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τ-mux τ-mux v0.11.0

File explorer + editor

τ-mux ships a native file explorer in the sidebar and a CodeMirror 6 editor pane. Together they let you browse the workspace’s CWD, open files into a split, edit them, and save — without leaving the terminal. Both are native-only today; the web mirror’s HTTP/WS protocol is not yet wired for them.

Section titled “Sidebar CWD file explorer”

Every workspace card carries a CWD row at the top, even single-CWD workspaces and metadata-unavailable states. Below the CWD row sits a collapsible file explorer rooted at the selected workspace CWD.

Behaviour

Section titled “Behaviour”
  • Lazy listing. Directories are read on expand, not at app launch.
  • Default-ignored folders. .git, node_modules, .next, .nuxt, .svelte-kit, dist, build, coverage, .turbo, .cache are filtered by default (count surfaced as ignored).
  • Dotfiles are hidden by default; toggle in Settings → General → Show dotfiles.
  • Max entries per directory is capped (default 250, configurable in Settings). When the cap is hit the listing reports truncated: true so the UI can show a “+N more” affordance.
  • Sort order. Directories → symlinks → files, then natural alphanumeric.
  • Refresh rebuilds the listing for the focused directory.
  • Accessible semantics. The tree uses role="tree" / role="treeitem", supports keyboard nav, has strong focus rings.
Section titled “Symlink-cycle protection (0.3.148)”

Every kind: "symlink" entry now carries two extra fields:

  • linkTarget: string | null — the resolved realpath of the link, or null for dangling links.
  • cycle: true — set when the realpath equals the listed directory itself or any of its ancestors.

The webview can refuse navigation into a cycle: true entry with a clear “this would loop” affordance, instead of letting the user walk into the loop. The detection helper isAncestorOrSelf(candidate, root) correctly anchors on the path separator so /foo is NOT treated as an ancestor of /foobar.

New File action

Section titled “New File action”

The explorer’s header has a New File button that opens a create-enabled CodeMirror editor split. Save (⌘S) writes the file at the typed path; cancel (Escape) closes the empty split without leaving a stray file.

Source

Section titled “Source”
  • src/bun/sidebar-file-explorer.ts — pure listSidebarFileExplorerDirectory(request) function.
  • src/shared/types.ts — SidebarFileExplorerEntry and SidebarFileExplorerListing types.

CodeMirror editor pane

Section titled “CodeMirror editor pane”

The editor surface (editor:*) is a native webview-only pane backed by CodeMirror 6.

Opening files

Section titled “Opening files”
  • From the sidebar. Click any file in the explorer to open it in a new split (or focus the existing editor pane if it’s already open).
  • From the CLI. ht edit /path/to/file.ts or ht editor open /path/to/file.ts — both open the file in a split pane in the focused workspace.
  • New file. The explorer’s New File button (or ht editor new) opens an empty editor with a path prompt.

Editing

Section titled “Editing”
  • Save with ⌘S (writes atomically; see “Conflict detection” below).
  • Reload discards local edits and re-reads from disk.
  • Close the pane without saving — unsaved changes are lost (no prompt in v1; tracked as a polish gap).
  • Layout persistence. Editor panes survive a τ-mux restart — they’re stored in layout.json with the file path and re-open on launch.

Conflict detection

Section titled “Conflict detection”

The editor RPC carries the file’s mtime from open. On save, the bun side compares the on-disk mtime to the one the editor knew about. If they differ (something else wrote the file in the meantime), the save returns a conflict error instead of silently overwriting. The editor surface presents a “force save” affordance to override.

Binary / large-file guardrails

Section titled “Binary / large-file guardrails”

The bun-side editor.read RPC refuses to load files that:

  • Contain a null byte in the first 8 KiB (heuristic for binary).
  • Exceed a configurable size cap (default 5 MiB).

Both refusals come back as a structured error so the editor pane can render an explanatory placeholder.

Where the editor doesn’t go (yet)

Section titled “Where the editor doesn’t go (yet)”
  • Web mirror. The editor pane is native-only. The HTTP/WS protocol doesn’t carry editor content yet.
  • Multi-cursor / find-and-replace. Standard CodeMirror functionality is enabled but UI affordances beyond the editor’s built-in keymaps are minimal.
  • Language servers / completions. No LSP integration. CodeMirror’s built-in syntax highlighting is on; everything else is by-keyboard.

Source

Section titled “Source”
  • src/bun/webview-handlers/editor.ts — the bun-side RPC handlers.
  • src/views/terminal/editor-pane.ts — the webview editor surface.
  • src/bun/rpc-handlers/editor.ts — socket-side editor RPC (used by ht edit).

Read more

Section titled “Read more”