Shell integration

Quit into a directory

A program cannot change its parent shell's directory, so strata comes with a small shell function. Once it is installed, Q quits and leaves your shell in the directory you were browsing. Plain q leaves it where it was — or set cd_on_quit = true to always follow.

Add one line to your shell's config:

# bash — ~/.bashrc
eval "$(strata --shell-init bash)"
 
# zsh — ~/.zshrc
eval "$(strata --shell-init zsh)"

# fish — ~/.config/fish/config.fish
strata --shell-init fish | source

# PowerShell — $PROFILE
Invoke-Expression (& strata --shell-init powershell | Out-String)

The function is called strata and wraps the real binary, so you keep typing strata as usual.

Running commands

Commands can name the marked items (or the hovered one when nothing is marked) with placeholders. strata quotes them for the shell:

:!tar czf backup.tgz {s}        one archive of everything marked
:each ffmpeg -i {f} {f}.mp3     one command per marked item
:each gzip -k                   no placeholder: the item goes at the end

Other braces, such as {} in find -exec or {print $1} in awk, are left as they are. Placeholders work on local folders only.

Other flags

strata [DIR...]           one panel per directory
  -c, --config <FILE>     use another config file
  -t, --theme <THEME>     override the theme
      --no-plugins        start without plugins
      --list-themes       print every theme
      --dump-config       print a documented config
      --shell-init <SH>   print the shell function (bash, zsh, fish, powershell)
      --chooser-file <F>  pick files for another program (see below)
  -l, --layout <NAME>     open the tabs and panels saved with :layout save
  -e, --command <CMD>     run a `:` command once the panels are up (repeatable)
      --remote <CMD>      send a `:` command to a running strata (repeatable)
      --remote-query      print a running strata's directory and marked items
      --instance <PID>    the strata --remote talks to
      --list-instances    print each running strata's pid and directory

Picking files from other programs

strata --chooser-file <file> turns strata into a file picker: enter on a file (or on anything, once items are marked with space) writes the chosen paths to <file>, one per line, and quits. Quitting without choosing leaves the file untouched. Editors such as Neovim can use this the way they use yazi or ranger:

strata --chooser-file /tmp/chosen && cat /tmp/chosen

Scripting a running strata

-e runs : commands as strata starts, in the order given:

strata -e 'select *.jpg' -e 'sort size rev' ~/Pictures

--remote sends the same commands to a strata that is already running, so editors, scripts and window-manager keys can drive it. It prints what the command reported and exits nonzero if it failed:

strata --remote 'cd ~/projects' --remote 'select *.rs'
strata --remote-query | jq -r '.marked[]'     # the marked items, one per line

--remote-query prints JSON with cwd, hovered, marked, local (false on remote locations), panel and pid.

Programs strata starts, such as a :! shell, get STRATA_INSTANCE set to its pid, so strata --remote run from them drives that strata. Elsewhere it drives the most recently started one; pick another with --instance <pid> (see --list-instances).

Each strata listens on a socket only you can open, in $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/strata (else a private folder in the temp dir). Set remote_control = false under [general] to turn it off. The socket also takes one request per line from tools like socat: a command line, {"command": "..."} or {"query": "state"}, each answered with a line of JSON. Remote control needs Unix sockets, so it is not available on Windows yet; -e works everywhere.