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What I use

Tools I actually use daily for software development.

Editor

Cursor — VS Code fork with AI built in. I use Claude as the model. The tab completion and inline edits are genuinely useful, not just gimmicks.

IntelliJ IDEA — For Java/Kotlin work. Nothing else comes close for JVM languages.

Terminal

Ghostty — Fast, native macOS terminal. Written in Zig. I use:

  • Catppuccin Macchiato theme
  • Dank Mono font at 18px
  • Native splits instead of tmux panes

Starship — Minimal prompt. Just directory, git branch, and a rocket emoji. I disable all the language version indicators—they’re noise.

tmux — Session persistence. Mainly for keeping long-running processes alive.

CLI Tools

  • fzf — Fuzzy finder for everything. Files, history, git branches.
  • ripgrep — grep replacement. 10x faster, respects .gitignore.
  • fd — find replacement. Sane defaults, faster.
  • eza — ls replacement. Colors, git status, tree view.
  • bat — cat replacement. Syntax highlighting, git integration.
  • zoxide — cd replacement. Jumps to frecent directories.
  • lazygit — Terminal UI for git. Faster than typing commands for complex operations.
  • jq — JSON processor. Indispensable for API work.
  • tldr — Practical command examples instead of man pages.
  • htop — Process viewer that doesn’t suck.

Browser

Chrome — DevTools are still the best.

Productivity

Raycast — Spotlight replacement. I use it for:

  • Clipboard history
  • Window management
  • Quick calculations
  • App launching

CleanShot X — Screenshots and screen recording. The annotation tools are excellent.

1Password — Password manager. The CLI integration is useful for scripts.

Design

Figma — Design tool. I use it for mocking up UIs before building.

Containers

Rancher Desktop — Docker Desktop alternative. Free, open source, less resource-hungry.

Hardware

Logitech MX Master 4 — Best mouse for productivity.

Fonts

Dank Mono — Paid, but worth it. The italics are beautiful and actually make code more readable.