Using yazi within Helix

[nouritsu]

Premise

I know a file manager got merged a while ago, however my release (on nixpkgs unstable) does not have it and I would prefer using yazi within Helix to interact with files anyway.

Attempted Solution

This video explains how to use LazyGit inside Helix. The video maps C-g to the following

"C-g" = [":new", ":insert-output lazygit", ":buffer-close!", ":redraw"]

Which then allows you to press C-g, perform actions inside lazygit, press q and then return back to your previous buffer.

I tried to do the same with yazi, with little success. I expected

"C-f" = [":new", ":insert-output yazi --chooser-file=/dev/stdout", ":buffer-close!", ":redraw"]

to work, however when I press C-f Helix simply freezes until I press either ret or q.

[sxyazi]

Hi, Yazi author here 👋

I added support for using Yazi directly in Helix (without needing Zellij or tmux) in sxyazi/yazi#2461, which only requires a keybinding:

[keys.normal]
C-y = [
  ':sh rm -f /tmp/unique-file',
  ':insert-output yazi "%{buffer_name}" --chooser-file=/tmp/unique-file',
  ':sh printf "\x1b[?1049h\x1b[?2004h" > /dev/tty',
  ':open %sh{cat /tmp/unique-file}',
  ':redraw',
]

See sxyazi/yazi#2461 for more info!

Demo

screenshot-002279.mp4

Bonus: You can even preview images and videos within Helix!

screenshot-002284.mp4

[Frestein]

@sxyazi In the foot terminal, opening yazi only works once. Further attempts to open it are unsuccessful. Works well with kitty and tty.

[A-caibird]

talented!

[dashdeckers]

The keybinding works for me, but after closing helix it leaves behind some or most of the last helix buffer on the terminal. I'm using alacritty and zellij. I'm not sure how to fix this, so far I've just been doing clear after exiting helix.

Anyone have a clue / pointer let me know! Otherwise this works amazingly

[luccahuguet]

The keybinding works for me, but after closing helix it leaves behind some or most of the last helix buffer on the terminal. I'm using alacritty and zellij. I'm not sure how to fix this, so far I've just been doing clear after exiting helix.

Anyone have a clue / pointer let me know! Otherwise this works amazingly

I've tried to integrate it into yazelix and failed to make it work with zellij

Gave up on the idea

The background gets all weird

[zax71]

The keybinding works for me, but after closing helix it leaves behind some or most of the last helix buffer on the terminal. I'm using alacritty and zellij. I'm not sure how to fix this, so far I've just been doing clear after exiting helix.

Anyone have a clue / pointer let me know! Otherwise this works amazingly

I'm running in to this issue, did you find a way to resolve it?

[leonlonsdale]

works like a charm

[gj1118]

I am not using nix. I am on maxOs. Here is my config entry

e = [
':sh rm -f /tmp/unique-file',
':insert-output yazi %{buffer_name} --chooser-file=/tmp/unique-file',
':insert-output echo "\x1b[?1049h\x1b[?2004h" > /dev/tty',
':open %sh{cat /tmp/unique-file}',
':redraw',
]

that said, when I press the "space+e" to open my yazi instance and select a file in yazi, I am seeing two files are being created and they are opened in two new buffers. They are "%sh{cat" and "unique-file}" (without the quotes- they are mine). Can you please help me out what I might be doing wrong here? I just copied the code from above.

[noor-tg]

how did you fix this ?

[nayyara-airlangga]

This is likely because command line expansions isn't a feature yet in the newest stable version of Helix. I tried reinstalling to use the latest version on HEAD and it worked instantly.

• Commit that added expansions
• Release 25.01.1

[Direwolfesp]

It would be nice that it worked when selecting multiple files. For example, in the shell (nushell in my case) i can do hx ...(open /tmp/unique-file | lines) and will open all the files but inside helix, :open %sh{....} will treat the output of the shell as a single file path.

I also tryed escaping the paths but it didnt work.
Maybe someone that knows more about https://docs.helix-editor.com/master/command-line.html can help ^^

[atahanyild]

Using the configuration provided in the answer, Yazi opens inside Helix, but when I select a file, Helix just opens /tmp/unique-file, and it's empty. However, if I run cat /tmp/unique-file after closing Yazi, I can see the correct file path that I selected.

It seems there is a race condition between the command that writes the file path and the command that reads from the file: Helix tries to read /tmp/unique-file before Yazi has written to it. As a result, Helix opens the chooser file itself, not the actual file I selected.

How can I fix this?

@sxyazi

[noor-tg]

Build helix from master . And it will work

[atahanyild]

Building helix from master worked for me, thanks.

