Yazi

Yazi is a blazing-fast terminal file manager developed in Rust, using non-blocking async I/O for an efficient, user-friendly, and highly customizable experience. It features full asynchronous support, distributing CPU tasks across multiple threads to maximize resource use and improve performance.

It offers powerful async task scheduling with real-time progress updates, task cancellation, and internal prioritization. It supports multiple image protocols natively and integrates with Überzug++ for broad terminal compatibility. Additionally, Yazi includes built-in code highlighting and image decoding functionalities, along with a pre-loading mechanism to speed up file loading processes.

Installation

Using nix-shell

nix-shell -p yazi

Using global configuration

environment.systemPackages = [
  pkgs.yazi
];

After modifying your configuration, apply the changes by running:

sudo nixos-rebuild switch

Using home configuration

home.packages = [ 
  pkgs.yazi 
];

After updating your configuration, apply the changes by running:

home-manager switch

Configuration

Basic

programs.yazi = {
    enable = true;
};

Advanced

programs.yazi = {
  enable = true;
  settings = {
    manager = {
      layout = [
        1
        4
        3
      ];
      sort_by = "natural";
      sort_sensitive = true;
      sort_reverse = false;
      sort_dir_first = true;
      linemode = "none";
      show_hidden = true;
      show_symlink = true;
    };

    preview = {
      image_filter = "lanczos3";
      image_quality = 90;
      tab_size = 1;
      max_width = 600;
      max_height = 900;
      cache_dir = "";
      ueberzug_scale = 1;
      ueberzug_offset = [
        0
        0
        0
        0
      ];
    };

    tasks = {
      micro_workers = 5;
      macro_workers = 10;
      bizarre_retry = 5;
    };
  };
}

Tips and Tricks

Location of options

The home manager options are defined in the following Home Manager Options Manual.

The system-wide options are listed on MyNixOS.

Bleeding edge

The upstream repository provides a flake so that Nix users can easily keep up with the bleeding edge.

inputs = {
    yazi.url = "github:sxyazi/yazi";
};

Afterwords, you can use the new package.

# Global
environment.systemPackages = [ yazi.packages.${pkgs.system}.default ];

# Home Manager
home.packages = [ yazi.packages.${pkgs.system}.default ];

Pre-built artifacts are served at https://yazi.cachix.org, so that Nix users don't have to build Yazi on their machine.

nix = {
  settings = {
    substitute = true;
    substituters = [
      "https://yazi.cachix.org"
    ];
    trusted-public-keys = [
      "yazi.cachix.org-1:Dcdz63NZKfvUCbDGngQDAZq6kOroIrFoyO064uvLh8k="
    ];
  };
};

Stylix integration

theme = with config.stylix.base16Scheme; {
  filetype = {
    rules = [
      # Images
      {
        mime = "image/*";
        fg = "#${base0B}";
      }

      # Videos
      {
        mime = "video/*";
        fg = "#${base03}";
      }
      # Audio
      {
        mime = "audio/*";
        fg = "#${base08}";
      }
    ];
  };
};

Stylix can do it automatically for you if the following option is set:

stylix.targets.yazi.enable = true;

Key mapping

# Hyprland
bind = [
  "$mod, E, exec, kitty -e yazi"
];