fzf - The Fuzzy Finder That Changes Everything

Searching through files, command history, or processes in the terminal is painfully slow. You type long paths, scroll through endless history, or pipe commands together. fzf changes that by letting you fuzzy-find anything instantly - just type a few characters and watch results appear in real-time.

⚡

Blazingly Fast

Written in Go, fzf searches through millions of lines in milliseconds. Works with any list - files, history, processes, git branches, and more.

See It In Action

Watch how fzf transforms file searching - from painful to instant:

Type partial matches like "loadres" to instantly find resourceLoader.ts

The Pain vs The Solution

❌

Without fzf

find . -name "*.tsx" | xargs grep "useState" | head -20
# Scroll through output...
# Squint at paths...
# Copy path manually...
# Repeat for every search 😫

✅

With fzf

rg -l useState | fzf --preview 'bat {}'
# Type "hook" to filter
# See preview instantly
# Press Enter, done! ✨

Key Features

📂

File Search

Find any file in your project instantly with Ctrl+T. Works with millions of files.

📜

History Search

Replace Ctrl+R with fuzzy history search. Find that command you ran last week in seconds.

⚙️

Process Killer

Fuzzy search running processes and kill them interactively. No more ps aux | grep.

🔀

Git Integration

Checkout branches, view commits, and stage files with fuzzy selection.

Killer Use Cases

These are the commands that will change your daily workflow:

Open files in VS Code (most common!)

# Open any file in VS Code
code $(fzf)

# With preview
code $(fzf --preview 'bat --color=always {}')

Docker container management

# Tail logs from a container
docker logs -f $(docker ps --format '{{.Names}}' | fzf)

# Exec into a container
docker exec -it $(docker ps --format '{{.Names}}' | fzf) /bin/sh

# Stop a container
docker stop $(docker ps --format '{{.Names}}' | fzf)

SSH into servers

# SSH from your config file
ssh $(grep "Host " ~/.ssh/config | awk '{print $2}' | fzf)

npm scripts

# Run any npm script interactively
npm run $(jq -r '.scripts | keys[]' package.json | fzf)

Kubernetes pods

# Tail pod logs
kubectl logs -f $(kubectl get pods -o name | fzf)

# Exec into pod
kubectl exec -it $(kubectl get pods -o name | fzf) -- /bin/sh

# Describe pod
kubectl describe $(kubectl get pods -o name | fzf)

Git operations

# Checkout any branch (local + remote)
git checkout $(git branch -a | fzf | sed 's/remotes\/origin\///' | xargs)

# Cherry-pick a commit
git cherry-pick $(git log --oneline | fzf | awk '{print $1}')

# Show diff for a commit
git show $(git log --oneline | fzf | awk '{print $1}')

# Apply a stash
git stash apply $(git stash list | fzf | cut -d: -f1)

Copy-Paste .zshrc Config

Drop this into your ~/.zshrc for a production-ready fzf setup:

# ===== FZF Configuration =====

# Use fd instead of find (much faster, respects .gitignore)
export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND='fd --type f --hidden --follow --exclude .git'
export FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND="$FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND"
export FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND='fd --type d --hidden --follow --exclude .git'

# Default options: preview, layout, colors
export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS='
  --height 60%
  --border rounded
  --layout reverse
  --info inline
  --preview "bat --color=always --style=numbers --line-range=:300 {}"
  --preview-window right:60%:wrap
  --bind "ctrl-d:preview-page-down"
  --bind "ctrl-u:preview-page-up"
  --bind "ctrl-y:execute-silent(echo {} | pbcopy)"
  --color=bg+:#313244,bg:#1e1e2e,spinner:#f5e0dc,hl:#f38ba8
  --color=fg:#cdd6f4,header:#f38ba8,info:#cba6f7,pointer:#f5e0dc
  --color=marker:#f5e0dc,fg+:#cdd6f4,prompt:#cba6f7,hl+:#f38ba8
'

# ===== Useful Aliases =====

# Open file in VS Code
alias vf='code $(fzf)'

# Kill process
alias fkill='ps aux | fzf --height 40% | awk "{print \$2}" | xargs kill -9'

# Git checkout branch
alias fco='git checkout $(git branch -a | fzf | sed "s/remotes\/origin\///" | xargs)'

# Git log browser
alias flog='git log --oneline | fzf --preview "git show {1}" | awk "{print \$1}" | xargs git show'

# Docker logs
alias dlogs='docker logs -f $(docker ps --format "{{.Names}}" | fzf)'

# npm run scripts
alias fnpm='npm run $(jq -r ".scripts | keys[]" package.json | fzf)'

Cheatsheet

Essential keyboard shortcuts (after installing shell integration):

Shortcut	Action	Description
`Ctrl+R`	History Search	Fuzzy search through command history
`Ctrl+T`	File Search	Find files and paste path at cursor
`Alt+C`	Directory Jump	Fuzzy find and cd into directory
`Tab`	Multi-Select	Select multiple items (process all at once)
`'pattern`	Exact Match	Prefix with ' for exact string match
`!pattern`	Exclude	Exclude matches containing pattern
`^pattern`	Starts With	Match items starting with pattern
`pattern$`	Ends With	Match items ending with pattern

Troubleshooting

Ctrl+R not working?

Shell integration not installed. Run: $(brew --prefix)/opt/fzf/install and restart your terminal.

fzf is slow on large repos?

Use fd instead of find. Install with brew install fd and set FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND (see config above).

No preview showing?

Install bat for syntax-highlighted previews: brew install bat

Getting Started

1
Install fzf + friends
```
brew install fzf fd bat
```
2
Install shell integration
```
$(brew --prefix)/opt/fzf/install
```
3

Add config to ~/.zshrc

Copy the configuration block from above
4

Restart terminal & try it!

Press Ctrl+R for history, Ctrl+T for files

Transform Your Terminal Today

Stop typing exact paths and scrolling through history. Install fzf and find anything instantly.

View on GitHub

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