[beeb]

If using zellij, you can do the following which even supports opening multiple files at once:

Scripts:
https://github.com/beeb/.dotfiles/blob/962d5b8dbd57c570466cab3cdf197e70a9bcdcc7/home-manager/common.nix#L35-L50

Yazi config (opener):
https://github.com/beeb/.dotfiles/blob/962d5b8dbd57c570466cab3cdf197e70a9bcdcc7/home-manager/common.nix#L252-L257

Keybind:
https://github.com/beeb/.dotfiles/blob/962d5b8dbd57c570466cab3cdf197e70a9bcdcc7/home-manager/common.nix#L192

This is a general technique which I also use for lazygit. Here I used floating panes, but zellij allows many other configurations (sidebar, new tab etc).

[ghost]

If the above solution doesn't work, then this will work:

space.f = [
  ':sh rm -f /tmp/files2open',
  ':set mouse false',
  ':insert-output yazi "%{buffer_name}" --chooser-file=/tmp/files2open',
  ':redraw',
  ':set mouse true',
  ':open /tmp/files2open',
  'select_all',
  'split_selection_on_newline',
  'goto_file',
  ':buffer-close! /tmp/files2open',
]

[meghdip-fenrir]

None of the above solutions seem to work in Windows. Is there a way to use Yazi with Helix in Windows?

[Fryboyter]

I assume it is due to directory paths such as /tmp/files2open. These are not compatible with Windows. I would therefore try to adapt the path specifications to Windows. For example, C:/Temp/files2open. You may need to create the directories beforehand. However, this is only a guess.

[rauletaveras]

Fryboyter is correct! In the linked thread, the yazi creator gives a solution that works for Windows (check you're using PowerShell).

[editor]
shell = ["powershell", "-NoProfile", "-Command"]

[keys.normal]
C-y = [
  ':sh del C:\unique-file',
  ':insert-output yazi.exe %{buffer_name} --chooser-file=C:\unique-file',
  ':open %sh{type C:\unique-file}',
  ':redraw',
]

If you don't have admin rights, this version works better. Make sure you create C:\temp\.

[keys.normal]
C-y = [
':sh del C:\temp\unique-file',
':insert-output yazi.exe %{buffer_name} --chooser-file=C:\temp\unique-file',
':open %sh{type C:\temp\unique-file}',
 ":redraw",
 ]

[rauletaveras]

I neglected this thread! If you're using Nushell as your shell in Windows, you can use this setup to use Yazi.

Make sure Nushell is set as your shell in your config.toml

[editor]
shell = ["nu", "-c"]

Then you can add these lines which replicate the PowerShell functionality:

[keys.normal]
C-y = [
  ':sh rm --force C:\temp\unique-file',
  ':insert-output yazi.exe %{buffer_name} --chooser-file=C:\temp\unique-file',
  ':open %sh{open --raw C:\temp\unique-file}',
  ":redraw",
  ":reload-all"
]

Note, as far as I've been able to tell, this is still just as susceptible to the redraw problem once Helix is closed, at least on Windows 11 running Windows Terminal.

[peteringram0]

For anyone who works on Next and sometimes has "(" or ")" in their path the @sxyazi solution does not work.

The following handles this corner case.

C-y = [
  ':sh rm -f /tmp/unique-file',
  ":insert-output yazi '%{buffer_name}' --chooser-file=/tmp/unique-file",
  ':insert-output echo "\x1b[?1049h\x1b[?2004h" > /dev/tty',
  ':open %sh{cat /tmp/unique-file}',
  ':redraw',
]

[Akselmo]

If someone here is also wondering how to get the current working directory to change to the folder which the file you opened is in, here you go:

C-f = [
  ':sh rm -f /tmp/unique-file',
  ':sh rm -f /tmp/unique-cwd-file',
  ":insert-output yazi --chooser-file=/tmp/unique-file --cwd-file=/tmp/unique-cwd-file",
  ':insert-output echo "\x1b[?1049h\x1b[?2004h" > /dev/tty',
  ':open %sh{cat /tmp/unique-file}',
  ':cd %sh{cat /tmp/unique-cwd-file}',
  ':redraw',
]

[sxyazi]

FYI, @linsui mentioned in sxyazi/yazi#3496 that using

:sh printf "\x1b[?1049h\x1b[?2004h" > /dev/tty

instead of

:insert-output echo "\x1b[?1049h\x1b[?2004h" > /dev/tty

can fix the problem where the screen is not properly cleared after exiting Helix - I have updated it to #12934 (comment), hope this helps!

Also, I opened #15059 to propose a dedicated command for launching external interactive TUI apps, so we can avoid all the hacks and glitches to get a better integration.

[mdsadman-git]

For Windows 11, I tried Yazi [ 💚 ] within Helix [ 🚀 ], the command below works for me.

