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',
  ':insert-output echo "\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

[jacokok]

I am having the same problem on nixos.

Tested using absolute path for cat /nix/store/3np822z1j9kngfyv0jbmm0xip2dxpgq0-system-path/bin/cat which also did not seem to work.

Is it possibly my helix version helix 25.01.1 (e7ac2fc) or more likely nix related.

Looking forward to this it is going to be awesome!

[nouritsu]

@jacokok @sxyazi

I have found the solution to this problem. Thank you for the comment @jacokok, the commit hash made me realise I'm not using the compiled-from-source version of helix either. Upon fixing this, everything works perfectly.

So, I use NixOS with a flake based config which also manages my home manager installation. I was compiling yazi and helix from source, however my helix configuration was managed by home manager. Now, home manager has an option called programs.helix.package which needs to be set to inputs.helix.packages.${pkgs.system}.default (or helix.packages.${pkgs.system}.default if you don't bind flake inputs to inputs) for home manager to use the compiled-from-source/flake package.

[jacokok]

Thanks @nouritsu. Just tried it out and it is working great.
I was really missing oil and this scratches the same itch.

[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!

[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).

[sumit-modak]

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',
]

[webdev23]

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

"C-y" = [
  ':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',
]

This is really good, as it solves inconsistencies between OS, and doesn't break the mouse scroll.
This feels like a the greatest path toward a plugin system, as subprogram could pass in variables and commands, as you shown here. I could only manage this using tmux, so far.