How to install and configure Yazi on Hyprland

Preface

Recently I came across Yazi, which describes itself as a “blazing fast terminal file manager written in Rust, based on async I/O.”

Since I am currently experimenting with Hyprland, I was looking for a terminal file manager.

Yazi looked interesting, so I wrote down how I configured it to work with Kitty and how to use it as a file picker.

Installing Yazi

According to the Yazi Wiki, all you need to do is:

sudo pacman -S yazi ffmpeg 7zip jq poppler fd ripgrep fzf zoxide resvg imagemagick

Configuring hyprland.conf

In your hyprland.conf there is a variable called $fileManager. If we change it to simply call yazi, nothing happens because Hyprland does not know which terminal to launch it in.

Set it like this:

$fileManager = kitty -e yazi

Now, pressing your Hyprland file-manager shortcut (mine is SUPER+E) should open Yazi.

However, when quitting Yazi, Kitty may show an annoying warning:

“Are you sure you want to close this OS window? It is running: yazi.”

Let’s disable that.

Disable Kitty’s window close warning

Edit your Kitty config:

nano ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

Find the setting confirm_os_window_close, uncomment it, and set it to:

confirm_os_window_close 0

Configure Yazi openers

mkdir -p ~/.config/yazi
cd ~/.config/yazi
nano yazi.toml

Add:

[mgr]
show_hidden = true

[opener]
play = [
        { run = 'mpv "$@"', orphan = true }
]
edit = [
        { run = 'nano "$@"', block = true }
]
json = [
        # If you have VSCODIUM installed
        { run = 'vscodium --ozone-platform-hint=wayland "$@"', block = true }
]

[open]
prepend_rules = [
        { name = "*.json", use = "json" },
        { name = "*.jsonc", use = "json" },

        { mime = "text/*", use = "edit" },
        { mime = "video/*", use = "play" },

        # Multiple openers for a single rule
        { name = "*.html", use = [ "open", "edit" ] }
]

Set Yazi as the default file picker

This is somewhat of a rabbit hole. Some applications use the configured system FileChooser, while others implement their own, Firefox being a notable example.

Even with a configured ~/.config/mimeapps.list I could not get Firefox to use Yazi.
The following setup worked for me.

Install xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser

yay -S xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser-hunkyburrito-git

Configure termfilechooser

mkdir -p ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser
cp /usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser/yazi-wrapper.sh ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser/yazi-wrapper.sh
nano ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser/config

Paste this:

[filechooser]
cmd=yazi-wrapper.sh
env=TERMCMD=kitty
create_help_file=0
default_dir=$HOME
open_mode = suggested
save_mode = last

Restart the xdg desktop portal service:

systemctl --user restart xdg-desktop-portal.service

Configure xdg-desktop-portal

We should also set our preferred FileChooser in ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal/portals.conf.

mkdir -p ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal
nano ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal/portals.conf

Add:

[preferred]
org.freedesktop.impl.portal.FileChooser=termfilechooser

Configure Firefox

In the Firefox address bar type:

about:config

Accept the warning and continue.

At the top is a search bar. Type in:

widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.file-picker

Set the value to 1.

Let the file picker float!

If you want the file picker window to float, add the following rule to your hyprland.conf:

windowrule = float, center, size 800 600, class:kitty, title:termfilechooser

That’s it!

Applications should now be able to use Yazi to select files.

One more thing to keep in mind:
While testing this with Firefox downloads, I noticed one quirk. If you press Enter, the file is not saved. Instead, the instruction file is saved. Press O to confirm the save.

Cheers.