I tried [running in the same terminal instance], but I faced lots of issues, like

• Ctrl + c should invoke comment in Helix, but it will inherit from yazi's command and close Helix
• Messy terminal due to overlapping

In this method, Yazi will run within a separate window, but it works fine without any problem.
If Windows Terminal [wt] is your preference, then this method is better.
But for better experience, set {Windows Terminal -> Startup -> Launch parameters -> Launch Mode > Fullscreen}

[keys.normal]
"C-o" = [
  ':sh del %%TMP%%\unique-file >NUL 2>&1',
  ':insert-output start yazi %{buffer_name} --chooser-file=%%TMP%%\unique-file',
  ':open %sh{type %%TMP%%\unique-file}',
  ":redraw",
]

If you are using CMD, then use this command [when CMD needs to maximize on startup]

[keys.normal]
"C-o" = [
  ':sh del %%TMP%%\unique-file >NUL 2>&1',
  ':insert-output start /MAX /W cmd /c yazi %{buffer_name} --chooser-file=%%TMP%%\unique-file',
  ':open %sh{type %%TMP%%\unique-file}',
  ":redraw",
]

If there is an issue of adding [^C] when exiting using the close button, then you can use the line below,
':insert-output start yazi %{buffer_name} --chooser-file=%%TMP%%\unique-file >NUL 2>&1', OR
':insert-output start /MAX /W cmd /c yazi %{buffer_name} --chooser-file=%%TMP%%\unique-file >NUL 2>&1',

I wanted to use Windows Terminal with Fullscreen mode using CMD command.
But [wt] command doesn't wait until the Windows terminal window is closed.

[PlethoraChutney]

Using this with Ghostty on macOS 14.8.3 worked great, except that after using yazi my mouse scrollwheel would move the cursor rather than the view. Toggling the mouse option off and on by adding the lines below to the end of sxyazi's config fixes this for me.

  ":set-option mouse false",
  ":set-option mouse true",

[mdsadman-git]

I faced kind of similar problem in Windows. If I close the Yazi from Helix, some of the Helix commands replaced Yazi's commands.
So I opened Yazi in a different ternimal window and works fine for me.

[rip3rs]

For those in PowerShell 7 and keep getting like Could not find file: "C:\\temp\\hx-yazi-chooser" or when you did C-y you'd get a error 123.

Bellow helped.

[editor]
shell = ["pwsh", "-NoProfile", "-Command"]

[keys.normal]
C-y = [
  ':sh New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force C:\\temp | Out-Null',
  ':sh Remove-Item -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue C:\\temp\\hx-yazi-chooser',
  ':insert-output yazi.exe %{buffer_name} --chooser-file=C:\\temp\\hx-yazi-chooser',
  ':open %sh{Get-Content -LiteralPath C:\\temp\\hx-yazi-chooser -TotalCount 1}',
  ':redraw'
]

[code-instable]

It feels like #15410 could be used to simplify the current approach

"A-f" = [
  ":sh rm -f /tmp/yazi-helix",
  ":insert-output [[ %{buffer_name} == \"[scratch]\" ]] && yazi %{current_working_directory} --chooser-file=/tmp/yazi-helix || yazi %{buffer_name} --chooser-file=/tmp/yazi-helix", # if this is a [scratch] buffer, open yazi in working directory instead
  ':insert-output echo "\x1b[?1049h\x1b[?2004h" > /dev/tty',                                                                                                                        # These sequences help restore proper terminal state after Yazi exits: \x1b[?1049h switches to alternate screen buffer | \x1b[?2004h enables bracketed paste mode
  ":open %sh{cat /tmp/yazi-helix}",                                                                                                                                                 # Reads the file path that Yazi saved to the temp file
  ":redraw",                                                                                                                                                                        # Necessary after running external terminal programs to fix visual artifacts
  # manage conflict of mouse integration between helix and yazi
  ":set mouse false",
  ":set mouse true",
]

has anyone any idea ?

[DekuD2]

I use this simplified version:

"C-y" = [
  ":open %sh{yazi --chooser-file=/dev/stdout | xargs -d '\\n' echo}",
  ":redraw",
  ":set mouse false", ":set mouse true"
]

[code-instable]

might be a MacOS related issue, but I get the following error on choosing a file in yazi:

'open': path must be a regular file, symlink, or directory

[DekuD2]

Apparently there might not be a -d option for xargs on mac? Either way, I think this version will work:

"C-y" = [
  ":open %sh{yazi --chooser-file=/dev/stdout | tr -d '\\n'}",
  ":redraw",
  ":set mouse false", ":set mouse true"
]

[code-instable]

it does work indeed, props for this very nice, much more compact version 🫡

[Keshav-writes-code]

can i open a file from yazi as a split window?

[code-instable]

just replace :open by :vsplit

[Keshav-writes-code]

thanks, but i would like to have both options of opening file, open on current window, or open in new split window