Yazi - Blazing Fast Terminal File Manager Cheatsheet

Yazi - Blazing Fast Terminal File Manager Cheatsheet

A blazing fast terminal file manager written in Rust, built on async I/O. Features image previews, bulk operations, Vim-like keybindings, a Lua plugin system, and integrations with ripgrep, fd, fzf, and zoxide.

Installation

Platform	Command
macOS (Homebrew)	brew install yazi ffmpegthumbnailer poppler fd ripgrep fzf zoxide font-symbols-only-nerd-font
Arch Linux	sudo pacman -S yazi ffmpegthumbnailer poppler fd ripgrep fzf zoxide
Ubuntu/Debian	Download from GitHub releases
Fedora/RHEL	sudo dnf install yazi
Windows (Scoop)	scoop install yazi
Windows (Winget)	winget install sxyazi.yazi
Cargo (All platforms)	cargo install --locked yazi-fm yazi-cli
Nix	nix-env -iA nixpkgs.yazi

Optional dependencies for full features: ffmpegthumbnailer (video thumbnails), poppler (PDF preview), fd, ripgrep, fzf, zoxide, ImageMagick, 7-Zip/unar.

Launch: Run yazi or yazi /path/to/dir

Navigation

Key	Description
h	Go to parent directory
l or Enter	Open file or enter directory
j	Move cursor down
k	Move cursor up
J	Move cursor down 5 lines
K	Move cursor up 5 lines
g g	Jump to first item
G	Jump to last item
H	Go back in history
L	Go forward in history
~	Go to home directory
Backspace	Go to parent directory
z	Jump via zoxide (fuzzy directory search)
Z	Jump via fzf

File Operations

Key	Description
o	Open selected file with default program
O	Open file interactively (choose program)
y	Yank (copy) selected files
x	Cut selected files
p	Paste yanked/cut files
P	Paste with overwrite
d	Trash selected files
D	Permanently delete selected files
a	Create a new file or directory (append / for directory)
r	Rename selected file
c	Rename with cursor at start
.	Toggle showing hidden files

Selection

Key	Description
Space	Toggle selection on current item
v	Enter visual mode (select range)
V	Enter visual mode (unselect range)
Ctrl+a	Select all items
Ctrl+r	Inverse selection (toggle all)
Esc	Cancel selection / exit visual mode

Searching and Filtering

Key	Description
/	Search in current directory
?	Search backwards
n	Jump to next search match
N	Jump to previous search match
f	Filter current directory (show matching only)
s	Search files with fd across subdirectories
S	Search file contents with ripgrep

Sorting

Key	Description
,m	Sort by modified time
,M	Sort by modified time (reverse)
,c	Sort by created time
,C	Sort by created time (reverse)
,e	Sort by extension
,E	Sort by extension (reverse)
,a	Sort alphabetically
,A	Sort alphabetically (reverse)
,n	Sort naturally (number-aware)
,N	Sort naturally (reverse)
,s	Sort by size
,S	Sort by size (reverse)
,r	Sort randomly

Tabs

Key	Description
t	Create new tab
1-9	Switch to tab by number
[	Switch to previous tab
]	Switch to next tab
{	Swap tab with previous
}	Swap tab with next

Bulk Operations

Key	Description
Space (on multiple)	Select multiple files, then use y/x/d
r	Rename (use on selection for bulk rename)

Bulk Rename Workflow

1. Select files with Space or visual mode (v)
2. Press r to open bulk rename in your $EDITOR
3. Edit filenames in the editor
4. Save and close — Yazi applies all renames

Preview System

Yazi provides built-in previews for many file types:

File Type	Preview
Images (PNG, JPG, etc.)	Inline image preview (in supported terminals)
Videos	Thumbnail preview (requires ffmpegthumbnailer)
PDFs	First page preview (requires poppler)
Text/Code	Syntax-highlighted preview
Archives	Contents listing
Directories	Child file listing

Supported terminals for image preview: Kitty, iTerm2, WezTerm, Ghostty, foot, Konsole, Windows Terminal, VSCode, Warp.

Configuration

Config File Locations

File	Purpose
~/.config/yazi/yazi.toml	General settings
~/.config/yazi/keymap.toml	Custom keybindings
~/.config/yazi/theme.toml	Colors and styles
~/.config/yazi/init.lua	Plugin initialization

Key Settings (yazi.toml)

[manager]
show_hidden = false          # Show dotfiles by default
sort_by = "natural"          # natural, alphabetical, size, modified, created, extension
sort_dir_first = true        # Directories before files
linemode = "size"            # Info shown next to filename: size, mtime, permissions, none

[preview]
max_width = 1000             # Max preview width
max_height = 1000            # Max preview height
image_quality = 75           # JPEG quality for thumbnails

[opener]
# Custom file openers
edit = [{ run = 'nvim "$@"', block = true }]
open = [{ run = 'open "$@"' }]  # macOS: open, Linux: xdg-open

Shell Integration

Change directory on exit (recommended)

Add to your shell config so exiting Yazi puts you in the last directory you visited:

Bash/Zsh:

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"
}

Fish:

function y
  set tmp (mktemp -t "yazi-cwd.XXXXXX")
  yazi $argv --cwd-file="$tmp"
  if set cwd (command cat -- $tmp); and [ -n "$cwd" ]; and [ "$cwd" != "$PWD" ]
    builtin cd -- "$cwd"
  end
  rm -f -- $tmp
end

Plugin System

# Install a plugin
ya pack -a owner/plugin-name

# Update all plugins
ya pack -u

# List installed plugins
ya pack -l

Popular plugins: git status integration, archive extraction, image manipulation, custom previewers.

Common Workflows

# Launch in a specific directory
yazi ~/projects

# Quick file browsing with image previews
yazi ~/photos

# Bulk rename workflow
# 1. Navigate to directory
# 2. Select files with Space or v
# 3. Press r to bulk rename in editor

Comparison with Other File Managers

Feature	Yazi	ranger	lf	nnn
Language	Rust	Python	Go	C
Async I/O	Yes	No	No	No
Image preview	Native	Yes	Plugin	Plugin
Plugin system	Lua	Python	Shell	Shell
Speed	Very fast	Moderate	Fast	Very fast
Bulk rename	Built-in	Built-in	External	External
Vim keybindings	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Resources

• Official Website
• Documentation
• GitHub Repository
• Plugin Directory