fzf, History Search, and the Tools That Compound

The biggest terminal productivity unlock isn't a new tool — it's searching what you already have. Ctrl-r, fzf, and a few environment tools turn the terminal from "type and hope" to "search and pick."

Ctrl-r: reverse history search

# Press Ctrl-r, start typing — searches your history backwards
(reverse-i-search)`docker': docker compose up -d

The killer feature: it finds the last matching command — the git commit from yesterday, the ssh from last week, the make deploy you forgot the flags for.

fzf: fuzzy everything

# install fzf, then:
ctrl-t              # fuzzy-find files in the terminal
ctrl-r              # fuzzy history search (replaces default ctrl-r)
alt-c               # fuzzy cd into a directory
vim $(fzf)          # open a file by fuzzy name
kill $(ps aux | fzf | awk '{print $2}')   # pick a process

fzf composes with everything — pipe any list in, get a filtered selection out. ls | fzf, git log --oneline | fzf, docker ps | fzf — the pattern is universal.

The essential one-liners

history | grep ssh        # find past ssh commands
fc -l -50                 # last 50 commands
!!                        # repeat last command
sudo !!                   # repeat last command with sudo
!git                      # repeat last git command
cd -                      # back to previous directory

Field notes

• zoxide/autojump — z proj jumps to the directory you cd into most often that matches proj; it learns.
• direnv — auto-load .env files when you cd into a directory; project-specific env vars without polluting the global shell.
• tldr — community cheatsheets for commands (tldr tar gives you the flags you actually need).