Yazi - ⚡️ Blazing Fast Terminal File Manager

Yazi ("duck" in Chinese) is a terminal file manager written in Rust, based on non-blocking async I/O. It aims to provide an efficient, user-friendly, and customizable file management experience.

💫 A new article explaining its internal workings: Why Yazi Fast?

• 🚀 Full Asynchronous Support: All I/O operations are asynchronous, CPU tasks are spread across multiple threads, making the most of available resources.
• 💪 Powerful Async Task Scheduling and Management: Provides real-time progress updates, task cancellation, and internal task priority assignment.
• 🖼️ Built-in Support for Multiple Image Protocols: Also integrated with Überzug++, covering almost all terminals.
• 🌟 Built-in Code Highlighting and Image Encoding: Combined with the pre-caching mechanism, greatly accelerates image and normal file loading.
• 🧰 Integration with fd, rg, fzf, zoxide
• 💫 Vim-like Input component, and Select component
• 🏷️ Multi-Tab Support, Scrollable Preview (for videos, PDFs, archives, directories, code, etc.)
• 🔄 Batch Renaming, Visual Mode, File Chooser
• 🎨 Theme System, Custom Layouts, Trash Bin, CSI u
• ... and more!

https://github.com/sxyazi/yazi/assets/17523360/d5d8427b-e0f3-4552-ae1a-553ba1a7d57e

⚠️ Note: Yazi is currently in active development and may be unstable. The API is subject to change without prior notice.

Table of contents

• Prerequisites
• Installation
• Usage
  • Navigation
  • Selection
  • File/directory operations
  • Copying paths
  • Finding files/directories
  • Sorting
  • Further usage
• Changing working directory when exiting yazi
• Configuration
• Discussion
• Image Preview
• TODO
• License

Prerequisites

• nerd-fonts (optional)
• ffmpegthumbnailer (optional, for video thumbnails)
• unar (optional, for archive preview)
• jq (optional, for JSON preview)
• poppler (optional, for PDF preview)
• fd (optional, for file searching)
• rg (optional, for file content searching)
• fzf (optional, for directory jumping)
• zoxide (optional, for directory jumping)

Installation

Arch Linux

Install Yazi from AUR or Arch Linux CN:

paru -S yazi ffmpegthumbnailer unarchiver jq poppler fd ripgrep fzf zoxide

You can install yazi-bin from AUR if you perfer pre-built binaries:

paru -S yazi-bin ffmpegthumbnailer unarchiver jq poppler fd ripgrep fzf zoxide

If you want to use the latest git version, you can install with the following command:

paru -S yazi-git ffmpegthumbnailer unarchiver jq poppler fd ripgrep fzf zoxide

macOS

Install Yazi and its dependencies with Homebrew:

brew install yazi ffmpegthumbnailer unar jq poppler fd ripgrep fzf zoxide
brew tap homebrew/cask-fonts && brew install --cask font-symbols-only-nerd-font

If you prefer to use the most recent code, use --HEAD flag:

brew install yazi --HEAD

Or you can install Yazi via cargo:

cargo install --git https://github.com/sxyazi/yazi.git

Nix

The Nix package of Yazi is available. Nix users can install Yazi via:

# On NixOS:
nix-env -iA nixos.yazi

# On Non NixOS:
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.yazi

Or add the following to your configuration:

# configuration.nix
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
	yazi
];

You can also manage Yazi's configuration using the home-manager.

Windows

See Windows Installation Guide.

Build from source

Execute the following commands to clone the project and build Yazi:

git clone https://github.com/sxyazi/yazi.git
cd yazi
cargo build --release

Then, you can run:

./target/release/yazi

Usage

To open yazi simply run the yazi command in your terminal:

yazi

To quit press the q key and press ~ to open the help menu.

Navigation

To navigate between files and directories you can use the arrow keys ←, ↑, ↓ and → or vi-like commands such as h, j, k, l as following:

Key binding	Alternate key	Action
↑	j	Move the cursor up
↓	k	Move the cursor down
→	l	Change into highlighted directory
←	h	Change into parent directory

Further navigation commands can be found in the table below.

Key binding	Action
K	Move the cursor up 5 lines
J	Move the cursor down 5 lines
g	Move cursor to the top
G	Move cursor to the bottom

Selection

To select files and directories, the following commands are available.

