Why this exists
Setting up a new laptop should take an afternoon. Instead it turns into five open tabs: the official docs, a blog post from 2019, a forum thread and an AI answer that's almost right. One command works on a Mac but not on Windows. Another uses a flag that changed two versions ago.
I got tired of piecing it together every time, so I started writing down the commands that actually work. No digging, no guessing. Find the task, pick your machine, copy and run.
How every page works
Pick your machine once. macOS, Linux or Windows. The site remembers it, so every page opens with your commands.
Fill in your details once. Your email, a port number or a project name. Every command on the page updates as you type, so what you copy is ready to run.
Copy, paste, done. One Copy button per step, or copy every step at once. The
$prompt never comes along.Check it worked. A quick command that shows the setup is in place and what you should see.
Undo it. Changed your mind? The way back is at the bottom of the page.
I run every command on a real machine before it goes up, and each page says what it was tested on and when. When an update breaks something, I fix the page.
Not sure what something is?
devcmds tells you how. My other site, Layman Terms, tells you what: Git, DNS and other tech words explained in plain English with an everyday comparison. Command pages link straight to the matching word when there is one.
New commands every week
It starts with day one on a new machine: a package manager, Git and SSH, Node.js and Python, Docker and the small network fixes everyone runs into. New commands go up every week, each one tested before it's published.
