---
title: "GitHub - junegunn/fzf: A command-line fuzzy finder"
url: https://stacklist.com/card/93685795-600c-493b-aa33-f1ad8e4b9e59
source_url: "https://github.com/junegunn/fzf"
stack: https://stacklist.com/stack/e311a40b-2cff-4429-b917-63135f507d81
summary: "fzf is a general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder and interactive terminal toolkit that enables fuzzy matching, file selection, command history browsing, and building custom terminal workflows. The documentation covers installation across multiple platforms and package managers, shell integration for Bash/Zsh/Fish/Nushell, Vim/Neovim plugin setup, and advanced usage including preview windows and interactive ripgrep integration."
tags: "fzf, command-line, fuzzy-finder, terminal, shell-integration, vim, cli-tool"
key_entities: "fzf (technology), junegunn (person), Bash (technology), Zsh (technology), Fish (technology), Nushell (technology), Vim (technology), Neovim (technology), Homebrew (technology), ripgrep (technology), fuzzy-matching (concept)"
classification: "reference"
content_hash: "sha256:321bda3abfc92d0f115d77027ee79449b9a0411a243665fd771264dfeaca0e0b"
acp_version: "0.2"
token_counts_approximate: 7960
visibility: public
agent_accessible: true
status: "final"
---

# GitHub - junegunn/fzf: A command-line fuzzy finder

Show your love for fzf -- T-shirts, mugs, and stickers now available! commitgoods.com/collections/fzf fzf is a general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder and an interactive terminal toolkit. Whether you're selecting files, browsing command history, previewing data, navigating complex datasets with fuzzy matching, or creating custom menus and workflows, fzf provides the building blocks to turn shell scripts into rich terminal applications. Highlights Portable // Distributed as a single binary for easy installation Fast // Optimized to process millions of items in milliseconds Programmable // Event-driven architecture for building custom terminal interfaces and workflows Batteries-included // Comes with integrations for Bash, Zsh, Fish, Nushell, Vim, and Neovim Table of Contents Installation Using Homebrew Using Mise Linux packages Windows packages Using git Binary releases Setting up shell integration Vim/Neovim plugin Upgrading fzf Building fzf Usage Using the finder Display modes --height mode --popup mode Search syntax Environment variables Customizing the look Options Demo Examples Key bindings for command-line Fuzzy completion Files and directories Process IDs Host names Environment variables / Aliases Customizing fuzzy completion for bash and zsh Customizing fzf options for completion Customizing completion source for paths and directories Supported commands (bash) Custom fuzzy completion Fuzzy completion for fish Fuzzy completion for Nushell Vim plugin Advanced topics Customizing for different types of input Performance Executing external programs Turning into a different process Reloading the candidate list 1. Update the list of processes by pressing CTRL-R 2. Switch between sources by pressing CTRL-D or CTRL-F 3. Interactive ripgrep integration Preview window Previewing an image Tips Respecting .gitignore Fish shell fzf Theme Playground Related projects License Goods Sponsors ❤️ Installation Using Homebrew You can use Homebrew (on macOS or Linux) to install fzf. brew install fzf Important To set up shell integration (key bindings and fuzzy completion), see the instructions below . fzf is also available via MacPorts : sudo port install fzf Using Mise You can use mise to install fzf. mise use -g fzf@latest Linux packages Package Manager Linux Distribution Command APK Alpine Linux sudo apk add fzf APT Debian 9+/Ubuntu 19.10+ sudo apt install fzf Conda conda install -c conda-forge fzf DNF Fedora sudo dnf install fzf Nix NixOS, etc. nix-env -iA nixpkgs.fzf Pacman Arch Linux sudo pacman -S fzf pkg FreeBSD pkg install fzf pkgin NetBSD pkgin install fzf pkg_add OpenBSD pkg_add fzf Portage Gentoo emerge --ask app-shells/fzf Spack spack install fzf XBPS Void Linux sudo xbps-install -S fzf Zypper openSUSE sudo zypper install fzf Important To set up shell integration (key bindings and fuzzy completion), see the instructions below . Windows packages On Windows, fzf is available via Chocolatey , Scoop , Winget , and MSYS2 : Package manager Command Chocolatey choco install fzf Scoop scoop install fzf Winget winget install fzf MSYS2 (pacman) pacman -S $MINGW_PACKAGE_PREFIX-fzf Using git Alternatively, you can "git clone" this repository to any directory and run install script. git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.git ~ /.fzf ~ /.fzf/install The install script will add lines to your shell configuration file to modify $PATH and set up shell integration. Binary releases You can download the official fzf binaries from the releases page. https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/releases Setting up shell integration Add the following line to your shell configuration file. bash # Set up fzf key bindings and fuzzy completion eval " $( fzf --bash ) " zsh # Set up fzf key bindings and fuzzy completion source <( fzf --zsh ) fish # Set up fzf key bindings fzf --fish | source Nushell -- Nushell does not support piping into source , so the install script generates a file in the autoload directory. If you didn't use the install script, you can manually set it up: # Generate the integration script mkdir ( $nu . default - config - dir | path join " autoload " ) fzf -- nushell | save - f ( $nu . default - config - dir | path join " autoload " " _fzf_integration.nu " ) Note --bash , --zsh , --fish , and --nushell options are only available in recent versions of fzf. If you have an older version of fzf, or want finer control, you can source individual script files in the /shell directory. The location of the files may vary depending on the package manager you use. Please refer to the package documentation for more information. (e.g. apt show fzf ) Tip You can disable CTRL-T, CTRL-R, or ALT-C bindings by setting the corresponding *_COMMAND variable to an empty string when sourcing the script. For example, to disable CTRL-R and ALT-C: bash: FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND= FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= eval "$(fzf --bash)" zsh: FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND= FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= source <(fzf --zsh) fish: fzf --fish | FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND= FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= source nushell: add to your env.nu : $env.FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND = ""; $env.FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND = "" Setting the variables after sourcing the script will have no effect. Vim/Neovim plugin If you use vim-plug , add this to your Vim configuration file: Plug ' junegunn/fzf ' , { ' do ' : { - > fzf#install () } } Plug ' junegunn/fzf.vim ' junegunn/fzf provides the basic library functions fzf#install() makes sure that you have the latest binary junegunn/fzf.vim is a separate project that provides a variety of useful commands To learn more about the Vim integration, see README-VIM.md . Tip If you use Neovim and prefer Lua-based plugins, check out fzf-lua . Upgrading fzf fzf is being actively developed, and you might want to upgrade it once in a while. Please follow the instruction below depending on the installation method used. git: cd ~/.fzf && git pull && ./install brew: brew update; brew upgrade fzf macports: sudo port upgrade fzf chocolatey: choco upgrade fzf vim-plug: :PlugUpdate fzf Building fzf See BUILD.md . Usage fzf will launch interactive finder, read the list from STDIN, and write the selected item to STDOUT. find * -type f | fzf > selected Without STDIN pipe, fzf will traverse the file system under the current directory to get the list of files. vim $( fzf ) Note You can override the default behavior Either by setting $FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND to a command that generates the desired list Or by setting --walker , --walker-root , and --walker-skip options in $FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS Warning A more robust solution would be to use xargs but we've presented the above as it's easier to grasp fzf --print0 | xargs -0 -o vim Tip fzf also has the ability to turn itself into a different process. fzf --bind ' enter:become(vim {}) ' See Turning into a different process for more information. Using the finder CTRL-K / CTRL-J (or CTRL-P / CTRL-N ) to move cursor up and down Enter key to select the item, CTRL-C / CTRL-G / ESC to exit On multi-select mode ( -m ), TAB and Shift-TAB to mark multiple items Emacs style key bindings Mouse: scroll, click, double-click; shift-click and shift-scroll on multi-select mode Display modes fzf by default runs in fullscreen mode, but there are other display modes. --height mode With --height HEIGHT[%] , fzf will start below the cursor with the given height. fzf --height 40% reverse layout and --border goes well with this option. fzf --height 40% --layout reverse --border By prepending ~ to the height, you're setting the maximum height. # Will take as few lines as possible