zellit

Previously known as zellij-bar-theme-config / zellij-tab-config. Renamed to zellit starting with v0.7.0. The old names redirect to this repo. I got tired of remembering and typing zellij-tab-config ;)

A terminal UI for creating, editing, and applying Zellij themes. Live preview of your changes across all UI components — tab bar, panes, status bar, tables, lists — before writing anything to disk.

New — sidebar navigation. The element selector is now a single sidebar tree on the left, grouped by section (TabBar / Panes / Content / Status). Move through every element with ↑ ↓ (or j / k), press 1–4 to jump straight to a group, and / to fuzzy-search any element. Press A for an About screen with project links.

Features

• Live preview — see every color change reflected instantly across a full Zellij-layout mockup
• 41 built-in themes — all official Zellij themes bundled, no extra files needed
• Per-component theming — control foreground and background for each UI element independently
• Dual-mode color picker — RGB sliders plus an HSL field picker with live HEX/RGB/HSL values
• Yank / paste / undo — copy a color, paste it elsewhere, or undo the last change (y / p / u)
• Theme loader — fuzzy search, filter by built-in or saved, live preview on scroll
• Rename / delete — manage saved themes directly from the loader (r / d)
• Save themes — writes to ~/.config/zellij/themes/ in the correct KDL format
• Apply to Zellij — sets theme "<name>" in ~/.config/zellij/config.kdl so Zellij picks it up on next launch
• In-app self-update — checks GitHub releases on startup and can replace the binary in place on Linux x86_64 (U when an update is available)
• Help overlay — press ? for a full keybinding reference

Installation

Prebuilt binary (Linux x86_64)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/allisonhere/zellit/main/install-binary.sh | sh

Build from source (all platforms)

Requires git and cargo (rustup.rs).

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/allisonhere/zellit/main/install-source.sh | sh

Both scripts install to ~/.local/bin by default. Override with INSTALL_DIR:

curl -fsSL ... | INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin sh

Manual install

git clone https://github.com/allisonhere/zellit.git
cd zellit
cargo build --release
cp target/release/zellit ~/.local/bin/

Usage

zellit

The app opens a full-terminal preview of a Zellij layout. Use the keyboard to navigate and edit.

Keybindings

Key	Action
↑ ↓ / j k	Move through the sidebar tree of preview elements
1–4	Jump to a group (TabBar / Panes / Content / Status)
/	Fuzzy-search and jump to any element
Tab	Toggle FG / BG (not available on pane borders)
c / Enter	Open color picker for the selected color
y	Yank (copy) current color
p	Paste yanked color
u	Undo last color change
s	Save theme as… (prompts for a name)
l	Open theme loader
a	Apply current theme to Zellij
U	Install the latest released binary when an update is available on Linux x86_64
?	Toggle help overlay
A	About — project credits and links
q / Esc	Quit

Color picker:

Key	Action
Tab / Shift + Tab	Move focus between picker controls
m	Switch RGB sliders / HSL field
f	Toggle FG / BG (non-pane elements only)
↑ ↓ ← →	Nudge the focused control
Shift / Alt with arrows	Coarse / fine nudging
#	Jump straight to hex editing
Enter	Edit the focused value field or confirm
Esc	Cancel
mouse drag	Drag in the HSL field or lightness slider

Theme loader:

Key	Action
type	Search — fuzzy filter by name; Enter or ↓ to commit and navigate results
↑ ↓	Navigate themes
Enter	Load selected theme into editor
a	Apply selected theme directly to Zellij
b	Filter: built-in themes only
s	Filter: saved themes only
r	Rename selected saved theme
d	Delete selected saved theme
Esc	Clear search / cancel

Built-in themes

All 41 official Zellij themes are bundled in the binary and available immediately from the theme loader (l):

ansi · ao · atelier · ayu-dark · ayu-light · ayu-mirage · blade-runner · catppuccin-frappe · catppuccin-latte · catppuccin-macchiato · catppuccin-mocha · cyber-noir · dayfox · dracula · everforest-dark · everforest-light · flexoki-dark · gruber-darker · gruvbox-dark · gruvbox-light · iceberg-dark · iceberg-light · kanagawa · lucario · menace · molokai-dark · night-owl · nightfox · nord · one-half-dark · onedark · pencil-light · retro-wave · solarized-dark · solarized-light · terafox · tokyo-night · tokyo-night-dark · tokyo-night-light · tokyo-night-storm · vesper

Theme format

Themes are saved to ~/.config/zellij/themes/<name>.kdl:

themes {
    my-theme {
        ribbon_selected {
            base 30 30 46
            background 137 180 250
            emphasis_0 255 255 255
            emphasis_1 200 200 200
            emphasis_2 150 150 150
            emphasis_3 100 100 100
        }
        // text_unselected, ribbon_unselected, frame_selected, … etc.
    }
}

Standard Zellij palette themes (using fg, bg, black, red, … keys) are also supported — the loader maps palette colors to components automatically.

Themeable components

Component	What it styles
text_unselected / text_selected	Status-bar text — bare UI text / selection text
ribbon_unselected / ribbon_selected	Tabs and status-bar mode pills
frame_unselected / frame_selected / frame_highlight	Pane borders (FG only — border color)
table_title / table_cell_unselected / table_cell_selected	Table widgets
list_unselected / list_selected	List widgets
exit_code_success / exit_code_error	Command-pane exit code indicators

Requirements

• A terminal with true color support
• Rust stable (only needed if building from source)