Zellij Action - Zellij User Guide

CLI Actions

close-pane

Close the focused pane

eg.

$ zellij action close-pane

close-tab

Close the current tab

eg.

$ zellij action close-tab

dump-screen

Dumps the pane scrollback to a file

ARGS: The path to the file on the hard-drive (eg. /tmp/screen-dump.txt)

eg.

$ zellij action dump-screen /tmp/screen-dump.txt

edit

Open the specified file in a new zellij pane with your default EDITOR

ARGS: The path to the file to open (eg. /tmp/my-file.rs)

OPTIONS:

-d, --direction <DIRECTION> [right|down]
-f, --floating
-l, --line-number <LINE_NUMBER>

eg.

$ zellij action edit ./my-file.rs -f

Note: it is also possible to issue this action without the action prefix:

eg.

$ zellij edit ./my-file.rs -f

dump-layout

Dumps the current Layout of the session to STDOUT

eg.

$ zellij action dump-layout

edit-scrollback

Open the pane scrollback in your default editor

eg.

$ zellij action edit-scrollback

focus-next-pane

Change focus to the next pane

eg.

$ zellij action focus-next-pane

focus-previous-pane

Change focus to the previous pane

eg.

$ zellij action focus-previous-pane

go-to-next-tab

Go to the next tab

eg.

$ zellij action go-to-next-tab

go-to-previous-tab

Go to the previous tab

eg.

$ zellij action go-to-previous-tab

go-to-tab

Go to tab with index [index]

ARGS: The tab index (eg. 1)

eg.

$ zellij action go-to-tab 1

go-to-tab-name

Go to tab with name [name]

ARGS: The tab name (eg. "Tab #1")

OPTIONS:

    -c, --create        Create a tab if one does not exist

eg.

$ zellij action go-to-tab-name "Tab #1"

half-page-scroll-down

Scroll down half page in focus pane

eg.

$ zellij action half-page-scroll-down

half-page-scroll-up

Scroll up half page in focus pane

eg.

$ zellij action half-page-scroll-up

launch-or-focus-plugin

Launch a plugin if it is not loaded somewhere in the session, focus it if it is.

ARGS: The plugin URL (eg. file:/path/to/my/plugin.wasm)

OPTIONS:

-f, --floating      Will be used when launching the plugin if it is not already running

eg.

zellij action launch-or-focus-plugin zellij:strider --floating

list-clients

List all clients connected to the current session, their focused pane id and their running program (if it's not the default shell and if Zellij can detect it).

A note about pane ids: Since terminal panes and plugin panes can have overlapping IDs, they are differentiated by prefixing the pane type, eg. terminal_1 is a different pane than plugin_1. The ID of terminal panes is the same one that can be discovered through the ZELLIJ_PANE_ID environment variable.

eg.

$ zellij action list-clients

CLIENT_ID ZELLIJ_PANE_ID RUNNING_COMMAND
1         plugin_2       zellij:session-manager
2         terminal_3     vim /tmp/my-file.txt

move-focus

Move the focused pane in the specified direction.

ARGS: The direction to move [right|left|up|down]

eg.

$ zellij action move-focus left

move-focus-or-tab

Move focus to the pane or tab (if on screen edge) in the specified direction

ARGS: The direction to move [right|left|up|down]

eg.

$ zellij action move-focus-or-tab left

move-pane

Change the location of the focused pane in the specified direction

ARGS: The direction to move [right|left|up|down]

eg.

$ zellij action move-pane left

new-pane

Open a new pane in the specified direction or as a floating pane. If no is specified, will try to use the biggest available space.

ARGS (optional): the command to run inside the pane in place of the default shell (must be preceeded by a double-dash --)

OPTIONS:

    -c, --close-on-exit            Close the pane immediately when its command exits
        --cwd <CWD>                Change the working directory of the new pane
    -d, --direction <DIRECTION>    Direction to open the new pane in
    -f, --floating                 Open the new pane in floating mode
    -h, --help                     Print help information
    -n, --name <NAME>              Name of the new pane
    -s, --start-suspended          Start the command suspended, only running after you first presses

eg.

$ zellij action new-pane -f # open a new floating pane with the default shell
$ zellij action new-pane --name "follow this log!" -- tail -f /tmp/my-log-file # open a new floating pane with the default shell

Note: This can also be shortened to zellij run

eg.

$ zellij run -- tail -f /tmp/my-log-file

new-tab

Create a new tab, optionally with a specified tab layout and name

Specifying a path to a layout file with --layout will start that tab with the specified layout.

If the --cwd flag if included with the --layout flag, all relative paths in that layout will start from this cwd. Replacing the global cwd in the layout if it exists. See layout CWD composition for more info.

OPTIONS:

    -c, --cwd <CWD>
    -l, --layout <LAYOUT>
    -n, --name <NAME>

page-scroll-down

Scroll down one page in focus pane

eg.

$ zellij action page-scroll-down

page-scroll-up

Scroll up one page in focus pane

eg.

$ zellij action page-scroll-up

rename-pane

Renames the focused pane (title will appear on the pane frame)

ARGS: the pane name

eg.

$ zellij action rename-pane "alice the cat"

rename-tab

Renames the focused tab

ARGS: the tab name

eg.

$ zellij action rename-tab "alice the cat"

resize

Resize the focused pane in the specified direction.

ARGS: The resize direction [right|left|up|down|+|-]

eg.

$ zellij action resize left

scroll-down

Scroll down 1 line in the focused pane

eg.

$ zellij action scroll-down

scroll-to-bottom

Scroll down to bottom in the focused pane

eg.

$ zellij action scroll-to-bottom

scroll-up

Scroll up 1 line in the focused pane

eg.

$ zellij action scroll-up

start-or-reload-plugin

Launch a plugin if it is not loaded or reload it (skipping cache) if it is. Mostly useful for plugin development.

ARGS: The plugin URL (eg. file:/path/to/my/plugin.wasm)

eg.

zellij action start-or-reload-plugin zellij:strider

switch-mode

Switch input mode of all connected clients

eg.

$ zellij action switch-mode locked

toggle-active-sync-tab

Toggle between sending text input to all panes in the current tab and just to the focused pane (the default)

eg.

$ zellij action toggle-active-sync-tab

toggle-floating-panes

Toggle the visibility of all floating panes in the current Tab, open one if none exist

eg.

$ zellij action toggle-floating-panes

toggle-fullscreen

Toggle between fullscreen focus pane and normal layout

eg.

$ zellij action toggle-fullscreen

toggle-pane-embed-or-floating

Embed focused pane if floating or float focused pane if embedded

eg.

$ zellij action toggle-pane-embed-or-floating

toggle-pane-frames

Toggle frames around panes in the UI

Note: Zellij relies on frames to display parts of the UI, removing them might make certain things a little confusing to those not used to the app.

eg.