What the hell is Zellij?

X: / typecraft_dev
This video is sponsored by eraser.io ! We've been using this tool ourselves in our day-to-day work - from diagramming to defining database schemas, it's replaced other platforms in our toolkit.
Zellij is another tool we've had our eye on. We've spent a few weeks on it as our daily terminal workspace. In this video, we find out whether or not it's up to the task of replacement Tmux...
Grab a seat - let's get after it.
00:00 What is Zellij?
00:50 What is a terminal multiplexer?
02:25 Installation
02:46 Keybindings
03:22 Tmux keybindings
03:57 Configuration
04:28 Layouts!
05:26 Session Management
06:27 Will I switch from Tmux?

[@arco_ix]

thanks nerd.

[@mbennehar]

The design is very human. Very easy to use

[@typecraft_dev]

I agree

[@glidersuzuki5572]

Maybe it's because I've been using tmux for a long time but tmux is also very human and easy to use.

[@jakob199]

​@@glidersuzuki5572 Do you customize your bindings? Because my experience of trying to learn tmux was mostly just trying to wrap my head around the default bindings 🫠

[@markcoren2842]

The great news is that the key binding situation you described is being resolved with the next release. In the meantime, you can use ctrl-g to lock the zellij key bindings. That allows us to use our app (vim, etc) bindings unimpeded. Thanks for another great video!

[@typecraft_dev]

Thanks for the info! I'll be sure to check out the newest release when it comes out!

[@luisfpetrucci01]

Which feature is going to solve it? (So we can keep track of it) I'm also strongly tied to nvim with vim-tmux-navigator for buffers/panes jumps.

[@derpdays]

you already can change having to do like ctrl p etc beforehand, if you go to the zellij repo and then examples if you look at the config.kdl it shows how all of it is defined, which you can then edit and then use that in your config however if you mean like tmux navigator i’m not sure since i haven’t tried but i believe there’s zellij-nav.nvim which you could try on top of this edit: returning back to nvim prob won’t be as seamless you can check out issue #967

[@eivindsulen8516]

@@typecraft_dev zellij 0.40 came out last week! It includes zellij pipes, which should be possible to use to recreate the workflow you have with vim/tmux

[@user-wy1xm4gl1c]

how about nvim autocompletion from zellij buffer?

[@adamevil550]

Zellij is pronounced as it's written with a small high note on the double l. It literally means mosaic in moroccan arabic. I guess it's a great name for a multiplexer. As many panes look like mosaic.

[@youngsinatra2645]

Zellij is great. I unlocked its true power when I realized the only modes you really need are “locked” and “normal”. From there, it’s essentially tmux but better.

[@paechan]

I use Zellij for my little home server. I started with tmux, but since I only log in once a week or so I kinda forgot how to use it. Now I just ssh in and zellij a. All the keybinds are right there, it's great. All defaults.

[@kaldyran]

To make neovim and zellij play nice together I completely redid the keybinds for Zellij. In the keybinds section of config: unbind "Ctrl b" "Ctrl c" "Ctrl f" "Ctrl g" "Ctrl h" "Ctrl n" "Ctrl o" "Ctrl p" "Ctrl q" "Ctrl s" "Ctrl t" Then I bound everything to alt. My window manager has everything bound to the super/meta/win key. Zellij has everything bound to Alt. Applications (including neovim) key off of ctrl. No collisions, easy to remember, vim style bindings for everything.

[@eivindsulen8516]

did the same, but i made a single-mode setup in zellij. I use ctrl+space as a prefix, and then s or v to make a split, n for new tab, etc. Pretty much a mix of vim-like binds and the default ones for zellij, but in a single mode like in tmux to make it easier to remember. I also use alt as my modifier key to switch panes from normal mode in zellij, super for my wm, and ctrl for vim

[@n0kodoko143]

There is a shortcut Alt + Enter to get a new pane, instead of going into pane mode. That alone led me deeper down the zellij rabbit hole. I'll have to do some digging to report back, but I typically will either used neovim's built-in terminal, or a pane pop-up, that you can pop to the foreground or background. It's pretty convenient. Thanks fo the tmux info as well, nerd!

