5 Essential Developer Tools for an Optimized Workflow

Zed

While I loved the power of Neovim, I've found my new home in Zed. Zed is a blazingly fast, modern code editor that feels like the perfect hybrid of Neovim's speed and VSCode's simplicity. It has all the essentials built-in—LSP for smart code completion, a fast integrated terminal, and even Vim keybindings all without the complex setup time. It's minimalist, keyboard-centric, and gets out of my way, which is exactly what I want in an editor. As someone who lives in the terminal for DevOps, Zed's performance is a massive productivity boost.

Obsidian

This is, without a doubt, my single most important tool. I've moved my entire life from Notion to Obsidian, and it's been a gamechanger. Obsidian is my 'second brain', Markdown based knowledge base. It's incredibly fast, private, and I'm not locked into an online service. I use it to manage my entire P.A.R.A. system, where my 02_Areas act as my main dashboards for DevOps and so on, and my 01_Projects (like my blog posts) are all tracked. The ability to link notes and create dynamic dashboards with the Dataview plugin means my knowledge base improves over time.

TUI (LazyGit and LazyDocker)

These terminal-based user interfaces have transformed how I interact with Git and Docker. LazyGit provides a simple and intuitive way to manage Git repositories, while LazyDocker offers a similar experience for Docker containers. Both tools are incredibly efficient and save me a lot of time compared to using the command line directly. LazyGit integrates with LazyVim, making it even more powerful. I can manage my Git repositories without leaving my editor, which is a huge productivity boost.

Brave

I've made the switch to Brave, and it's my new go-to browser for development. It's incredibly fast out of the box because it blocks trackers and ads by default—no extensions needed, which is great for minimizing distractions. Since it's built on Chromium, I get the world-class DevTools I'm familiar with, which is essential for any web-related tasks. It's the perfect mix of speed, privacy, and developer features all in one package.

Raycast(MacOS only)

Sometimes i rotate between linux and mac, for mac users, Raycast is a must-have productivity tool. It replaces Spotlight with a more powerful and customizable launcher. I use it to quickly access applications, files, and even run scripts. The ability to create custom commands and workflows has made my daily tasks much more efficient.