ज़ेलिज कमांड चीटशीट

Zellij is a terminal workspace and multiplexer with panes, tabs, layouts, session persistence and WebAssembly plugins. It is modal: a Ctrl chord enters a mode, then single keys act inside it.

ℹ️ Press Ctrl+p for pane mode, Ctrl+t for tab mode, Ctrl+n for resize, Ctrl+h for move, Ctrl+s for search/scroll, Ctrl+o for session. Esc or Ctrl+c returns to normal mode.

📦 Installation

# from crates.io
cargo install --locked zellij

# from a package manager
brew install zellij

# try it without installing anything
bash <(curl -L https://zellij.dev/launch)

🚀 Sessions

# start a session
zellij

# start a named session
zellij --session <name>

# attach to a session
zellij attach <name>

# attach, creating the session if it does not exist
zellij attach --create <name>

# list sessions
zellij list-sessions

# kill a session (it stays resurrectable)
zellij kill-session <name>

# kill every session
zellij kill-all-sessions

# delete a session for good
zellij delete-session <name>

🪟 Pane Mode — `Ctrl+p`

Key	Action
`n`	New pane
`d`	Split down (new pane below)
`r`	Split right (new pane to the right)
`x`	Close the focused pane
`f`	Toggle fullscreen for the focused pane
`w`	Toggle a floating pane
`e`	Embed a floating pane, or float an embedded one
`c`	Rename the pane
`z`	Toggle the pane frames
`←↑↓→` / `hjkl`	Move the focus

📑 Tab Mode — `Ctrl+t`

Key	Action
`n`	New tab
`x`	Close the tab
`r`	Rename the tab
`s`	Toggle sync — type into every pane at once
`b`	Break the focused pane out into its own tab
`[` / `]`	Move the pane to the previous / next tab
`←→` / `1…9`	Switch tabs

📐 Resize & Move

Mode	Keys	Action
Resize — `Ctrl+n`	`←↑↓→` / `hjkl`	Grow the pane in that direction
Resize — `Ctrl+n`	`+` / `-`	Grow or shrink the pane
Move — `Ctrl+h`	`←↑↓→` / `hjkl`	Move the pane in the layout

🔍 Search & Scrollback — `Ctrl+s`

Key	Action
`s`	Search the scrollback
`e`	Open the scrollback in your `$EDITOR`
`PgUp` / `PgDn`	Scroll a page at a time
`n` / `p`	Next / previous search hit
`c`	Clear the search

🗄 Session Mode — `Ctrl+o`

Key	Action
`d`	Detach — the session keeps running
`w`	Session manager (switch, resurrect, delete)
`p`	Plugin manager
`c`	Configuration

💡 Ctrl+g locks the interface so every key goes straight to the program in the pane (useful when the app wants Ctrl+p). Press Ctrl+g again to unlock. Ctrl+q quits Zellij.

⚡ Shortcuts Without a Mode

Keys	Action
`Alt+n`	New pane
`Alt+←↑↓→` / `Alt+hjkl`	Move the focus
`Alt+=` / `Alt+-`	Resize the focused pane
`Alt+[` / `Alt+]`	Cycle through the layouts
`Alt+f`	Toggle a floating pane
`Alt+i` / `Alt+o`	Move the tab left / right

🛠 Layouts

Layouts are KDL files that describe the panes and tabs a session starts with.

# start with a layout
zellij --layout <path>/layout.kdl

# dump the built-in default to start from
zellij setup --dump-layout default > layout.kdl

layout {
  tab name="editor" {
    pane split_direction="vertical" {
      pane
      pane command="cargo" {
        args "watch" "-x" "test"
      }
    }
  }
}

⚙️ Configuration

The config file is ~/.config/zellij/config.kdl.

# write the default configuration out to edit it
zellij setup --dump-config > ~/.config/zellij/config.kdl

# check where zellij looks for its files
zellij setup --check

theme "gruvbox-dark"
default_shell "fish"
pane_frames false

keybinds {
  normal {
    bind "Ctrl g" { SwitchToMode "locked"; }
  }
}

🔌 Running Commands & Plugins

# open a new pane running a command
zellij run -- htop

# open a file in a new pane, in your editor
zellij edit <file>

# drive a running session from a script
zellij action new-tab --name deploy
zellij action write-chars "make deploy"

# load a WebAssembly plugin
zellij --plugin <path>/plugin.wasm