zjswitcher

A zellij plugin that automatically switches between normal mode and locked mode based on configuration.

Why?

I configured Zellij with vim-like key bindings, using normal mode as insert mode and locked mode like qutebrowser's pass-through mode. I use ESC to exit insert mode and Shift-ESC for pass-through mode. However, I often forget to switch to locked mode in programs that use ESC. This plugin automatically switches between normal and locked modes when a program starts and remembers the input mode for each pane.

Features

• Automatically switches between normal and locked modes when a program starts.
• Remembers and maintains normal or locked modes for each pane. Switches to the saved mode when the focus changes if the current input mode is normal or locked.

Installation

1. Download zjswitcher.wasm from the latest release.
2. Put it in the plugins directory of your Zellij.

Configuration

• programs_in_locked_mode: A comma-separated list of programs that should run in locked mode at startup.

This plugin should load in background. Add this plugin in load_plugins section of your config.kdl file. Here's an example configuration:

load_plugins {
    "file:target/wasm32-wasip1/debug/zjswitcher.wasm" {
        programs_in_locked_mode "vim, nvim"
    }
}

To enable the plugin to switch modes automatically when a program starts, you need to send a message to the plugin with the name of the program. This can be done, for example, by setting up preexec and precmd hooks in zsh configuration.

autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook
preexec_pipe_message_to_zjswitcher() {
    [[ -n "$ZELLIJ" ]] && zellij pipe --name Event::CommandUpdate -- $1
}
add-zsh-hook preexec preexec_pipe_message_to_zjswitcher

precmd_pipe_message_to_zjswitcher() {
    [[ -n "$ZELLIJ" ]] && zellij pipe --name Event::CommandUpdate -- $SHELL
}
add-zsh-hook precmd precmd_pipe_message_to_zjswitcher