Customizing Your Zsh/Bash Prompt for Peak Productivity

Simple Shell Tweaks to Speed Up Daily Dev Work

If you use the terminal every day, even small improvements can save you a ton of time. This post shares a set of practical shell commands and shortcuts not fancy, not obscure, just genuinely useful. These functions and aliases are the kind that make you think, “Why didn’t I do this earlier?”

In this article, we'll explore how customizing your Zsh or Bash prompt can transform your command line experience and significantly boost your daily productivity.

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1) Fuzzy Directory Jumper with fzf

Put this in .zshrc or .bashrc(requires fzf installed)

j() {
  cd "$(find . -type d 2>/dev/null | fzf)"
}

What It Does

• Searches all directories starting from current path.

• Opens an interactive fuzzy finder.

• You pick one, and it instantly jumps (cd) to that directory.

Why It’s Useful

• When you’re in a deep project structure (e.g., src/main/java/com/xyz/foo/bar)

• You don’t remember full paths but remember partial names

• Much faster than typing out or tab-completing

Example Usage

cd ~/myproject
j

You type “foo”, hit enter, and you’re inside src/main/java/com/xyz/foo.

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2. git_clean_merged: Clean Up Merged Git Branches

Put this in .zshrc or .bashrc (One of my favourite)

git_clean_merged() {
  git checkout main &&
  git pull &&
  git branch --merged main | grep -vE "^\*|main" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d
}

What It Does

• Switches to main branch and updates it.

• Lists all local branches merged into main.

• Deletes them, except main and currently checked-out branch.

Why It’s Useful

• Avoids clutter from dozens of stale branches.

• Prevents accidental pushes or merges from outdated branches.

• Keeps your local Git lean and focused.

Example Usage

git_clean_merged

After you’ve merged feature branches into main via PRs, this clears them from local.

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3. glog: Pretty Git Log Summary (One-Liner Commit History)

Put this in .zshrc or .bashrc

alias glog="git log --oneline --graph --decorate --all"

What It Does

• Shows Git commit history as:

• One-line summaries

• With branch/tag info

• With commit graph (--graph)

Why It’s Useful

• Gives you a visual overview of branches and merges.

• Great for understanding commit flows in large teams.

• Replaces the cluttered full git log.

Example Usage

cd your-project/
glog

* 8a1b3c2 (HEAD -> feature/login) Add auth validation
* f72d1a1 (origin/main, main) Merge pull request #15
|\
| * 9bd9f77 Add unit tests
|/
* 72f3df8 Refactor user service

Use this before a rebase or merge to understand what’s going on.

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4. killport: Kill the Process on a Given Port

killport() {
  lsof -ti tcp:$1 | xargs kill -9
}

What It Does

• Finds the process ID (PID) of any process using a TCP port.

• Force-kills it.

Why It’s Useful

• Common when local servers (Spring Boot, Node, etc.) don’t release ports.

• Saves you from restarting the machine or hunting down PIDs manually.

Example Usage

killport 8080

Instantly kills the process blocking port 8080.

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5. extract: Smart File Extractor

What to Write in .zshrc or .bashrc

extract () {
  if [ -f "$1" ]; then
    case "$1" in
      *.tar.bz2)   tar xjf "$1"    ;;
      *.tar.gz)    tar xzf "$1"    ;;
      *.bz2)       bunzip2 "$1"    ;;
      *.rar)       unrar x "$1"    ;;
      *.gz)        gunzip "$1"     ;;
      *.tar)       tar xf "$1"     ;;
      *.tbz2)      tar xjf "$1"    ;;
      *.tgz)       tar xzf "$1"    ;;
      *.zip)       unzip "$1"      ;;
      *.Z)         uncompress "$1" ;;
      *.7z)        7z x "$1"       ;;
      *)           echo "'$1' cannot be extracted via extract()" ;;
    esac
  else
    echo "'$1' is not a valid file"
  fi
}

What It Does

• A smart wrapper around various extraction tools (tar, unzip, gunzip, etc.)

• Automatically detects the file type based on the extension

• Runs the appropriate command to extract the archive

Why It’s Useful

• You no longer have to remember whether to use tar xzf, unzip, or 7z x

• Great for developers downloading SDKs, logs, dumps, or open-source code

• Avoids typing mistakes or wrong flags (like -z, -j, etc.)

Example Usage

extract backup_2023.tar.gz
extract site_data.zip
extract compressed.7z

Instead of Googling “how to untar bz2” or typing the wrong command, just use extract.

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6. Fast Search for Text in Files

findin() {
  grep -rnw '.' -e "$1"
}

What It Does

1. Uses grep to recursively search all files under the current directory

2. Flags:

• -r: recursive

• -n: show line numbers

• -w: match whole word

• -e: pattern to search

Why It’s Useful

1. Lightning-fast way to search codebases, logs, configs

2. Especially handy when:

• You’re not using an IDE

• You forgot where a variable or config is defined

• You’re dealing with unfamiliar code

Example Usage

findin "database_url"

./config/dev.env:3:DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@localhost:5432/db
./src/config.js:17:const dbUrl = process.env.DATABASE_URL;

Faster and more controlled than ripgrep, ack, or even Ctrl+Shift+F in VS Code in some cases.

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7. Tree View of Directory Structure

alias t="tree -C -L 2"

(Ensure you have tree installed: brew install tree or sudo apt install tree)

What It Does

• Shows a colored, hierarchical view of current folder and its subfolders

• -C: color output

• -L 2: only go 2 levels deep to keep it readable

Why It’s Useful

• Quickly visualize folder structure of a project

• See which directories contain what

• Useful when joining a new repo or debugging broken imports

Example Usage

cd ~/myproject
t

Output

.
├── README.md
├── src
│   ├── main.py
│   └── utils
├── tests
│   └── test_main.py

Can be expanded:

alias t3="tree -C -L 3"

Or filtered:

tree -C -L 2 --matchdirs -P '*config*'

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8. Find Shell History Commands Starting With xyz

hstart() {
  history | grep -E "^ *[0-9]+ +$1"
}What It Does

• history: shows your shell command history (numbered)

• grep '^ *[0-9]+ *xyz': filters lines that start with optional spaces, a number, then the literal text xyz

Why It’s Useful

• Helps you recall past long commands you don’t want to rewrite

• Lets you track usage of your own custom scripts or aliases

• Useful when you remember what the command started with but not the whole thing

hstart docker

Lists all commands from your history that started with docker.

(It only matches commands that start with the word, not those containing it somewhere in the middle.)

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These aren’t theoretical tricks - they’re battle-tested shortcuts that make real dev life easier. Drop them into your .bashrc or .zshrc, reload your shell, and feel the difference right away.

If you liked this, consider building your own little library of custom commands. The shell is still one of the most powerful tools we use daily - might as well make it work for you.