tech shortcuts •
fzf + ripgrep: any file in your repo in one keystroke
The 20-second alias that replaced 90% of my ls-and-grep flow. Fuzzy-search every file in the repo, preview it with syntax highlighting, open it in your editor — all bound to one shortcut.
Install the two tools
fzf is a fuzzy finder. ripgrep (rg) is a search tool that respects .gitignore by default. Together they replace find + grep for interactive work.
# macOS
brew install fzf ripgrep bat
# arch
sudo pacman -S fzf ripgrep bat
# ubuntu
sudo apt install fzf ripgrep batThe alias
Drop this into ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc. Ctrl+F fuzzy-searches every tracked file, shows a syntax-highlighted preview, and opens your pick in $EDITOR.
ff() {
local file
file=$(rg --files --hidden --glob '!.git' | fzf \
--preview 'bat --style=numbers --color=always --line-range :200 {}' \
--preview-window=right:60%:wrap) && ${EDITOR:-vim} "$file"
}
bindkey -s '^f' 'ff\n' # zsh: Ctrl+FBonus: search file contents
# Find files by content, preview the match, open at line
fg() {
local line
line=$(rg --line-number --no-heading --color=always '' | fzf --ansi \
--delimiter=':' --preview 'bat --color=always --highlight-line {2} {1}') &&
${EDITOR:-vim} "+$(echo $line | cut -d: -f2)" "$(echo $line | cut -d: -f1)"
}Learn these two and you stop thinking about file paths. The repo becomes a keyboard-navigable index.