Introducing ZDX — An fzf-powered Zsh helper menu for terminal power users
"Hello everybody out there using zsh - I'm doing a (free) developer experience plugin (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like ohmyzsh)..." — A nod to Linus Torvalds' 1991 Linux announcement.
ZDX started exactly like this: a personal hobby born out of frustration with daily terminal workflows. Like many developers, my daily routine involved constantly jumping between Docker containers, switching Git profiles for different repositories, toggling WireGuard VPN tunnels, and resolving locked ports. I found myself writing, copying, and memorizing the same complex commands every single day.
To solve this, I built ZDX: a set of lightweight, modular Zsh helpers
powered by fzf interactive menus. It was designed to do one thing: get me
from thought to execution in a single keystroke. Once it started saving me
real time, I decided to open-source it, hoping it would help other terminal
power users streamline their daily workflows too.
🛠️ What can ZDX do?
ZDX is divided into five interactive modules that you can trigger with
commands or keyboard shortcuts (like Ctrl+G):
- Git Workspace (
git-menu): Interactively switch identities (personal vs. professional), automate GPG/SSH key routing, clean stale local/remote branches, checkout PRs, and view diffs. - Docker Menu (
docker-menu): Instantly manage containers, images, volumes, and safely clean up disk space. - VPN & DNS Tunnels (
vpn-menu): Quick-switch WireGuard profiles, check DNS configurations, and apply automated WSL2 patches. - System Diagnostics (
sys-menu): Update all developer runtimes (Node.js, Rust, uv, pipx, Homebrew) in a single pipeline, kill processes interactively, and resolve locked ports. - Plugins Manager (
zdx-plugins): Install, update, and manage custom user-defined plugins securely with namespace protection.
🔒 Built to be robust and secure
I wanted ZDX to be rock-solid, so I implemented:
- Hermetic Testing: A full test suite written in BATS (Bash Automated Testing System) using mocks.
- Strict Quality Linters: CI verification running
shellcheck,actionlint,zizmor(GitHub Actions security scanner), andmarkdownlint. - Pre-commit Secrets Scanning: Runs
gitleakslocally on every commit to make sure no credentials ever leak. - Signed Releases: Attestations backed by Sigstore provenance for every release.
🚀 Get the Tool
If you want to optimize your command-line workflow and boost your terminal-first productivity, ZDX is completely free, open-source, and easy to install.
Installing ZDX takes less than 10 seconds:
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL \
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/landerox/zdx-plugin/main/scripts/install.sh)"
Source your shell (source ~/.zshrc) and type git-menu or sys-menu to try
it out!