[@princelad9781]

The tattoo at 1:03 was a nice little addition

[@drewfowler2408]

Would love to see a dev workflow video from you! Love your stuff

[@michaelhume5800]

Same reservations that keep me from switching from Tmux. Hopefully your vid brings some light to this missing crucial feature.

[@oleksrow]

Neat of you to cover zellij! I recently tried setting up nvim rust debugger, but found out that rust-tools were deprecated in favor of rustaceanvim. Do you plan on doing video while setting up nvim with lldb with it?

[@CrashOverride90]

Using it since quite a while, it’s awesome ❤

[@flamendless]

I really love terminal multiplexer. It allowed me to feel and have the fast i3wm dev workflow i miss with arch linux on windows (company env)

[@NuclearFury8]

My first instinct is zellij seems to take over too many keybindings at its base. ctrl-b of tmux only kinda breaks emacs (or moving your shell cursor without the arrow keys I guess), but here ctrl-n and ctrl-p break vim's next/previous completion, ctrl-o for previous location etc. It also lowers the space of such bindings you can use in your shell itself. It's a general problem when you layer programs, and also something I struggle a bit with neovim's terminal mode for that reason.

[@user-jb2eg4ot3v]

2:32 I use arch btw XDDD

[@typecraft_dev]

Tehehehe

[@TheOnlyJura]

do you switch between linux and mac os?

[@typecraft_dev]

yeah :)

[@user-bf7td1gn3t]

Honestly, Zellij is interesting but I'd just keep my tmux as I already configured it and it's perfect for my needs. Cool video either way

[@jjpp1993]

for new comers it is the option. Though I like the modal aspect of tmux. Even though zellij has a tmux mode, some keybindings still interfere… ended up turning everything but tmux so rolled back to tmux. Probably will test it again soon

[@linhusp2349]

Zellij just need to adopt the default bind (link ctrl+b) in tmux to prevent conflicting with other cli then I am ready to move! Right now the experience having to use the lock mode repeatly is not that good

[@3zRides]

I was so with you when you came to the conclusion. That is a deal breaker for as well.

[@CaribouDataScience]

How do I move the cursor between pains in normal Zellij mode?

[@AliasFR-]

Nice tools, thanks !

[@lisovyy]

great review thanks. btw, what machine are you using for your arch setup? 🙂

[@typecraft_dev]

currently rocking a 13" framework ryzen laptop

[@lisovyy]

@@typecraft_dev out of curiosity, have you decided to switch from mac?

[@REJack89]

Whats your terminal style/setup? That looks really hot. is there any video about it? XD Is that Zellij itself?

[@lmnts556]

What is the reason for switching over to arch after switching from linux to macOS. Did you feel it was stable enough and the issues you had before were not an issue anymore? Thanks.

[@Lars-ce4rd]

"my forever dev workflow" *3 weeks later* What the hell is zellij?

[@scottfwalter]

Thanks for the video. Like you I'm Team TMUX for now. At least I have a good understanding of Zellij now.

[@zestynotions]

Can you let me know where you got your wallpaper its awesome! Also really enjoyed the video. Thanks

[@Fjord1909]

Please forgive my somewhat born-again noobness with getting back into Linux after around 10+ years of being out when I ask 'is Tmux and Zellij for those who aren't into using tiling window managers?'. I recently discovered typecraft--perhaps this question is addressed in another of his videos.

[@iamreinder]

Missed opportunity. The title should have been: “What the hellij?” 😜

[@EndermanAPM]

What did you use to animate the "documentation page"? Anything special or just a bunch of manual editing?

[@bokutokoutarou]

quick question i started using zellij 2-3 weeks I can't figure out how to set the cursor to a vertical line i use kitty as my terminal it works properly when I'm not using zellij the cursor is a blinking vertical line but if i get in/start a zellij session the cursor turns into a block So someone help me fix it, if possible

[@hamzahaddani6240]

What window manager do you use btw?

[@typecraft_dev]

i3wm (btw)

[@hamzahaddani6240]

@@typecraft_dev how about the bar?

