zellij-nav.nvim

This is a Neovim plugin, which integrates window navigation with zellij.

It creates four new commands, which will move between windows inside Neovim (like ^w h et al.), but once it hits the edge of your editor it will attempt to switch to the next zellij pane.

Commands:

• ZellijNavigateLeft
• ZellijNavigateDown
• ZellijNavigateUp
• ZellijNavigateRight

It also exports the lua versions, which you can call like this:

• require("zellij-nav").left()
• require("zellij-nav").down()
• require("zellij-nav").up()
• require("zellij-nav").right()

This is written in the spirit of vim-tmux-navigator, but for zellij instead, while also staying as simple and lightweight as possible.

Installing

lazy (recommended)

{
  "https://git.sr.ht/~swaits/zellij-nav.nvim",
  lazy = true,
  event = "VeryLazy",
  keys = {
    { "<c-h>", "<cmd>ZellijNavigateLeft<cr>",  { silent = true, desc = "navigate left"  } },
    { "<c-j>", "<cmd>ZellijNavigateDown<cr>",  { silent = true, desc = "navigate down"  } },
    { "<c-k>", "<cmd>ZellijNavigateUp<cr>",    { silent = true, desc = "navigate up"    } },
    { "<c-l>", "<cmd>ZellijNavigateRight<cr>", { silent = true, desc = "navigate right" } },
  },
  opts = {},
}

pckr

{
  "https://git.sr.ht/~swaits/zellij-nav.nvim",
  config = function()
    require("zellij-nav").setup()

    local map = vim.keymap.set
    map("n", "<c-h>", "<cmd>ZellijNavigateLeft<cr>",  { desc = "navigate left"  })
    map("n", "<c-j>", "<cmd>ZellijNavigateDown<cr>",  { desc = "navigate down"  })
    map("n", "<c-k>", "<cmd>ZellijNavigateUp<cr>",    { desc = "navigate up"    })
    map("n", "<c-l>", "<cmd>ZellijNavigateRight<cr>", { desc = "navigate right" })

  end
}

vim-plug

Plug 'https://git.sr.ht/~swaits/zellij-nav.nvim'
lua require("zellij-nav").setup()

nnoremap <c-h> <cmd>ZellijNavigateLeft<cr>
nnoremap <c-j> <cmd>ZellijNavigateDown<cr>
nnoremap <c-k> <cmd>ZellijNavigateUp<cr>
nnoremap <c-l> <cmd>ZellijNavigateRight<cr>

Configuring Zellij

This plugin only covers the Neovim side of things. To get to a fully seamless workflow, we need zellij to do a few things too.

In an ideal world, we could map C-hjkl to work identically across both zellij and Neovim, but that's not possible. Unfortunately, today, zellij has a few problems, which prevent us from getting to that point.

First, zellij doesn't allow us to bind C-j to anything. This is a known bug.

Second, and more critically, upon any of the C-hjkl keystrokes in zellij, we need to be able to:

1. Determine whether the focussed pane is running nvim.
2. If so, forward the keystrokes to the application; for example, using the zellij Write action.
3. If not, act on the keystroke directly in zellij by using the MoveFocus <direction> action.

Presently, I have not figured out a way to do this, even through the zellij plugin system.

Thus, my configuration uses A-hjkl in zellij. So, I use C-hjkl to move around within Neovim, and to move from Neovim to another zellij pane. But if I'm in a non-nvim zellij pane, I just use A-hjkl to switch panes. It's not ideal, but it's the best I know today.

MIT License

Copyright © 2023 Stephen Waits steve@waits.net

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.