Install zoxide with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• zoxide

Project history

Ajeet D'Souza created the public zoxide repository in March 2020. The README positions it as a modern successor in the directory-jump family, explicitly inspired by `z` and `autojump`, but built as a cross-shell Rust binary rather than shell-only glue.

Over time zoxide evolved from a small navigation helper into a carefully integrated shell tool. The README documents setup for Bash, Zsh, Fish, PowerShell, Nushell, POSIX shells, Elvish, Xonsh, Tcsh, and others, while the changelog shows ongoing work on completions, shell hooks, Windows behavior, symlink handling, database safety, and shell-specific edge cases.

Adoption history

By July 2026 GitHub metadata showed more than 37,000 stars, making zoxide one of the most visible modern Rust CLIs in the shell-productivity niche. The official README lists installation through Cargo, Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix, distro packages, Winget, Scoop, Chocolatey, Termux, BSD package systems, and an install script.

Its adoption path follows the practical workstation-tool pattern: users first install it through Cargo or a shell setup script, then standardize it through OS package managers so dotfiles and new machines can depend on the same `z` command.

How it is used

Common use is to initialize zoxide in the user's shell and replace or supplement `cd` with `z`. Examples include `z foo` to jump to the best-ranked matching directory, multi-term queries such as `z foo bar`, `z -` for the previous directory, and `zi` for interactive selection through fzf.

zoxide is not a file manager. It is a tiny behavioral database plus shell integration that makes repeated navigation cheap, especially for developers moving among many project trees.

Why package nerds care

Package nerds care about zoxide because it is the directory-jump idea packaged in a modern, portable form: one Rust executable plus shell init snippets. It also shows how small terminal utilities earn broad package-manager coverage when they improve an everyday shell primitive without replacing the shell.

Timeline

• 2020-03-05: The public `ajeetdsouza/zoxide` repository is created.
• 2020s: zoxide becomes available across Cargo, Homebrew, Linux distributions, BSD packages, Windows package managers, and Termux as documented by the README.
• 2024-2026: The changelog records active compatibility work for Nushell, PowerShell, Fish, Zsh, POSIX shells, Tcsh, and Windows path behavior.
• 2026-01-31: zoxide 0.9.9 is published on GitHub.

Related projects

• `z` and `autojump` are the direct inspirations named by the README.
• fzf is the common companion for interactive `zi` selection.
• fasd and shell framework integrations such as Oh My Zsh occupy the same shell-navigation neighborhood.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/ajeetdsouza/zoxide
• https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide
• https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
• input.json source_facts.package-manager