Zellij
Terminal workspace and multiplexer written in Rust, an alternative to tmux.
HN commenters like Zellij as a tmux alternative with sane defaults and a gentler learning curve,1234 and for persistent sessions they can reattach to from laptops, phones and servers.5678 The most common complaint is weak keyboard-driven selection and copying from the scrollback,91011 which pushed some users back to other tools.1213
Why people recommend it
Sane defaults · 3
Commenters find it more approachable than tmux, with sensible default bindings and built-in features.
“Switched to Zellij a few years back mostly for the sane defaults”
“Personally I use Zellij, because tmux feels like learning another vim.”
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“none of them clicked in the same way with power, ease, and flexibility that zellij felt like it provided right away.”
Persistent sessions · 3
Users keep long-running sessions on one machine and reattach from phones, laptops and desktops.
“I freaking love Zellij.”
“one persistent zellij session on whatever machine stays on”
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“I use Terminus with Zellij and keep about 8 sessions going”
Agent workflows · 3
Several use it to run and manage coding agents across tabs and panes.
“I use zellij exclusively to work with agents”
“I use zellij a lot and created myself a zellij skill for an agent to manage my sessions/layouts in zellij directly.”
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“I switched from tmux to Zellij a while back”
Terminal IDE · 3
Paired with editors like Helix or Neovim, it serves as a lightweight IDE replacement.
“landed on Zellij and Yazi, made a dev console alias, and was off. Faster, lighter, less distracting.”
“ZelliJ really allows you to setup some IDE features”
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“I have switched to Helix inside Zellij + Jujutsu instead of git and not really looking back after.”
Scriptable layouts · 3
Layouts and sessions can be scripted, e.g. per git worktree or with fzf.
“script which creates a git worktree + zellij pane with a specific layout”
“just fake the layout using zellij, fzf and a little scripting”
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“I use zellij a lot and created myself a zellij skill for an agent to manage my sessions/layouts in zellij directly.”
Terminal pairing · 2
Reported to work well with Ghostty and Alacritty.
“I recently switched to Zellij with Ghostty and the selection/copy/pasting seems to work just fine.”
“I use alacritty + zellij and it works fantastic.”
Caveats and dissent
Copy and scrollback · 3
Keyboard-based selection and copying from scrollback is limited, often requiring the mouse or an editor.
“it using it would force me to adapt to a bunch of new workflows that didn't resemble anything I had seen before, and it didn't really seem worth the effort”
“I love zellij - it feels like the future”
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“it is also fantastic and intuitive product. I had issues with... I think selection and copying and pasting which made me abandon it”
Learning curve · 2
Some found its workflows unfamiliar or limiting at first.
“it using it would force me to adapt to a bunch of new workflows that didn't resemble anything I had seen before, and it didn't really seem worth the effort”
“I stick to CLI's and TUI's and use zellij as my window manager.”
Rough edges · 2
Some users found things annoying and went back to tmux, or note it is not perfect.
“It fulfilled my requirements for a terminal multiplexer, but I found some things annoying”
“Switched to Zellij a few years back mostly for the sane defaults”
Screen space · 1
One commenter dislikes losing terminal real estate to the multiplexer UI.
“I've tried tmux and Zellij and if I used a multiplexer, it would be Zellij.”
Unclear docs · 1
The landing page and docs are said to poorly explain what it is and how it differs from tmux.
“The landing page does a bad job at explaining what it is”
Often compared with
3 moved from tmux to Zellij
1 moved from Zellij to tmux
1 moved from Zellij to herdr
1 moved from Kitty to Zellij
1 moved from Zellij to Kitty
1 moved from Superset to Zellij
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Herdr has released native app 3 mentions
- Zellij 0.45.0: nested sessions, Kitty graphics, a fresh UI 3 mentions
- Tmux and Claude Code: Sessions, Send-Keys, and the Ceiling 2 mentions
- Herdr: One terminal to rule them all 2 mentions
- Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026) 2 mentions
- Zellij: A terminal workspace with batteries included 2 mentions
Also written as zellij. Data: zellij.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 41
“I recently switched to Zellij with Ghostty and the selection/copy/pasting seems to work just fine.”
“it using it would force me to adapt to a bunch of new workflows that didn't resemble anything I had seen before, and it didn't really seem worth the effort”
“it is also fantastic and intuitive product. I had issues with... I think selection and copying and pasting which made me abandon it”
“I highly recommend giving Zellij a try.”
“Personally I switched to zellij and haven't looked back.”
“I stick to CLI's and TUI's and use zellij as my window manager.”
“one persistent zellij session on whatever machine stays on”
“I am already a zellij user”
“landed on Zellij and Yazi, made a dev console alias, and was off. Faster, lighter, less distracting.”
“just fake the layout using zellij, fzf and a little scripting”
“tmux/zellij as multiplexers”
“Zellij is a breath of fresh air in the terminal and my daily driver for years.”
“I've tried tmux and Zellij and if I used a multiplexer, it would be Zellij.”
“Switched to Zellij a few years back mostly for the sane defaults”
“I want to keep my existing workflow in Kitty and tmux/zellij”
“I use Zellij”
“Personally I use Zellij, because tmux feels like learning another vim.”
“I use zellij exclusively to work with agents”
“I use alacritty + zellij and it works fantastic.”
“I used to treat Zellij as an OS to build my own IDE in. Now it’s Kitty.”
“I use zellij a lot and created myself a zellij skill for an agent to manage my sessions/layouts in zellij directly.”
“I switched from tmux to Zellij a while back”
“I've found having another claude chat or whatever use the tool to great success coupled with zellij, but could also be zed, tmux or whatever.”
“I love zellij - it feels like the future”
“also replaced Alacritty + Zellij”
“script which creates a git worktree + zellij pane with a specific layout”
“It's a lightweight nodeJS cli that sits in a couple of Zellij panes”
“Blink terminal with Zellij for shared session persistence with my Mac at home.”
“none of them clicked in the same way with power, ease, and flexibility that zellij felt like it provided right away.”
“I installed Zellij on my server where most of work is happening and local machine and this works well for me.”
“I used Zellij to get better UX”
“I use yazi for a visual filepicker and zellij for tabs.”
“I spend all day in a terminal multiplexer (zellij) with neovim and other splits.”
“I still use zellij. I like the scroll info, the default bindings”
“I have switched to Helix inside Zellij + Jujutsu instead of git and not really looking back after.”
“It fulfilled my requirements for a terminal multiplexer, but I found some things annoying”
“I use Terminus with Zellij and keep about 8 sessions going”
“ZelliJ really allows you to setup some IDE features”
“The software I use everyday, like Cron (named after a greek god of time); Python (named after a comedy act) and Zellij (names after a tiling craft)”
“The landing page does a bad job at explaining what it is”
“I freaking love Zellij.”