Options

Configuration options can be set directly at the root of the configuration file

These include:

on_force_close

Choose what to do when zellij receives SIGTERM, SIGINT, SIGQUIT or SIGHUP eg. when terminal window with an active zellij session is closed

Options:

  • detach (Default)
  • quit
on_force_close "quit"

simplified_ui

Send a request for a simplified ui (without arrow fonts) to plugins

Options:

  • true
  • false (Default)
simplified_ui true

default_shell

Choose the path to the default shell that zellij will use for opening new panes

Default: $SHELL

default_shell "fish"

pane_frames

Toggle between having pane frames around the panes

Options:

  • true (default)
  • false
pane_frames true

theme

Choose the Zellij color theme. This theme must be specified in the themes section or loaded from the themes folder. See themes

Default: default

theme "default"

default_layout

The name of the layout to load on startup (must be in the layouts folder). See layouts

Default: "default"

default_layout "compact"

default_mode "locked"

Choose the mode that zellij uses when starting up.

Default: normal

default_mode "locked"

mouse_mode

Toggle enabling the mouse mode. On certain configurations, or terminals this could potentially interfere with copying text.

Options:

  • true (default)
  • false
mouse_mode false

scroll_buffer_size

Configure the scroll back buffer size This is the number of lines zellij stores for each pane in the scroll back buffer. Excess number of lines are discarded in a FIFO fashion.

Valid values: positive integers

Default value: 10000

scroll_buffer_size 10000

copy_command

Provide a command to execute when copying text. The text will be piped to the stdin of the program to perform the copy. This can be used with terminal emulators which do not support the OSC 52 ANSI control sequence that will be used by default if this option is not set.

Examples:

copy_command "xclip -selection clipboard" // x11
copy_command "wl-copy"                    // wayland
copy_command "pbcopy"                     // osx

copy_clipboard

Choose the destination for copied text Allows using the primary selection buffer (on x11/wayland) instead of the system clipboard. Does not apply when using copy_command.

Options:

  • system (default)
  • primary
copy_clipboard "primary"

copy_on_select

Enable or disable automatic copy (and clear) of selection when releasing mouse

Default: true

copy_on_select false

scrollback_editor

Path to the default editor to use to edit pane scrollbuffer as well as the CLI and layout edit commands

Default: $EDITOR or $VISUAL

scrollback_editor "/usr/bin/vim"

mirror_session

When attaching to an existing session with other users, should the session be mirrored (true) or should each user have their own cursor (false) Default: false

mirror_session true

layout_dir

The folder in which Zellij will look for layouts

layout_dir "/path/to/my/layout_dir"

theme_dir

The folder in which Zellij will look for themes

theme_dir "/path/to/my/theme_dir"

env

A key -> value map of environment variables that will be set for each terminal pane Zellij starts.

env {
    RUST_BACKTRACE 1
    FOO "bar"
}

rounded_corners

Set whether the pane frames (if visible) should have rounded corners.

This config variable is set differently than others:

ui {
    pane_frames {
        rounded_corners true
    }
}

hide_session_name

Hides the session name (randomly generated or otherwise) from the UI

ui {
    pane_frames {
        hide_session_name true
    }
}

auto_layout

Toggle between having Zellij lay out panes according to a predefined set of layouts whenever possible Options:

  • true (default)
  • false
auto_layout true

styled_underlines

Toggle between supporting the extended "styled_underlines" ANSI protocol and ignoring it (can sometimes cause some issues in unsupported terminals). Options:

  • true (default)
  • false
styled_underlines true

session_serialization

If enabled, sessions will be serialized to the cache folder (and thus become resurrectable between reboots or on exit). Read more about session resurrection. Options:

  • true (default)
  • false
session_serialization true

pane_viewport_serialization

If enabled along with session_serialization, the pane viewport (the visible part of the terminal excluding the scrollback) will be serialized and resurrectable as well. Read more about session resurrection. Options:

  • true
  • false (default)
pane_viewport_serialization true

scrollback_lines_to_serialize

When pane_viewport_serialization is enabled, setting scrollback_lines_to_serialize to 0 in the will serialize all scrollback and to any other number will serialize line number up to that scrollback. Read more about session resurrection.

Note: this might incur higher resource utilization (and certainly a higher cache folder usage...)

Options:

  • 0: serialize all scrollback
  • int: serialize this much lines for each pane (max is the scrollback limit)
pane_viewport_serialization 100

disable_session_metadata

Enable or disable writing of session metadata to disk

Note: If disabled, other sessions might not know metadata info on this session, so features such as the session-manager and session listing might not work properly.

Options:

  • true
  • false (default)
disable_session_metadata true