Configuration

Zellij uses KDL as its configuration language.

Quickstart:

mkdir ~/.config/zellij
zellij setup --dump-config > ~/.config/zellij/config.kdl

Looking for the YAML configuration docs for versions <0.32.0? Look no further!

Where does Zellij look for the config file?

By default Zellij will look for config.kdl in the config directory.

Zellij will search for the config directory as follows:

  • --config-dir flag

  • ZELLIJ_CONFIG_DIR env variable

  • $HOME/.config/zellij

  • default location

    • Linux: /home/alice/.config/zellij
    • Mac: /Users/Alice/Library/Application Support/org.Zellij-Contributors.Zellij

  • system location (/etc/zellij)

How to bypass the config file?

In order to pass a config file directly to zellij:

zellij --config [FILE]

or use the ZELLIJ_CONFIG_FILE environment variable.

To start without loading configuration from default directories:

zellij options --clean

How to dump the default configuration to STDOUT?

To show the current default configuration:

zellij setup --dump-config