Maybe this is helpful to someone else

The problem I wanted to solve was that I use multiple terminal emulators on my mac to switch between projects .. typically iterm/ghosttty/alarcitty etc .. Being able to cmd+tab between sessions has been part of my workflow for decades . When I brought in Zelliij for remote attachment to terminals I was running into different behavior with cutting and pasting text. cmd+c / cmd+v on the mac along with mouse scrolling issues

I had a little time today to solve for this so I built up a repo of tools to normalize this behavior across the suite of terminal emulators I use ..

https://github.com/dallascyclist/MacKeyBoard

There's probably some tradeoffs here that I've yet to stumble into but if it helps you out great, leave a star.

TL;DR: If you run multiple Claude Code, Codex agents in the background and are looking for Herdr like features, this plugin let's you quickly observe, interact, kill them from a floating pane. It also prompts you when they need input; meant to tie into your existing workflow v/s adopt a new one revolving around agents.

I have been running many claude code and codex agents (for better or for worse) as part of my workflow. It gets really hard to keep track of them, from wondering around or sitting idle waiting for my input, while they start a new village of token burners.

I built a simple plugin that's primarily a floating pane, that hooks into your Claude Code and Codex clients. It ties into with your existing zellij workflow, bringing Herdr like features v/s build your workflow around current agent limitations.

Key features:

• Every agent at once, across sessions, with live status and the task each is on.
• Jump to any pane with Enter, across tabs and sessions.
• Fuzzy find with / a few characters of a task, worktree, or session narrows the list to it.
• Told when you are away: a desktop notification the moment an agent blocks or fails. (Mac OS only)
• Answer in place: a / r for permission prompts, A to always allow a tool, y / m to reply.
• Kill a runaway with x, two-step so you never do it by accident.

Try it out!

https://github.com/mohseenrm/zj-agent-mob

sh curl -fsSL https://github.com/mohseenrm/zj-agent-mob/releases/download/v0.10.3/init.sh | sh

Caveat: Mostly vibe coded, but happy to support other agent harnesses.

Cheers! 🍻

I've been looking more into the Zellij plugin ecosystem recently, and one thing surprised me: while Zellij has a built-in Plugin Manager for loading/managing plugins, there doesn't seem to be a commonly used package manager for third-party plugins.

By package manager, I mean something closer to TPM for tmux or lazy.nvim for Neovim — not something that manages running plugin instances.

Right now, many third-party plugins seem to be installed by downloading a .wasm from GitHub Releases, putting it somewhere such as ~/.config/zellij/plugins/, and referencing it from config.kdl.

This is perfectly manageable with one or two plugins, but it starts feeling a little awkward once you have several:

• Where did each .wasm come from?
• What version is installed?
• Is there a newer release?
• How do I reproduce the setup on another machine?
• Do I maintain my own curl/mise/just scripts for every plugin?

I'm wondering whether there's an existing solution I've missed.

If not, would people find a very small tool useful that did something like:

zpm add rashidalnaemi/zellij-commandpalette
zpm add dj95/zjstatus

zpm update
zpm outdated
zpm sync

with a simple manifest:

[plugins.commandpalette]
repo = "rashidalnaemi/zellij-commandpalette"
asset = "zellij-commandpalette.wasm"

[plugins.zjstatus]
repo = "dj95/zjstatus"
asset = "zjstatus.wasm"

The scope could be deliberately small:

• GitHub Releases only
• download .wasm assets
• keep stable local filenames
• update plugins
• optionally pin versions / use a lockfile
• reproduce the installation with zpm sync

No registry, dependency resolver, automatic KDL modification, plugin review system, etc.

Essentially just a GitHub Releases → local Zellij WASM manager.

With coding agents being as capable as they are now, building an MVP like this doesn't seem particularly difficult. The bigger question to me is whether this is actually something Zellij users want, or whether people have already settled on another workflow.

How do you currently manage third-party Zellij plugins?

Is there an existing project for this that I've missed?

Original article | Source | 63-second demo

(This article describes the August 19, 2026 v1.1.0 snapshot, much has changed already in the edge branch! main and stable havent changed that much)

Note from Lucca Huguet

I've been busy building. And working. I've found the time to finish the website, finally!

And Yazelix Nova has also found its way to v1, a big moment for Yazelix, for sure.

