peco

peco is a simplistic interactive filtering tool, written in Go by Kazuki Higashiguchi. With over 7,800 stars as of 2026, peco was one of the first widely-adopted fuzzy finders for the command line, serving as inspiration for fzf, skim, and other tools. peco reads lines from standard input, presents them interactively, and lets the user filter and select items with fuzzy matching, then outputs the selected items to standard output. Key features include: fuzzy matching with customizable matching algorithm (case-insensitive by default, with SmartCase mode that becomes case-sensitive when uppercase characters are present), interactive filtering with real-time results as the user types, customizable key bindings (with support for multiple layouts like Emacs and Vim modes), selection of multiple items (using Tab to toggle selection), custom initial query (starting with a pre-filled filter), custom prompt and layout configuration, JSON configuration file (~/.config/peco/config.json) for persistent settings, integration with shell pipelines (reading from find, ls, git log, ps, and other commands), and a plugin-free, dependency-free design (single Go binary). While peco has been somewhat superseded by fzf in popularity, it remains a viable option, especially for Go-based toolchains.