Once you’ve installed Yazi, start the program with:

Press q to quit and ~ to open the help menu.

Shell wrapper​

We suggest using this y shell wrapper that provides the ability to change the current working directory when exiting Yazi.

• Bash / Zsh
• Fish
• Nushell
• Elvish
• PowerShell
• Command Prompt

function y() {
	local tmp="$(mktemp -t "yazi-cwd.XXXXXX")" cwd
	yazi "$@" --cwd-file="$tmp"
	if cwd="$(command cat -- "$tmp")" && [ -n "$cwd" ] && [ "$cwd" != "$PWD" ]; then
		builtin cd -- "$cwd"
	fi
	rm -f -- "$tmp"
}

To use it, copy the function into the configuration file of your respective shell.

Then use y instead of yazi to start, and press q to quit, you’ll see the CWD changed. Sometimes, you don’t want to change, press Q to quit.

Keybindings​

Navigation​

To navigate between files and directories you can use the arrow keys ←, ↓, ↑ and → or Vim-like keys such as h, j, k, l:

Key binding	Alternate key	Action
k	↑	Move the cursor up
j	↓	Move the cursor down
l	→	Enter hovered directory
h	←	Leave the current directory and into its parent

Further navigation commands can be found in the table below.

Key binding	Action
K	Seek up 5 units in the preview
J	Seek down 5 units in the preview
g ⇒ g	Move cursor to the top
G	Move cursor to the bottom
z	Jump to a directory using zoxide
Z	Jump to a directory or reveal a file using fzf

Selection​

To select files and directories, the following commands are available.

Key binding	Action
Space	Toggle selection of hovered file/directory
v	Enter visual mode (selection mode)
V	Enter visual mode (unset mode)
Ctrl + a	Select all files
Ctrl + r	Inverse selection of all files
Esc	Cancel selection

File operations​

To interact with selected files/directories use any of the commands below.

Key binding	Action
o	Open selected files
O	Open selected files interactively
Enter	Open selected files
Shift + Enter	Open selected files interactively (some terminals don’t support it yet)
Tab	Show the file information
y	Yank selected files (copy)
x	Yank selected files (cut)
p	Paste yanked files
P	Paste yanked files (overwrite if the destination exists)
Y or X	Cancel the yank status
d	Trash selected files
D	Permanently delete selected files
a	Create a file (ends with / for directories)
r	Rename selected file(s)
.	Toggle the visibility of hidden files

Further file operation commands can be found in the table below.

Key binding	Action
;	Run a shell command
:	Run a shell command (block until finishes)
-	Symlink the absolute path of yanked files
_	Symlink the relative path of yanked files
Ctrl + -	Hardlink yanked files

Copy paths​

To copy paths, use any of the following commands below.

Observation: c ⇒ d indicates pressing the c key followed by pressing the d key.

Key binding	Action
c ⇒ c	Copy the file path
c ⇒ d	Copy the directory path
c ⇒ f	Copy the filename
c ⇒ n	Copy the filename without extension

Filter files​

Key binding	Action
f	Filter files

Find files​

Key binding	Action
/	Find next file
?	Find previous file
n	Go to the next found
N	Go to the previous found

Search files​

Key binding	Action
s	Search files by name using fd
S	Search files by content using ripgrep
Ctrl + s	Cancel the ongoing search

Sorting​

To sort files/directories use the following commands.

Observation: , ⇒ a indicates pressing the , key followed by pressing the a key.

Key binding	Action
, ⇒ m	Sort by modified time
, ⇒ M	Sort by modified time (reverse)
, ⇒ b	Sort by birth time
, ⇒ B	Sort by birth time (reverse)
, ⇒ e	Sort by file extension
, ⇒ E	Sort by file extension (reverse)
, ⇒ a	Sort alphabetically
, ⇒ A	Sort alphabetically (reverse)
, ⇒ n	Sort naturally
, ⇒ N	Sort naturally (reverse)
, ⇒ s	Sort by size
, ⇒ S	Sort by size (reverse)
, ⇒ r	Sort randomly

Multi-tab​

Key binding	Action
t	Create a new tab with CWD
1, 2, …, 9	Switch to the N-th tab
[	Switch to the previous tab
]	Switch to the next tab
{	Swap current tab with previous tab
}	Swap current tab with next tab
Ctrl + c	Close the current tab

Flavors​

Pick a color scheme you like from our flavors repository, or cooking a flavor!