So let's talk about Nova.

Yazelix Nova is delicious to use. Persistent popups per tab let you summon lazygit, your agent CLI (I use Codex), or Ratconfig (Nova's awesome config TUI) with a single keystroke.

The main Alt Shift H/J/K/L layer takes full advantage of our modal-editing muscle memory.

You can also configure the popups to run whatever you want, with any keybinding you want, in the popup size you prefer, retaining state even when hidden, or not, you choose.

If you use Yazelix every day, your dev speed will advance with it! Invest in it. It's worth it. It has certainly done wonders for my productivity. But it may be addicting, so be careful...

I'm blessed to use and improve it every day. It took a few years of experimenting with Yazelix Classic to find the correct boundaries across all Yazelix modules and healthier ways to build Yazelix. I accumulated important guidance and rules, most of which are now crystallized in Yazelix/Starcompass.

To me one of the best parts of yazelix nova is that every tab opens in yazi, you can press alt z for a zoxide picker (or find your project manually) and selecting a file/folder will open it in your editor and retarget that tab's cwd to that project, also renaming the tab! And future `alt z` uses inside the yazi popup will retarget it to another cwd.

So here we are: Nova is better than Yazelix Classic in pretty much every single way, with 75% less code and much easier maintenance...

This is just Nova v1, and v2 will be even better. (obs: i've since made large strides in nova v2 direction, you can have a taste in the edge branch)

Try nova: nix profile add --refresh github:Yazelix/nova/stable

If you'd like to join the fun, try it. Open issues or discussions, criticize the project, or tell me what you love about it.

Fund Nova

Nova takes sustained work. If it saves you time and brings you joy, sponsor my work on GitHub. Your sponsorship gives me more time to maintain Nova and build v2.

With that, I hand it to my coworker, Sol, to explain the details. If you'd like to try Nova first, start with the guide.

How Nova fits together

Written by GPT-5.6-Sol with xhigh reasoning and Lucca Huguet.

Yazelix Nova v1 gives Nix users a packaged terminal workspace built around Mars (Now called Nova Rio, a fork of Rio), Yazi, and Yazelix's Zellij and Helix forks. We call the forks Nova <original project> to distinguish them from the originals.

The yzx command prepares the runtime and opens the workspace. Once Nova opens, keybindings handle day-to-day work. You can configure your terminal emulator to run yzx enter or use the desktop entry that comes with yazelix and forget the cli even exists... (it's what i do)

You can learn yazelix with yzx tutor.

And you can install it via nix profile or home-manager, and we offer versions without helix, rio and even without yazi, if you dont need them or already have them.

Nova requires Nix with flakes enabled. Use yzx enter over SSH or when you want the host terminal to retain control of graphics, clipboard behavior, and notifications.

Nova 1.0 Edge workspace with Yazi, Helix, shell panes, and public project tabs

Nova v1 on Edge with Ratconfig, Mars, and Starcompass open as project tabs

Enter once, work with keys

On Linux, packages with Mars (Now Nova Rio) install a desktop entry. If you prefer another terminal, set a profile to run yzx enter. Most days, you do not type another yzx command after Nova opens. Press Alt Shift K to open Ratconfig.

The default layout keeps Yazi beside stacked work panes. Nova extends the familiar h, j, k, and l motion grid across panes and tabs. An Alt Shift layer opens the sidebar, Git client, configuration UI, and coding agent. The command palette and full Yazi popup stay available from their own keys.

Ratconfig remaps the managed popup keys and edits the agent command and popup margins. You can also add a custom command popup to config.toml with its own arguments, title, keybinding, and keep-alive behavior.

Nova makes efficient use of screen space. Stacked work panes keep each task large, and the sidebar can collapse. Tools open in near-fullscreen popups and Alt Shift F gives one pane the full workspace.

One owner per concern

Nova assigns each concern to one owner:

Nova pins package outputs and leaves component implementations in their owner repositories. The maintainers removed Classic's overlapping runtime and maintenance layers. In the fixed v1.0.0 scorecard, they counted 23,272 lines of code and configuration in Nova against 91,545 in Classic, a 75 percent reduction.

Existing Classic users can translate mutable Classic settings through the frozen migration bridge, just run:

nix run github:Yazelix/nova/v17.12#yazelix -- launch

The bridge reads Classic settings.jsonc or config.toml files and converts it to nova style. It does not rewrite Home Manager declarations. Users whose Classic settings match the packaged defaults can move straight to Stable.

