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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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Zellij Has a Free API That Most Developers Dont Know About

#terminal #productivity #devtools #rust

Zellij is a modern terminal multiplexer (tmux alternative) written in Rust. It has a plugin system, built-in layouts, and great defaults.

Quick Start 

brew install zellij  # or cargo install zellij
zellij
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Layouts 

// ~/.config/zellij/layouts/dev.kdl
layout {
  pane size=1 borderless=true {
    plugin location="tab-bar"
  }
  pane split_direction="vertical" {
    pane command="nvim" size="60%"
    pane split_direction="horizontal" {
      pane command="npm" { args "run" "dev" }
      pane  // empty shell
    }
  }
  pane size=2 borderless=true {
    plugin location="status-bar"
  }
}
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zellij --layout dev
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Key Bindings

  • Ctrl+p — Pane mode (split, move, resize)
  • Ctrl+t — Tab mode (new, rename, close)
  • Ctrl+n — Resize mode
  • Ctrl+s — Scroll/search mode
  • Ctrl+o — Session mode (detach)

Sessions 

zellij --session my-project  # Named session
zellij list-sessions          # List sessions
zellij attach my-project      # Reattach
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Key Features

  • Written in Rust — fast and stable
  • Built-in layouts with KDL config
  • Plugin system (WebAssembly)
  • Floating panes
  • Session management
  • Great defaults (no config needed)

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