Key binding	Action
<Space>	Toggle selection of highlighted file/directory
v	Enter visual mode (selection mode)
V	Enter visual mode (unset mode)
<Ctrl+a>	Select all files
<Ctrl+r>	Inverse selection of all files
<Esc>	Cancel selection

File/directory operations

To interact with selected files/directories use any of the commands below.

Key binding	Action
o	Open the selected files
O	Open the selected files interactively
<Enter>	Open the selected files
<Ctrl+Enter>	Open the selected files interactively
y	Copy the selected files
x	Cut the selected files
p	Paste the files
P	Paste the files (overwrite if the destination exists)
k	Paste the files (follow the symlinks)
K	Paste the files (overwrite + follow)
d	Move the files to the trash
D	Permanently delete the files
a	Create a file or directory (end with "/" for directories)
r	Rename a file or directory
;	Run a shell command
:	Run a shell command (block the UI until the command finishes)
.	Toggle the visibility of hidden files
s	Search files by name using fd
S	Search files by content using ripgrep
<Ctrl+s>	Cancel the ongoing search
z	Jump to a directory using zoxide
Z	Jump to a directory, or reveal a file using fzf

Copying paths

To copy paths, use any of the following commands below.

Observation: c ⇒ d indicates pressing the c key followed by pressing the d key.

Key binding	Action
c ⇒ c	Copy absolute path
c ⇒ d	Copy the path of the parent directory
c ⇒ f	Copy the name of the file
c ⇒ n	Copy the name of the file without the extension

Finding files/directories

Key binding	Action
/	Forward search file/dir in current directory
?	Backward search file/dir in current director
-	Jump to next occurrence
=	Jump to previous occurrence

Sorting

To sort files/directories use the following commands.

Observation: , ⇒ a indicates pressing the , key followed by pressing the a key.

Key binding	Action
, ⇒ a	Sort alphabetically, directories first
, ⇒ A	Sort alphabetically, directories first (reverse)
, ⇒ c	Sort by creation time, directories first
, ⇒ C	Sort by creation time, directories first (reverse)
, ⇒ m	Sort by modified time, directories first
, ⇒ M	Sort by modified time, directories first (reverse)
, ⇒ n	Sort naturally, directories first
, ⇒ N	Sort naturally, directories first (reverse)
, ⇒ s	Sort by size, directories first
, ⇒ S	Sort by size, directories first (reverse)

Further usage

To see all key bindings, check the config/preset/keymap.toml file.

Changing working directory when exiting yazi

There is a wrapper of yazi, that provides the ability to change the current working directory when exiting yazi, feel free to use it:

function ya() {
	tmp="$(mktemp -t "yazi-cwd.XXXXX")"
	yazi --cwd-file="$tmp"
	if cwd="$(cat -- "$tmp")" && [ -n "$cwd" ] && [ "$cwd" != "$PWD" ]; then
		cd -- "$cwd"
	fi
	rm -f -- "$tmp"
}

Configuration

If you want to use your own config, copy the config folder to ~/.config/yazi, and modify it as you like.

The documentation of all available options

Discussion

• Discord Server (English mainly): https://discord.gg/qfADduSdJu
• Telegram Group (Chinese mainly): https://t.me/yazi_rs

Image Preview

Platform	Protocol	Support
Kitty	Terminal graphics protocol	✅ Built-in
WezTerm	Terminal graphics protocol	✅ Built-in
Konsole	Terminal graphics protocol	✅ Built-in
iTerm2	Inline images protocol	✅ Built-in
Mintty (Git Bash)	Inline images protocol	✅ Built-in
Hyper	Sixel graphics format	✅ Built-in
foot	Sixel graphics format	✅ Built-in
Black Box	Sixel graphics format	✅ Built-in
X11 / Wayland	Window system protocol	☑️ Überzug++ required
Fallback	Chafa	☑️ Überzug++ required

Yazi automatically selects the appropriate preview method for you, based on the priority from top to bottom. That's relying on the $TERM, $TERM_PROGRAM, and $XDG_SESSION_TYPE variables, make sure you don't overwrite them by mistake!

For instance, if your terminal is Alacritty, which doesn't support displaying images itself, but you are running on an X11/Wayland environment, it will automatically use the "Window system protocol" to display images -- this requires you to have Überzug++ installed.

Here is a guide for tmux users: Image preview within tmux

TODO

See Feature requests for more details.

License

Yazi is MIT licensed.