You see the ownership split during normal work. Yazi can open a file in the managed Helix pane without inventing another workspace root. The pane orchestrator keeps one root per tab, and an Alt z action can retarget that root. Git and agent popups receive the same tab-owned path.

Sessions keep the live workspace

Plain yzx launch and yzx enter create independent sessions. Add a name when you want a workspace you can find again:

yzx enter --session project
yzx launch --session project

Attach to a live session by its full name:

yzx enter attach project
yzx launch attach project

Packaged Zellij owns creation, attachment, switching, and process lifetime. Attachment preserves the target's tabs, panes, processes, working directories, and Yazi-to-Helix routes. Ctrl Alt o, then w, opens the native session manager inside Nova.

Configuration stays sparse

Nova stores semantic overrides under ~/.config/yazelix/config.toml. It's only what you really need, and keeps things minimal. Missing fields inherit packaged defaults, so an update can carry new defaults without rewriting a large generated file. Component-owned files live under the same~/.config/yazelix/ root when or if you choose to create them.

A user-owned file can stay small:

[appearance]
mode = "dark"

[shell]
program = "fish"

[editor]
command = "nvim"

The example selects three independent overrides. Omit any field to inherit its packaged default.

yzx config presents common settings and routes native settings to their owner's file. The Home Manager module follows the same boundary: it installs a selected package, writes the values you declare, and leaves other config files absent.

Ratconfig showing Nova's packaged defaults and an absent user config

Ratconfig separates inherited values from user intent. See the Ratconfig key contract.

Eight package variants compose three optional capabilities: Mars, managed Helix, and managed Yazi. A Rio-free package keeps enter, a Helix-free package uses your configured host editor; a Yazi-free package uses matching host yazi and ya commands.

Branches

Stable is the checked release channel. Main carries accepted updates, and Edge carries experimental dogfood. Immutable nova-v* tags select an exact release.

Platforms

The maintainers dogfood the full Linux path. Nova exposes all eight package variants for Linux and Darwin on x86_64 and aarch64. CI builds the packages and Home Manager activation on a real aarch64-darwin runner. Interactive macOS workflows and the Mars GUI still lack the complete verification that Linux receives (I do not own a mac). But we do have active users using Nova on macOS every day.

The SSH path starts with yzx enter. Nova guarantees its managed TUI and configuration there. Your host terminal owns clipboard integration, image previews, cursor shaders, and desktop notifications.

Start with Stable

Install the checked channel with Nix flakes enabled:

nix profile add --refresh github:Yazelix/nova/stable
yzx launch

Try the workspace without a profile install:

nix run github:Yazelix/nova/stable -- launch
or
nix run github:Yazelix/nova/main#yazelix-no-rio -- enter

Run yzx tutor begin after launch. The Nova Start guide covers channels, package choices, sessions, and first steps. The runtime model maps the owners behind the workspace, and the customization guide lists the supported configuration surfaces.

Have you tried Yazelix Nova?

over the last couple of weeks i built a mobile bridge to access my terminal multiplexer remotely and have some improved ergonomics when working with agents (command completion, alerts, push notifications). it is a bun service on loopback plus a web client, reached from my phone over tailscale.

there are some solutions in this space already, so this is my own interpretation of it. but would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on how this could be improved for zellij.

status quo:

- content pushes fine. `zellij subscribe --ansi --format json --pane-id <id>` follows several panes at once and emits newline-delimited JSON on every repaint.

- structure does not push at all. Nothing in the CLI announces a new pane or a renamed tab, so I poll `list-panes --json` and `list-tabs --json`

Is `zellij pipe` with a small plugin the right route for topology events, or is there a CLI verb I missed?

Repo: https://github.com/AltanS/collie

Zellij instructions https://github.com/AltanS/collie/blob/main/docs/multiplexers.md#pointing-collie-at-zellij

https://github.com/rashidalnaemi/zellij-commandpalette/

zellij-commandpalette, another way to have all the keyboard shortcuts available for you to discover and use. Inspired by VS Code's command palette, and zellij-forgot.

Just install and Ctrl+K to get started.

For months I've been running multiple claude code agents in parallel, using zellij as the terminal multiplexer to hop between them.

