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Writing

My Terminal Toolchain in 2026 — Minimal, Fast, and Mostly Rust

  • cli
  • tools
  • rust
  • terminal

The Philosophy

If it takes more than 200ms to start, I'm not using it. If it's written in Electron, I'm definitely not using it. This rules out... a lot.

The Stack

  • Terminal: WezTerm (GPU-accelerated, Lua config, works everywhere)
  • Shell: zsh + starship prompt (because I'm basic)
  • Editor: Neovim (btw) with lazy.nvim. 37ms startup. 84 plugins. Zero regrets.
  • File manager: yazi (Rust, blazing fast, vim keys)
  • Git TUI: lazygit (the only git interface that makes sense)
  • System monitor: bottom (btm) — like htop but written in Rust and prettier
  • JSON processor: jq (still the king, though I'm writing a Rust replacement)
  • HTTP client: xh (Rust httpie clone — faster, prettier output)
  • Container runtime: podman (because Docker's daemon model bugs me)

The Trend

Notice a pattern? Almost everything is written in Rust. The ecosystem has exploded. Tools that used to be Python scripts with 2-second startup times are now compiled binaries that finish before you release the Enter key.

What I'm Building

I'm writing my own TUI file manager in Rust with ratatui. It has vim keybindings, preview panes, and Arch/Nix integration. Because none of the existing ones do exactly what I want. And that's the terminal ethos: if it doesn't exist, build it.