sharkdp/bat
cat's output, with syntax highlighting and your git changes inline
See your files the way your editor does
Same command. Readable output.
It's the official tagline: a cat clone with wings. Same one-word command, but the output comes back highlighted for a huge list of languages, with line numbers.
It shows what you changed, inline.
bat talks to git. Modified lines get marked right in the left margin — you see your uncommitted changes while you're reading the file, not after a diff.
Pipe it — it behaves like cat.
The part that makes it safe: pipe it into anything and it detects the non-interactive terminal, drops the decorations, and acts as a drop-in cat replacement. Scripts never notice.
Line numbers, grid, and git marks.
Here's the project's own example, up close — numbers, a clean grid, the syntax doing the reading for you.
59.8k stars. cat, with wings.
Fifty-nine point eight thousand stars, written in Rust, MIT or Apache licensed. Link's in the description — alias it once and forget cat ever looked like that.