Warp! - A new way to use your command line
Tags: webdev, programming, shell, linux
Published: 2024-02-24 09:05:03


![Warp Terminal Window](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/iabku5u670oeynz1f4ug.png)


**This is the most innovative thing that has happened to command line interface of operating systems in this whole decade!💡**

You might be wondering now "what is this Warp?🤔".

In simple term, warp is a drop in replacement for the terminal in Unix-like OSes. That means you can do the work you do from your terminal using Warp much faster, better user friendlier.💫

Aight enough chit-chat, let's dive into see what makes Warp better than your built-in terminal (or the one have installed right now).

You might already be using a custom terminal/plugin or a theme right now that leverages the functionalities of the built-in terminals such as,

> iTerm2
> Alacritty
> Oh-my-zsh (including themes like powerlevel10k)

Those Terminals provide some cool functionalities like auto-completion, auto-correction, suggestions, color coding and etc.

But Warp has gone beyond those implementations to show that Terminal can be even better.

**Features of Warp**

> 01. Much like an IDE

![Warp IDE like Termnial.gif](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/vfof63rka91kv0zwmwoo.gif)

Other than the normal command line UX (User Experience), Warp let's you insert, select or copy just like in an IDE. You can control the cursor from keyboard or mouse. It also performs smart auto completions without any plugins.

> 02. Warp AI


![Warp Terminal AI](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/4km49tyeczeego1j9o6w.png)



Warp comes with a built in AI functionality. You can chat with Warp AI and get all the coding issues resolved without even leaving your Terminal.

Warp AI also includes AI command suggestions which can be accessed by typing CTRL-` or # on the command line.

![Warp AI on for commands](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/828gzsymsn3444ve76fb.jpeg)

The coolest thing is your requests stay private and secure, and will never used to train public models.

> 03. Collaborative Terminal

![Warp collaborative environment](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/t1f4zsdq7u0auhlbbk6p.png)

Warp let's you share and work as a team using Warp account (This account needs to be created at the beginning and it is mandatory at the moment). This is a feature that I haven't seen in any other terminal to this date.

> 04. Terminal workflows

![Warp workflow](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/jjewsa2m11llqu9321nf.jpeg)

This allows you to save and organize the hard to remember custom commands you made so you can reuse them later with ease. This can be saved your Warp drive (online storage solution offered by Warp dev team) which then can be shared with all of your friends.

> 05. Make your own custom theme.

![Warp themes](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/e1ib6c5tyvcbj9zlie16.png)

Well themes have been around for terminals for a long time but no one has done it like Warp. Warp gives you few built-in themes to choose from. But the best part is it allows you to create own by auto generating a color palette from your custom background image or you can code your own theme.

**Think you wanna try?**

You can use Warp and experience these features from your own hands, you can install it to your system using below methods,

01. [Go to Warp official page from this link](https://www.warp.dev/)
02. You will be presented with a download button for a package installer according your system. Currently available for macOS and Linux only. Windows support is soon to be added.
03. You can use the installer to install it just like another software.

or

If you have `brew` installed in your system, you can run the following command to easily download and install Warp.

`brew install --cask warp`

Initial Setup will require you to create and login to a Warp account which will be guided when you first open Warp. You can use your GitHub or Google account to create a Warp account with ease.

Conclusion

I tried Warp first hand and feels pretty positive about this new approach in creating a friendlier command line interface. As we progress through the technology advancement of programming, developers have come up with a lot of innovative stuff for languages like modern frameworks, plugins and packages and even for IDEs, but not much innovation has focused for command line interface which made new developers thinking command line is boring and try to avoid it as much as possible resulting a lack of knowledge and experience in terminal commands.

Initiatives like these gives more spotlight to command line interface and will makes those new devs more interested to work with command line.

Good job Warp dev team 👍 and by writing this article I would like to provide more reach and awareness to this cuz I'm on the supporting side for this project.

> All the image and video are obtained form Warp official site and credits goes them. 🙌