grove

A fast, minimal terminal file explorer with Vim-style navigation and Nerd Font icons.

Features

• Vim-style navigation - hjkl keys, g/G for top/bottom
• File operations - create, rename, delete, copy, cut, paste
• Smart preview - preview files and directories with Space
• Live file monitoring - see changes in real-time with visual indicators
• Search - incremental search with /, navigate with n/N
• Nerd Font icons - beautiful file type icons (requires Nerd Font)
• Responsive UI - adapts to terminal size
• Fast - built in Rust, handles large directories efficiently
• Minimal - single binary, no config files needed

Installation

From crates.io (recommended)

cargo install grove-tui

From source

git clone https://github.com/ixjosemi/grove.git
cd grove
cargo install --path .

For development

# Install locally (adds to ~/.cargo/bin/)
cargo install --path .

# Or run directly without installing
cargo run --release

Requirements

• Rust 1.70+
• A Nerd Font installed and configured in your terminal

Usage

# Open current directory
grove

# Open specific directory
grove ~/projects
grove /etc

Keybindings

Navigation

Key	Action
j / ↓	Move down
k / ↑	Move up
h / ←	Collapse directory / go to parent
l / → / Enter	Expand directory / open file in $EDITOR
g	Go to top
G	Go to bottom

File Operations

Key	Action
a	Create file
A	Create directory
r	Rename
d	Delete (with confirmation)
y	Copy (yank)
x	Cut
p	Paste
O	Open in system file manager

Preview

Key	Action
Space	Toggle preview
PgUp / PgDn	Scroll preview
Esc	Close preview

Other

Key	Action
/	Search
n / N	Next / previous search result
H	Toggle hidden files
E	Expand all directories
W	Collapse all directories
R	Refresh tree
?	Show help
q	Quit

Mouse

Action	Effect
Left click	Select item
Double click	Toggle directory expand/collapse
Right click	Open file / toggle directory
Scroll	Navigate up/down

Configuration

grove uses your system's $EDITOR environment variable to open files. If not set, it defaults to vim.

# Set your preferred editor
export EDITOR=nvim

Performance

• Lazy loading - directories are only loaded when expanded
• Optimized binary - LTO enabled, single codegen unit
• Minimal dependencies - fast startup time

Tech Stack

• Rust
• ratatui - Terminal UI framework
• crossterm - Cross-platform terminal manipulation

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide first.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.