[@Lars-ce4rd]

Why not Sway? I recently made the switch myself

[@Dainslief31]

Thanks NERD ! Another day , another great content ! yayy

[@techedzee]

Jesus Chris! What Kind of NERD are you? I started watching this video, because the title was interesting. In the end, (I just fully committed to using tmux), I was totally off the tmux train and was sold 1000000% to definitely will be jumping on Zellij bandwagon. You are good at this marketing thing. I also thought you had tattooed Zellij on your neck? lol

[@comically_large_chungus]

I just installed zellij to play with it a little bit. I do like that the things I had to set up in tmux like resurrecting sessions and the session manager are built in but the session manager can be very slow which I find weird since zellij is written in rust. I use tmux-sessionizer (not prime's one) which is also written in rust and that one is always instant using fzf.

[@comically_large_chungus]

it seems to be instant more often than not when I spam it over and over. I don't really have a reason to switch over until I can see how the workflow feels if it's better than tmux and I never used vim tmux navigator because I never liked multiple panes in one window. Zellij does have a floating pane feature which is like a scratchpad for your window manager and I really love scratchpads so I'd like to try using that and seeing how it feels.

[@comically_large_chungus]

the floating window feature is exactly like a scratchpad I think I might switch to zellij. I'd like to see if I can open the session manager from the normal terminal not running zellij which is something I'm missing with tmux.

[@diggajupadhyay]

Thanks for the video.

[@davidharris913]

It's been a while since I used zellij but for me the two big drawbacks were: 1. It doesn't work in urxvt. I use this terminal all the time in XQuartz on my work mac since it's the only terminal that I know of that does work in that. I use this when I want to change the UI to more closely resemble linux. I also do use this at times in Linux. So the fact this doesn't work but tmux does is a problem. Don't know if that's been fixed since I last tried this. 2. Screen real estate. I don't use external monitors so anything that takes up space on my monitor is a potential concern. I could not figure out how to get rid of all the extra stuff Zellij likes to display and essentially have it look like tmux. Don't know if this has been fixed or not. Hence, I'm sticking with tmux.

[@maybehawk5205]

Hey man, I really appreciate the content. i think you should do a video on LF, the file manager

[@GAccountMe]

How about a video about Arch? Setting up the environment, tile manager, etc.

[@typecraft_dev]

what a fantastic idea!

[@neekonsaadat2532]

I think a lot of us would like this! Great direction for a future video

[@dnixv]

But you're already using a tiling window manager, so, what are the benefits of using terminal multiplexer on top of that? I feel like I'm missing something.

[@zerdofish9989]

which distro do you use?

[@typecraft_dev]

arch (btw)

[@declansnyder2281]

Just a comment tmux actually has command line "tmux list-sessions" built in also

[@NickyTheRook]

An equivalent to vim-tmux-navigator would indeed be very cool. It's the main reason that if I try a multiplexer, it will probably be tmux

[@Theosibo]

Since my workflow rarely uses ANY Alt-? binds I just stuck Alt-[hjkl] into the locked modes for moving between panes in Zellij. Yes having tmux-navigator allowed me to move seamlessly between panes in nvim and tmux, using Alt to move between Zellij panes instead of Ctrl isn't that huge of a flow interruption and was worth it to me for the massive speed boost I get. Tmux is laggy as heck for me and zellij is snappy and instantaneous.

[@thebutlah]

I use zellij and this is the biggest thinng I'm missing right now. If anyone knows a zellij plugin that can do this, comment!

[@sahilarora558]

@@thebutlah Lilja/zellij.nvim

[@brivism]

see zellij.nvim

[@Lucs-ku5cb]

See zellij-nav.nvim

[@bgranger11]

Great video! I want to especially thank you for giving an honest appraisal of the tool and not being afraid to give your personal opinion on why you still prefer tmux while also praising what Zellij is doing well. It really is a breath of fresh air amongst the sea of 'X tool is the best new thing and your crazy not to use it' videos that plague youtube and just create FOMO. On an unrelated note when is the framework setup video coming?! Super hyped for that.

[@typecraft_dev]

glad you liked the video! and yes I'm working on it!