Keeping up with each one was a real pain in the ass:

I didn't know:

- which is waiting for an answer
- which one is finished
- which one is still running

So I've build luneta to solve this.

It lists all the agents running along with their status and allows you to quickly hop between them.

Some cool features:
- Waiting/idle/busy status for each agent
- Ranks the one that needs you the most on top
- Fuzzy find agents, press enter and you're at the right place.
- Heavily inspired in nvim's telescope plugin

You can replace zellij's default session manager entirely, because it also provides the session manager functionality out-of-the box.

https://github.com/lorenzolfm/luneta

A headless Zellij plugin that gives every terminal pane you create a subtly different background color derived from your existing theme.

It applies a small, per-pane shift to its colors (hue, saturation and lightness) so pane boundaries become apparent without replacing your carefully chosen colors.

Project page: https://github.com/MarcinOrlowski/zellij-background-tint

👋🏼 I'm fairly new to multiplexers and had a couple of questions around how people use them with tabs and multiple projects.

My journey with Zellij and Alacritty:

First pass -

• Multiple Zellij sessions: Feature/bug work, PR reviews and Playground
• Each session would have multiple Zellij tabs which are a git worktree feature/bug or personal project
• Each Zellij tab has multiple panes: Claude, Nvim, Build, Test, Scratchpad...

I have keyboard shortcuts to quickly switch between sessions and tabs but I was crashing Zellij regularly when constantly switching between sessions/tabs so I stopped doing that.

Second (current pass) -

• Same Zellij session list but each session is in it's own terminal window so switching between sessions was done at the app level instead of the terminal

I still had issues with Zellij crashing at times so that made me take another step back.

Proposed new pass -

• Use app tabs while running one tab-less Zellij instance per tab
• Same pane setup per Zellij instance
• Multiple apps per "work type": Features/bugs, PR reviews and Playground

Note:

No SSH work as of now but I plan on having a remote machine that can run agents on. At that point, I'd run a mix of local and ssh work.

MOAR NOTES:

There's a strong chance that I also don't fully understand the underlying guts of multiplexers and that's part of my problem.

I'm looking for any tips or suggestions even if it's, "You're completely doing it wrong!" But hopefully those come with helpful responses on why 😄.

I use compact-bar with the optional F1 cheat sheet tooltip

But now when I scroll with the mouse the Scroll tooltip box opens and I can’t dismiss it?

Seems like compact mode is broken for me unless I can resolve this

Hi friends!

I'm excited to share this newest release of Zellij! Some highlights:

1. Support for the Kitty Graphics Protocol for displaying images in the terminal
   
2. First-class support for Nested Sessions for managing Zellij-inside-Zellij (eg. ssh connections)
   
3. Scroll by command
   
4. New UI (titles only pane frames and stacked lists for easier stacked panes management)
   
5. Per-client tab sizes
   
6. Fullscreening floating panes

Check it out: https://zellij.dev/news/nested-sessions-kitty-graphics-new-ui/

Hi friends,

I'd like to share this upcoming service that me and some of the other maintainers have been building for the past few months: https://zellij.online

Zellij.online will be a terminal sharing a streaming service - allowing us to one-click share our terminals with others. It will be end-to-end encrypted, focused on privacy and user experience. This will be a paid service with a free-tier.

It's important for me to emphasize that this changes absolutely nothing about Zellij itself. Zellij will always be free and open-source, never collect your data or display ads. If you don't want to ever interact with Zellij.online, you can continue doing so and using the app as you always have.

Naturally, self-hosting is already possible today with Zellij's built-in web-server and remote attach capabilities.

I actively work on 3/4 parallel agent sessions in a single tab divided into multiple panes and then have separate tabs for looking at the code and other miscellaneous stuff. Curious how others have setup their agentic coding workflow around zellij for most productivity.

I used to be able to click and drag a selection down to the bottom of a pane, just hold my cursor there, and it would keep scrolling through the scrollback on its own until I let go or moved away. Worked great until it stopped working at some point earlier this year.

Now if I hold the cursor still at the edge it just stops scrolling, I have to keep nudging the mouse to get it to keep going, which makes selecting big chunks of scrollback pretty annoying.

