Tools Aliases and Functions

Tools, Aliases & Functions

This is the day-to-day usage reference for what Core gives you in the shell: the modern-CLI stack and its aliases, the shell functions, the fzf widgets, and every custom keybinding.

Tip: run core-help (alias cheat) in any shell for this cheat sheet live, and core-doctor to see which tools were detected on the current box. Everything here degrades gracefully — on a bare box (fresh server, rescue shell) each alias falls back to the classic command instead of erroring.

The modern-CLI stack

Core detects each tool in tools.zsh and only wires up its alias if present. The classic command is always the fallback.

Modern tool	Replaces	Alias(es)	Notes
eza	ls	ls, ll, la, lt, llt, tree	icons + git-aware; dirs grouped first
bat	cat	cat (no-page), catp (paged)	resolves batcat on Debian; also MANPAGER
fd	find	fd	resolves fdfind on Debian
ripgrep	grep	rg (own command, smart-case)	grep stays POSIX for scripts
zoxide	cd	cd → z, cdi → zi	learns your dirs; - jumps to previous
dust	du	du
procs	ps	ps
btop	top/htop	top, htop
duf	df	df (falls back to df -h)
viddy	watch	watch
yazi	file manager	fm, y
xh	HTTPie / curl	http, https	curl stays for scripts
glow	markdown view	md	renders markdown in the terminal
doggo	dig	dns	dig stays as-is
gping	ping	ping
tealdeer	quick man	help → tldr	community quick-reference
lazygit	git TUI	lg
nvim	vim	vim

Tools that shadow nothing classic get HAVE_* detection but no alias — they're their own commands: jq, yq, gron, sd, hyperfine, shellcheck, shfmt.

Always-on quality-of-life aliases

Alias	Expands to	Why
diff	diff --color=auto
rm	rm -i	safety net (interactive)
cp	cp -i	safety net
mv	mv -i	safety net
mkdir	mkdir -p	create parents
notes	cd "$NOTES_DIR" && nvim .	NOTES_DIR defaults to ~/Notes
myip	curl … ifconfig.me	your public IP
ports	ss -tulpn (or netstat)	listening sockets

Named directories are also set: ~dots → ~/.config, ~proj → ~/Projects.

Shell functions

Defined in functions.zsh (and fzf.zsh). Each takes -h/--help.

Function	What it does
mkcd <dir>	make a directory (and parents) and cd into it
cdup [n]	climb n directories (cdup 3 == cd ../../..); default 1
extract <archive>	unpack any archive (tar/zip/7z/rar/…); guards tarbombs + clobbers
mkbak <file>	timestamped .bak copy of a file before you edit it
fcd	fuzzy-cd into any subdirectory (needs fzf; degrades to find)
fif <text>	find text inside files (rg + fzf + preview)
fbr	fuzzy git-branch checkout (local + remote)
please	re-run the last command with sudo (previews + confirms first)
serve [port]	HTTP server in the CWD (default 8000), prints the reachable URLs

Safety-by-default

Several functions are deliberately careful, and the pattern is worth knowing:

• extract peeks at the archive listing first. A tarbomb (multiple top-level entries) prompts to contain it in a subdir; an existing target prompts before clobbering. Because confirmation goes through _core_confirm (which declines with no TTY), a scripted run never silently overwrites, and a normal single-rooted archive sails straight through.
• please previews the exact sudo <last command> and confirms before running — a fat-fingered history entry won't run privileged by accident.
• serve warns that it binds 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces) on purpose, and prints the tunnel/LAN URLs it's actually reachable at.

Discoverability commands

Command	What it shows
core-help / cheat	scannable cheat sheet of functions, keybindings, and maint verbs
core-doctor	which modern-CLI tools were detected here + resolved names (fd/fdfind)
core-version	the vendored Core layer's version (which Core this OS repo carries)

core-doctor is the shell counterpart to Neovim's :checkhealth gerrrt — a read-only report that shows, per box, what's live and what degraded to a classic fallback.

Custom keybindings

Bound in bindings.zsh (via the zsh-vi-mode zvm_after_init hook). Vi-mode is on, with beam cursor in insert and block in normal/command mode.

Key	Action	Needs
Ctrl-F	file picker → insert path at cursor	fzf
Ctrl-R	history search (custom fzf widget)	fzf
Ctrl-E	Atuin history TUI	atuin
Ctrl-G	session picker (sesh)	sesh
Alt-Z	zoxide project jump	zoxide
Ctrl-\	toggle autosuggestions	—
Up/Down	history-substring-search up/down	—
Ctrl-←/→	backward-word / forward-word	—

The fzf widgets respect the resolved $BAT_BIN / eza for previews and fall back to cat / ls on a bare box, so a preview pane never shows a "command not found".

Git aliases

A curated, OMZ-compatible set lives in git.zsh. Highlights (naming matches oh-my-zsh so muscle memory transfers):

Alias	Command
g	git
gst	git status
gss	git status --short
ga / gaa	git add / git add --all
gc / gcm	git commit -v / git commit -m
gc!	git commit -v --amend
gco / gcb	git checkout / git checkout -b
gsw / gswc	git switch / git switch --create
gcom / gswm	checkout/switch the trunk (branch-aware)
gd / gds	git diff / git diff --staged
glog / glol	pretty one-line graph logs
gp / gl	git push / git pull
gpu	git push -u origin <current-branch>
gpf	git push --force-with-lease (safe force)
gpf!	git push --force (raw force, explicit)
grbi	git rebase -i
gstaa	git stash push --include-untracked

Two deliberate safety upgrades over OMZ: gpf is --force-with-lease (refuses to clobber commits you haven't seen), and there are no destructive aliases bound to bare letters that shadow common typos. Branch-aware aliases resolve the trunk via git_main_branch(), so they work whether a repo uses main, master, trunk, etc.

See also

• The Zsh Module System — how these get wired up and in what order.
• Architecture & the Three-Layer Model — why none of this is OS-specific.