Tips and Tricks

Tips and Tricks

Community-sourced tips, power user patterns, and best practices.

Top Productivity Patterns

1. Context-Aware Up Arrow (Most Loved Feature)

Configure Up Arrow and Ctrl+R to behave differently:

# Up Arrow: prefix search, only this directory
search_mode_shell_up_key_binding = "prefix"
filter_mode_shell_up_key_binding = "directory"

# Ctrl+R: fuzzy search, global scope
search_mode = "fuzzy"
filter_mode = "global"

Why: Up Arrow feels like enhanced readline (muscle memory), while Ctrl+R gives you full-power global search.

2. Workspace-Aware Filtering

workspaces = true

Automatically filters history to the current git repository. Perfect for project-specific command recall — no more seeing production commands while in your dev repo.

3. Enter to Execute, Tab to Edit

enter_accept = true

Press Enter to immediately run the selected command. Press Tab to place it on the command line for editing. Much faster than the default where both insert for editing.

4. Compact Style with Host Column (Multi-Machine)

style = "compact"

[ui]
columns = ["exit", "duration", "host", "command"]

Shows exit codes and which machine a command was run on — essential for multi-machine setups.

5. Use Stats to Discover Alias Candidates

atuin stats -c 20

If you see git status 500 times, create alias gs="git status". Atuin's stats make this data-driven.

6. N-gram Analysis for Workflow Patterns

atuin stats -n 2    # Common command pairs
atuin stats -n 3    # Common triplets

Discover patterns like git add -> git commit -> git push to create shell functions.

Security Best Practices

Save Your Encryption Key Immediately

atuin key
# Copy this to 1Password/Bitwarden NOW
# It CANNOT be recovered if lost

Filter Secrets Automatically

secrets_filter = true    # Default, keeps it enabled

Auto-blocks: AWS keys, GitHub PATs, Slack tokens, Stripe keys, GitLab PATs, npm tokens, Azure storage keys, Google service account keys.

Custom History Exclusions

history_filter = [
  ".*password=.*",
  ".*secret=.*",
  "^mysql.*-p.*",
  "^curl.*-u .*:.*",
  "^export (AWS_|GITHUB_|STRIPE_|DATABASE_URL)",
  "^ssh-keygen",
  "^openssl.*-passout",
]

Prune After Adding Filters

atuin history prune --dry-run    # Preview what will be deleted
atuin history prune              # Actually delete matching entries

Shell Integration Tips

fzf Coexistence

Load Atuin after fzf in your shell config so Atuin takes Ctrl+R precedence:

# ~/.zshrc
source <(fzf --zsh)           # fzf keeps Ctrl+T and Alt+C
eval "$(atuin init zsh)"       # Atuin takes Ctrl+R (loaded last = wins)

Custom Keybindings

export ATUIN_NOBIND="true"
eval "$(atuin init zsh)"

# Custom bindings
bindkey '^r' atuin-search           # Ctrl+R for search
bindkey '^[[A' atuin-up-search      # Up arrow for contextual
bindkey '^f' atuin-search           # Ctrl+F as additional binding

macOS Alt Key Fix

Alt+1-9 quick-select doesn't work on macOS Terminal. Fix:

ctrl_n_shortcuts = true    # Use Ctrl+1-9 instead of Alt+1-9

Recommended .zshrc Order

# 1. Plugin manager
source ~/.sheldon/init.zsh

# 2. Prompt
eval "$(starship init zsh)"

# 3. fzf (for files, NOT history)
source <(fzf --zsh)

# 4. Zoxide
eval "$(zoxide init --cmd cd zsh)"

# 5. Atuin (LAST — takes Ctrl+R from fzf)
eval "$(atuin init zsh)"

Sync Strategies

Aggressive Sync (Low Latency)

sync_frequency = "0"    # Sync after every command

Background Daemon Sync

[daemon]
enabled = true
sync_frequency = 60     # Every minute

Best for: ZFS filesystems (avoids SQLite write issues), SSH sessions where you want history ready on arrival.

Force Full Re-sync

atuin sync -f    # Re-download everything

Dotfiles Sync (Aliases Across Machines)

[sync]
records = true

[dotfiles]
enabled = true

# Set aliases that sync everywhere
atuin dotfiles alias set k 'kubectl'
atuin dotfiles alias set g 'git'
atuin dotfiles alias set dc 'docker compose'
atuin dotfiles alias set ll 'ls -lah'
atuin dotfiles alias set tf 'terraform'

# Set environment variables
atuin dotfiles var set EDITOR 'nvim'
atuin dotfiles var set PAGER 'less'

# List what's synced
atuin dotfiles alias list
atuin dotfiles var list

Restart shell after changes.

Performance Tips

ZFS Users: Enable Daemon

SQLite has compatibility issues with ZFS. The daemon takes writes off the hot path:

[daemon]
enabled = true

Large History (60K+ entries)

Upgrade to v15+ which uses variable page sizes (1100 default vs old 100), dramatically improving sync speed.

Reduce Empty Query Lag

The first search keystroke is always slower than subsequent ones. Type at least one character quickly to avoid the empty-query delay.

History Dedup

atuin history dedup    # Remove duplicates (same command + cwd + hostname)

Tmux Integration

[tmux]
enabled = true
width = "80%"
height = "60%"

Opens Atuin in a tmux popup window (requires tmux >= 3.2). Supported in zsh, bash, and fish. Does not work with iTerm's native tmux integration.

Complementary Tool Stack

Comparison Quick Reference