[@esra_erimez]

I found this video to be rather interesting and very informative.

[@reduktorius]

3:10 :D Ctrl+P to go into PAIN mode

[@typecraft_dev]

I am what you would call, a mush-mouth

[@TheStickofWar]

Kind of interested but kind of not, I think I have a similar opinion on sticking with tmux for now. Though I do not use many plugins, I just have ctrl space and hjkl to move tmux panes and ctrl w and hjkl for neovim windows. And so far, that is in my muscle memory. I haven’t bothered much with session management as I simply close my laptop and open it again. Outside of having neovim remember the last quit session. Zellij seemed quite noisy as you mentioned, that and the modal switching for two different things (neovim and my terminal multiplexer), I’m not sure if that is too much overhead which will make one want to reach for the mouse or just use tmux bindings which maybe defeats the point. Not sure :/

[@magellan124]

I like that zellij tattoo

[@BlackxesWasTaken]

I think no one noticed your new fancy tattoo which you immediately lasered away :D

[@mcdoughnutss]

tmux resurrect and tmux continuum is the best plugin. does zellij have something like that?

[@UnhingedNW]

UM AHKCHUALLY YAY IS AN AUR HELP NOT A PACKAGE MANAGER! GAWD

[@oalfodr]

I am failing to understand the use case for multiple panes in multiplexer while in a graphical env. I see how it would be great in TTY, but while using any WM or DE, you can simply open several widows and navigate between them without any integration between apps

[@ivanheffner2587]

From my own use: being able to see multiple terminals at once is sometimes useful. But my terminal program has support for panes, so I wouldn’t need that at this point in my life. In the past, I’ve had a development environment that required a lot more terminal use and having a dozen or more terminals open that I could switch directly between (go to terminal 4; go to terminal 8; etc) rather than “next next next next; prev prev prev prev” was extremely useful. In my current work life, I only use a multiplexer on remote hosts and since I don’t control the software installed on those, good old GNU screen is the multiplexer I know and love.

[@oalfodr]

​@@ivanheffner2587 Makes sense. I have not considered having over 8 terminals in a view. At most I have 4 or 5. But I am thinking that in most WMs it would not be difficult to set up commands to go to specific window instead next/previous. I a lot more depend on using workspaces. Each of my 3 monitors have 9 workspaces set up, and I quickly navigate to specific windows by having constant places for my apps. I wanna use the browser > jump to monitor 3 > workspace 1. Code editor monitor 3 w 2. File manager m2 w2...

[@anonlegion9096]

does the Zellij keybinds ever conflict with vim binds?

[@SunsetNova]

The word Zellij comes from the Moroccan word that refers Moroccan style mosaic tiles that Morocco is famous for. Pronounced Zil-eej

[@Abu_Ubaida9]

it's pronounced zalleej (with stress on the l?) it's an arabic word that describes a specific style of mosaic tilework, that was popular in the Al-Andalus and still present in west north africa

[@typecraft_dev]

fantastic thank you!

[@macedonskyua]

Good tool, if we find how to integrate it with nvim, can be game changer :)

[@typecraft_dev]

Yes, definitely

[@brivism]

zellij.nvim

[@cariyaputta]

I'll stick with Wezterm (has built in pane splitting, tabs, and multiplexor/session management).

[@ayoubelmhamdi7920]

i use i3/dwm, i have many workspaces, in tmux i can not know how to move the pane from session 1 to workspace 3 with sessions 2 for example, it's like impossible, so i don't use tmux or zellij, in ssh i use tmux because I don't have windows manager. i loss the integration with neovim, the terminal startup should be very fast (so i can not use the awesome kitty terminal, it's slow in startup, i van not use wezterm because it's can not handle run/close many terminals so i use st-terminal)

[@taiwbi]

Can you please share you Arch Setup too?

[@Reducer]

I gave zellij a fair shake, but yeah, I already have a nice tmux config. And zellij also feels a bit too opinionated with the keybindings - I already use Ctrl-G as leader for various Git operations, ie Ctrl-GB to switch branches, etc.

[@realbyte2048]

Do you think I should switch to Zellij or stay with tmux?

