Yazelix v4.1

Overview

Yazelix integrates yazi, zellij and helix, hence the name, get it?

• Zellij orchestrates everything, with yazi as a sidebar and helix as the editor
• You can open and close the sidebar by switching zellij layouts (press alt ] and alt [)
  • Or if you only got one pane open, make it fullscreen (ctrl p + f or alt f )
• Every keybinding from zellij that conflicts with helix is remapped (see them at the bottom)
• Helix is called when you hit enter on a file in the "sidebar"
  • If helix is already open, in a pane next to the sidebar, it will open in a new buffer on that pane (magic)
  • Note: It is highly recommended that you let the shell script execute in peace, so during these miliseconds don´t move around
• This project holds my config files for zellij and yazi, almost like a plugin or something
  • But it's just some config files with a bit of shell scripting!

Preview

Improvements of the v4.1 over v4

• the open_file script is now written in nushell, with some modifications:
  • now working with files with spaces in the filename
  • now more sensitive to detecting hx on the next pane... previously it would sometimes not detect helix and thus open hx in a new pane instead of just opening the file in a new buffer the way it should)
  • now it cds into the folder of the file being opened, if you clicked on a file, or into the folder itself, if you clicked on a folder
  • I do prefer quite a lot being able to write nushell instead of bash
• nushell is now a dependency (technically not an improvement, but feels like one, for me)

Improvements of the v4 over v3

• ROUNDED CORNERS
• A wish come true: when you hit enter in a file or folder in yazi, if helix is open in a pane next to yazi, it will open in a helix buffer
  • All it took was some shell scripting magic...
  • it will also change your working dir, so when you press SPACE f you open the picker in that folder you're actually in
• New-tab layout has improved. Now new panes are just yazi in a 100% width pane, working sort of like a picker.
  • You just open a file or folder from yazi and it goes to it's proper place as a sidebar to the right
• Added a dedicate kb to make panes full screen alt f
• The repo was previously called zellij so people could just clone it in their .config folder directly, but this just sounded off.
  • The project's name is yazelix, not zellij, after all. So now the repo name is yazelix the way god intended
  • Take a look at the new instructions to set it up just below!

Instructions to set it up

1. Make sure yazi, zellij, helix, and nushell are installed and in your path
2. Just clone this repo in your ~/.config dir
3. Take a look at the configure wezterm step on https://github.com/luccahuguet/rustifier to see how it configure yazelix on wezterm
4. Optional: Using zoxide enhances the yazelix experience ten-fold, let me tell ya... and it integrates with yazi

That's it, and feel free to open issues and PRs 😉

Why use this project?

• This project is relatively simple to understand, the inner workings and all. Just a bit shell scripting magic, but mostly config files
• Easy to configure and make it yours
• I daily drive this, and will change it according to my needs, keeping it updated and improving it
• Zero conflict keybindings, very powerful sidebar (learning yazi is a process, but you can do very cool stuff)

Possible Improvements

• Yazelix will only detect helix if it's adjacent to the sidebar. A minor thing.
• When you open a new tab, yazi opens as single pane taking all space
  • But it does not show the parents and preview columns, it only shows the current dir column
  • To address this I would have to reopen yazi with a different config?
• The opening of files in a helix buffer implementation works but feels like a workaround. But it does not matter much. Helix will get a plugin system and then a file tree plugin probably between the beginning and middle of 2025 anyaways..

Keybinding remaps

If you find a conflict, please open an issue. Keep in mind, though, that compatibility with tmux mode is not a goal of this project.

Details: Base Layout

The initial layout includes one usable pane (actually 4, counting the tab-bar, status-bar and sidebar):

• Tab-bar at the top
• Status-bar at the bottom
• Yazi pane (20% width) acting as a sidebar on the left
• Empty pane on the right

Notes

• You can add more swap layouts as needed, using the KDL files in layouts.
• I recommend using wezterm as your terminal
  • because it can be configured to remove its native tabs, very extensible, including its keybindings (haven't found a conflict yet)
  • very performant
• Use nushell, it's a great shell, it's fast and beautiful and a proper programming language. Why wouldn't you?
• If you test this with nvim and it works, let me know (see the issue here)
• Special thanks to yazi's, zellij's and helix's contributors/maintainers!
• Yazi's author graciously contributed some lua code to make yazi's status bar look awesome in the small width of a sidebar
  • Thanks for that!

Similar projects

• Shelix
  • Shelix does intend to maximize the hidden power of Tmux as an IDE, enhance capabilities of the incredibly efficient Helix editor, around an interactive menu that performs IDE related actions
  • as of 31/06/2024, it has been 4 months since last commit
• Helix-Wezterm:Turning Helix into an IDE with the help of WezTerm and CLI tools
  • as of 31/06/2024, it has been 3 weeks since last commit
• File tree picker in Helix with Zellij
  • Yazi can be used as a file picker to browse and open file(s) in your current Helix instance (running in a Zellij session)