Panels & tabs

Panels

strata opens two panels by default (panels = 2 in the config). Each panel has its own directory, history, sort order, filter and marks.

History

Each panel remembers the last 100 places it left. Going back puts the cursor on the item it was on. History reaches across filesystems: H from inside an archive, an SFTP server or a Docker container goes back to where you were before. g o (alt+h with the classic preset), or :history, lists every place you can go back (←) or forward (→) to. Folders that no longer exist are skipped, and disconnecting a server removes its places. The classic preset has no forward key; use the picker.

The focused panel has a coloured border. Its bottom border shows the mode — Browser, Tree, Grid, or Select while items are marked — and your position, such as 3/24.

Tree view

Press z t (alt+t with the classic preset), or run :tree, to show the panel's folder as a tree. Folders open in place instead of being entered:

New files, new folders and pastes go inside the hovered folder when it is expanded, and next to the hovered item otherwise. Marks, file operations, git markers and folder sizes work across the whole tree. The filter matches paths relative to the panel's folder and lists matches flat. Expanded folders are watched for changes too, and the tree works on remote connections, where each folder loads in the background.

Thumbnail grid

Folders where most files are images or videos (three or more, folders not counted) open as a grid of thumbnails. Press z g (alt+v with the classic preset), or run :grid, to switch any folder between the grid and the list:

Folders and other files show their icon. Video frames need ffmpegthumbnailer or ffmpeg, and only work for local files; image thumbnails work everywhere, including remote connections and archives. Thumbnails are made in the background, those on screen first. Thumbnails of videos and of images over 512 KB are kept in ~/.cache/strata/thumbnails, so they are only made once. Clicks, the right-click menu and drag and drop work on tiles.

With auto_grid = true (the default) your choice lasts until you leave the folder. With auto_grid = false nothing switches by itself and the grid stays on from folder to folder until you turn it off. grid_tile_width sets the smallest tile width in columns. Without image support in the terminal (or with image_preview = false) tiles show icons only.

Hide files ignored by git

Press z i (alt+i with the classic preset), or run :set gitignored, to leave out everything git ignores — build output such as target/ or node_modules/, logs, and whatever your .gitignore files, .git/info/exclude and global excludes file list. Tracked files always stay. It works in the list, the tree view and flat listings of local folders, and the status line says gitignored hidden while it is on. Set hide_gitignored = true to start that way.

strata asks git itself (git check-ignore, once per repository and listing, off the UI thread), so the answer always matches what git does.

Tabs

Tabs keep whole workspaces apart: every tab has its own panels.

Open tabs are listed in the top bar. With the classic preset, use ctrl+t, alt+← / alt+→ and alt+w.

Set restore_session = true to reopen your tabs, folders, sort orders, tree views and cursor positions from the last time you quit whenever you start strata without paths. Remote panels are not reopened; a folder that no longer exists opens at its nearest parent.

Layouts

A layout is a set of tabs and panels saved under a name, so you can keep one for each project or task:

Names are one word; tab completes them. Start strata with strata --layout <name> to open one straight away, or set default_layout = "<name>" to open it whenever you start without paths. What opens at start, first match wins: --layout, then the paths you give, then default_layout, then restore_session. --layout and paths can't be combined, and a missing --layout stops strata with an error, while a missing default_layout only warns. Layouts are kept in layouts.json in the data directory.

Folder sizes

Press d c (alt+d with the classic preset), run :set dir_sizes, or set dir_sizes = true to show how much each folder holds. Sizes are measured in the background without leaving the folder's disk and fill in as they finish; sorting by size then orders folders by them too. They are measured again when files change.

With extra_columns you can also show the modified date (in your date_format) and permissions next to each name.

The sidebar

The sidebar lists well-known places, your pinned directories, mounted disks (removable ones marked with an eject icon), NAS connections and your tags. Press P to pin or unpin the current directory; pins are remembered between sessions. Click any entry, or focus the sidebar with ctrl+h and press enter.

Live refresh

Panels showing a local folder update by themselves when files change — whether strata or another program changed them. Bursts of changes, such as a large copy or a git checkout, are combined into one refresh. Press F5 to reload everything by hand, for example on network drives that do not report changes.

SFTP, Docker and rclone (S3, WebDAV, FTP…) folders load in the background, so a slow server never freezes the screen; the panel shows loading… until the listing arrives.

Mouse

Drags go through the usual copy and move jobs, so name clashes are asked about and u undoes them. Dropping items where they already are does nothing.

Set mouse = false under [general] to leave the mouse to your terminal, for its own text selection.