighted headings and bold text. Same for TypeScript, Python, YAML — bat detects the language from the file extension and highlights accordingly.

tmux

tmux is the terminal multiplexer — it lets you run persistent, multi-pane terminal sessions that survive disconnects. If you close your laptop and come back, your tmux sessions are still running.

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

# Start a new session
tmux new -s work

# Split panes
# Ctrl+b %    → vertical split
# Ctrl+b "    → horizontal split

# Navigate panes
# Ctrl+b ←/→/↑/↓

# List sessions
tmux ls

# Detach from session (keeps running)
# Ctrl+b d

# Reattach
tmux attach -t work

tmux is especially powerful with Claude Code — you can have one pane running Claude, another watching logs, and a third monitoring system resources. The session persists even if your SSH connection drops.

I have a full tmux guide with configuration, tmuxinator automation, and practical monitoring setups — read the complete tmux guide.

Pixelmuse CLI — AI Image Generation

Pixelmuse CLI brings AI image generation into your terminal. It connects to the Pixelmuse API so you can generate images, blog thumbnails, and creative assets without leaving the command line — and it ships with both a direct CLI and an interactive TUI.

# Install
npm install -g pixelmuse-cli

# Generate an image
pixelmuse generate "a cyberpunk cityscape at sunset"

# Launch the interactive TUI (auth, generate, browse)
pixelmuse

The real power is pairing it with Claude Code. Point Claude at a blog post or repo and tell it to generate a thumbnail based on the content — it reads the full context, crafts a prompt, and generates the image through the Pixelmuse API. No context-switching to a browser, no copy-pasting prompts.

I built this as an extension of the Pixelmuse platform — I'll be making a dedicated video on building CLIs with React Ink and Claude Code soon.

Mole — Mac Deep Clean

Mole is a CLI tool for deep cleaning and optimizing your Mac. It analyzes disk usage and checks system health with a clean TUI dashboard.

# Install
brew install mole

# Analyze disk usage
mole analyze

# Check system health dashboard
mole status

The status dashboard shows CPU, memory, disk, battery, and network details in one view. Useful when you want a quick health check beyond what btop shows — especially for disk usage analysis and cleanup recommendations.

Jolt — Battery and Hardware Monitor

Jolt is a hardware-focused system monitor, especially useful for tracking battery health and power consumption on laptops.

# Install
brew install jolt

# Launch the hardware monitor
jolt

Where btop focuses on CPU and memory processes, Jolt gives you deeper insight into battery cycles, hardware temperatures, and power draw. Nice to have alongside btop if you're running intensive local AI models and want to watch your hardware health.

ttyper — Terminal Typing Test

ttyper is a minimalist typing test that runs in your terminal. I use it as a warmup when I start working — a few minutes of focused typing in the actual terminal helps me get into the flow.

# Install
brew install ttyper      # macOS
cargo install ttyper     # via Cargo

# Start a typing test
ttyper

# Use specific word count
ttyper -w 50

# Use a custom word list
ttyper -c custom-words.txt

It tracks WPM, accuracy, and shows real-time feedback on mistakes. Low-stakes, fun, and surprisingly effective for warming up your fingers before a coding session.

Discovering New Tools

The most common question from part 1: "How do you find these tools?" Here are the resources I use.

Taproom — Explore Homebrew Packages

I covered Taproom in part 1, but didn't show its best exploration feature: sorting by total installs. This shows you the most popular Homebrew packages across the entire ecosystem.

taproom
# Then sort by "Total Installs" to see what's trending

This is how I discovered several tools from part 1 — just browsing the top-installed packages and finding things I hadn't tried.

Forage CLI — Explore NPM Packages

I built Forage CLI specifically because there wasn't a good TUI for browsing NPM packages. It's like the npmjs.com website but in your terminal — browse categories, read package details, and open the NPM page directly.

# Install
npm install -g forage-cli

# Launch
forage

Browse different categories, drill into individual packages, and open them on NPM for full documentation. I built this with React Ink and Claude Code — it was my first CLI project.

crates-tui — Explore Rust Packages

crates-tui is the same concept for Rust crates. Browse, search, and explore the Rust package ecosystem from your terminal.

# Install
cargo install crates-tui

# Launch
crates-tui

Ratatui — Curated TUI Ecosystem

Ratatui is both a Rust framework for building TUIs and a community hub. Their awesome-ratatui list on GitHub is one of the best curated collections of terminal tools — many of the tools from part 1 came from browsing this list.

The Package Manager Landscape

There are several distinct ecosystems to explore:

Each ecosystem has different strengths. Homebrew and Cargo tend to have the best CLI/TUI tools. NPM is strong for JavaScript developer tooling. Python's PyPI is best for data science and AI utilities.

Quick Reference

Conclusion

Between part 1 and part 2, that's 20+ CLI tools to level up your terminal workflow alongside AI coding agents. You don't need all of them — pick 2-3 that solve a pain point you have right now and build from there.

If you're looking for more, check out the Ratatui awesome list and the package explorers above. The terminal tool ecosystem is growing fast, especially as more developers move their workflows into the CLI alongside tools like Claude Code.

Related guides:

• 10 CLI Tools for AI Coding (Part 1)
• Yazi: Complete Terminal File Manager Guide
• Tmux Terminal Multiplexer Guide