[@TheRealisticNihilist]

Emacs is my terminal multiplexer

[@ivanheffner2587]

Cool cool. What do you use for a text editor? 🤪

[@TheRealisticNihilist]

@@ivanheffner2587 emacs is my browser, friend.

[@glaudston_]

I'm trying to get into multiplexers, but I just can't seem to justify it. Sessions are the main reason I would go for it, but until I really need it I'll stick to kitty/ghostty

[@joaocosta1228]

NICE BTW

[@theherk]

It is great, but wezterm has it built in which is nice.

[@Laggedskapari]

Tattoo gets me every time. LMFAOOOOO!!

[@Chikobara]

i liked that tattoo 0:57

[@erichlf]

Btw, tmux has a which-key plugin

[@MadMathMike]

Uh... I love that shirt! (Video was great too).

[@typecraft_dev]

Thanks!

[@BrentMalice]

tmux restore/continuum keeps breaking for me so maybe ill try this out. i just like how i got tmux lookin so far

[@typecraft_dev]

yeah, zellij is pretty customizable as well though

[@alexstone691]

I have color problems with zellij, i cant read sonething in often

[@-aexc-]

yay is not a package manager it's an aur helper and frontend for pacman

[@romanmaciel8072]

I love Zellij. Sadly, the startup time for me is at least a second slower than tmux. Really killed it for me over time. 💔

[@heckinmemes6430]

But does it run Emacs?

[@ZiRo815]

You should totally get that tattoo

[@typecraft_dev]

I think you're right

[@fabiolean]

What if Unix had good UX is a question that some tool developers are finally asking and I am so here for it

[@herrpez]

Good is subjective. And we are in an era where UNIX defaults are long, long outdated and way outside the norms of what anyone would expect. So yes, it is very nice to get something "we" can find more intuitive. 😄

[@severgun]

What problem it solve in world where tmux exist?

[@metobabba]

this is primeagenish

[@CrazyLuke11]

New Linux install? Can you please share your dotfiles?

[@typecraft_dev]

eventually, yes! :)

[@tacomies]

Installed Zellij -> tried for a minute: "Yeah, this is better"

[@oleksandrsimonov9200]

Why just not use screen?

[@AhsanHabib-mj5ym]

arch and i3 ... The best dev setup you can have. last time I tried zellij , it was conflicting with my neovim keys a lot ... So I came back to tmux

[@hamzakhiar3636]

I love zellij more Than tmux for the fact IT DOESN'T RUIN MY COLORSCHEME I NEOVIM!!!!

[@MarkBolte-fc8un]

Maybe your tmux doesnt support 256 colors. Try "tmux -2" that worked for me.

[@jamlie977]

thanks nerd, i didn't know it was ZELLIGE

[@ev3rybodygets177]

wezterm when?

[@typecraft_dev]

that's a good idea I'll have to check that out!

[@ev3rybodygets177]

@@typecraft_dev there is not a lot of tutorials on creating a set up on KZbin. It's kinda flown under the radar but it's awesome paired with neovim.

[@orcus_irl]

How do you feel about theprimegen quitting KZbin and Twitch?

[@johncavanaugh6481]

Until they can bind ctrl-J its simply not functional for vim users

[@IsusVonBier]

Hit N to get new pain

[@IsusVonBier]

kNee

[@LovelyBozo]

Arch btw

[@ramadhanafif]

Curren zellij key bindings conflict a lot with neovim

[@mooktakim]

No one talks about screen anymore?

[@oopss794]

It costs a lot of memory & CPU usage

[@azulamazigh2789]

ALT and CTRL is the same thing....

[@bigo72]

I'm running arch linux (BTW) without a graphical environment most of the time. I watch movies, ear music, code. And Zellij is my best friend. BUT ... please guys help me to launch a web browser in a TTY and I will bless you! And I'm not talking about that textual stuff like lynks .... I talk about a real web browser

[@async-us5ts]

zellige

[@Lucs-ku5cb]

Thanks nerd

[@simonlauer9379]

This sounds a lot like emacs trying to hurt your pinky

[@itsfkf6106]

Thanks, nerd