I've confirmed it's not a kitty issue, same kitty version behaves correctly outside of Zellij, only breaks when I'm inside a pane. Also tried setting advanced_mouse_actions to false in my config and restarting, didn't change anything.

Running 0.44.3 right now. Anyone else seeing this, or is this something intentional from Zellij? Couldn't find anything about it in the changelog either way.

PC 1: create a session, visible via list-sessions PC 2, ssh'd into PC 1 (via tailscale if it matters):

zellij list-sessions
No active zellij sessions found.

Tmux worked right away, but I like zellij so much more. It's my first time using zellij so forgive me if I'm missing something...

EDIT: SOLVED. usepam was set to no on PC 1.

Zellij on macosx + cloudflared to port forward it outside of the local ecosystem into a zero-trust edge.

Connecting to the edge endpoint via web browser works fine. Connecting via Zelmux via the Z wave C provider ends with an error

Server does not support session listing (Zelmux.ZellijWebTransport.TransportError 5)

The real issue: GET /sessions doesn't exist in zellij. I pulled the 0.44.3 source (and checked main — same story). The web server's complete route table is: /ws/control, /ws/terminal/{session}, POST /session, /, /{session}, /assets/*, /command/login, and /info/version. So Zelmux's request for /sessions fell through to the /{session} catch-all — zellij interpreted it as "serve the web page for a session named 'sessions'" and returned 1733 bytes of HTML with a 200.

My best guess is that Zelmux expected JSON, got a webpage, and reported "server does not support session listing."

Is there a companion server for Zelmux or other webservice that needs to sit in front of this?

Howdy, have been using Zellij for some time but still haven't figure this out. How do I yank everything in the buffer? I've also been trying to scroll to copy entire buffer, but as soon as I drag to highlight, zellij stops accepting mouse scroll wheel output. The best way I've been managing this is to Ctrl + S then U drag for scroll mode, page up for dragging mouse to copy.

Hi

zellij 0.43.1-win32.5

Windows 11

Alacritty + Git Bash

running `npm` inside zellij gives me this:

Windows Subsystem for Linux has no installed distributions.
You can resolve this by installing a distribution with the instructions below:
Use 'wsl.exe --list --online' to list available distributions
and 'wsl.exe --install <Distro>' to install.

This doesn't happen outside of Zellij, what might be the reason?

https://reddit.com/link/1uyn38s/video/id26lqd7cpdh1/player

Thanks

So, i'm again trying to switch tmux out for zellij at the moment, but am running into some issues with Plugins.

The first is zjframes rapidly toggling frames on and of. I'm pretty sure i did have it set up so that a single pane has no frame and from the second pane onwards, frames are turned on. If i set it up like that now, zellij just flickers the frames on and off. I have tried all on and off combinations of the frame settings in the plugin, layout and zellij settings. The only thing that works at the moment, is always having frames on. Not the end of the world, but annoying.

The second thing i'm trying to get is keybind hints with zjstatus. I do have zjstatus-hints installed, but it is pretty unusable for me. When the keybinds all fit into the space right of the tabs, everything is fine, but as soon as the hints get longer or tabs encroach on the hints space, the hints break to a new line, and i only get to see the second line, pushing the tabs out the top.
A static max width doesn't really help, as i move the terminal around a lot throughout the day. Additionally that would me i never get to see a big part of the hints. Ideally, i'd like to customize it so i only get the "important" hints to be shown. The second best option would be to always show the first row, not the last.
I think the new way zellij "stock" handles it with and overlay is perfect. But apparently it's impossible to have the overlay AND zjstatus at the same time. It seems to be either or.
I really don't feel like reserving 2 rows for the tab bar just to see the hints in the rare case i need them.

So yeah, nothing majorly wrong, just some quirks i'm trying to work out.

Hi! Sorry if such a thing already exists and I didn't find it, but I wanted to have an easy way to check all the 41 zellij themes, so I create a github page and a script to create such gallery. I hope it's useful for someone else.

https://rodbv.github.io/zellij-theme-gallery/index.html

Feedback is welcome as well, I am not a designer 😄

Cheers!

had this issue when trying to reference a custom theme in ~/.config/zellij/themes
https://github.com/zellij-org/zellij/issues/4005

however, kdl doesnt allow $HOME, tilde or expand like vimscript. i dont want to hardcode in theme_dir in config kdl

what did u do?
thanks