extract

One command — extract (alias x) — unpacks any archive format without you remembering whether it's tar xzf, tar xvjf, unzip, or 7za x. It handles tar.{gz,bz2,xz,zst,lz4,…}, zip/jar/war/whl/apk/ipa, rar, 7z, deb, rpm, cab, cpio, and more.

$ x mystery-download.tar.zst
$ x *.zip            # takes multiple files in one go

Pro tips

• It always extracts into its own directory named after the archive — no more tarbombs spraying 40 files into ~/Downloads. If the archive contains a single top-level folder, it's collapsed so you don't get foo/foo/ nesting.
• x -r archive.tgz removes the archive after a successful unpack — ideal for the weekly Downloads consolidation, where mixed .zip/.tar.gz/.dmg-adjacent debris shows up constantly. One loop, zero format-switching: for f in *.zip *.tgz; do x -r $f; done.
• x -t ~/Managed\ Files/Documents foo.zip extracts into a target directory instead of the cwd.
• Name collisions are handled: extracting foo.zip next to an existing foo/ creates foo-<rand>/ rather than overwriting.
• It automatically uses parallel decompressors (pigz, pbzip2, pixz) when installed — free speedup on big tarballs for the price of a brew install.
• Tab completion on extract/x only offers files it can actually unpack.