to display the list seq 3 | fzf --height ~ 100% seq 3000 | fzf --height ~ 100% Height value can be a negative number. # Screen height - 3 fzf --height -3 --popup mode With --popup option, fzf will start in a popup window (requires tmux 3.3+ or Zellij 0.44+). # --popup [center|top|bottom|left|right][,SIZE[%]][,SIZE[%][,border-native]] fzf --popup center # Center, 50% width and height fzf --popup 80% # Center, 80% width and height fzf --popup 100%,50% # Center, 100% width and 50% height fzf --popup left,40% # Left, 40% width fzf --popup left,40%,90% # Left, 40% width, 90% height fzf --popup top,40% # Top, 40% height fzf --popup bottom,80%,40% # Bottom, 80% width, 40% height --popup is silently ignored when you're not on tmux or Zellij. Note If you're stuck with an old version of tmux that doesn't support popup, or if you want to open fzf in a regular tmux pane, check out fzf-tmux script. Tip You can add these options to $FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS so that they're applied by default. For example, # Open in a popup if on tmux or Zellij, otherwise use --height mode export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS= ' --height 40% --popup bottom,40% --layout reverse --border top ' Search syntax Unless otherwise specified, fzf starts in "extended-search mode" where you can type in multiple search terms delimited by spaces. e.g. ^music .mp3$ sbtrkt !fire Token Match type Description sbtrkt fuzzy-match Items that match sbtrkt 'wild exact-match (quoted) Items that include wild 'wild' exact-boundary-match (quoted both ends) Items that include wild at word boundaries ^music prefix-exact-match Items that start with music .mp3$ suffix-exact-match Items that end with .mp3 !fire inverse-exact-match Items that do not include fire !^music inverse-prefix-exact-match Items that do not start with music !.mp3$ inverse-suffix-exact-match Items that do not end with .mp3 If you don't prefer fuzzy matching and do not wish to "quote" every word, start fzf with -e or --exact option. Note that when --exact is set, ' -prefix "unquotes" the term. A single bar character term acts as an OR operator. For example, the following query matches entries that start with core and end with either go , rb , or py . ^core go$ | rb$ | py$ Environment variables FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND Default command to use when input is tty e.g. export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND='fd --type f' FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS Default options e.g. export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS="--layout=reverse --inline-info" FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS_FILE If you prefer to manage default options in a file, set this variable to point to the location of the file e.g. export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS_FILE=~/.fzfrc Warning FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND is not used by shell integration due to the slight difference in requirements. CTRL-T runs $FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND to get a list of files and directories ALT-C runs $FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND to get a list of directories vim ~/**<tab> runs fzf_compgen_path() with the prefix ( ~/ ) as the first argument cd foo**<tab> runs fzf_compgen_dir() with the prefix ( foo ) as the first argument The available options are described later in this document. Customizing the look The user interface of fzf is fully customizable with a large number of configuration options. For a quick setup, you can start with one of the style presets -- default , full , or minimal -- using the --style option. fzf --style full \ --preview ' fzf-preview.sh {} ' --bind ' focus:transform-header:file --brief {} ' Preset Screenshot default full minimal Here's an example based on the full preset: Details git ls-files | fzf --style full \ --border --padding 1,2 \ --border-label ' Demo ' --input-label ' Input ' --header-label ' File Type ' \ --preview ' fzf-preview.sh {} ' \ --bind ' result:transform-list-label: if [[ -z $FZF_QUERY ]]; then echo " $FZF_MATCH_COUNT items " else echo " $FZF_MATCH_COUNT matches for [$FZF_QUERY] " fi ' \ --bind ' focus:transform-preview-label:[[ -n {} ]] && printf " Previewing [%s] " {} ' \ --bind ' focus:+transform-header:file --brief {} || echo "No file selected" ' \ --bind ' ctrl-r:change-list-label( Reloading the list )+reload(sleep 2; git ls-files) ' \ --color ' border:#aaaaaa,label:#cccccc ' \ --color ' preview-border:#9999cc,preview-label:#ccccff ' \ --color ' list-border:#669966,list-label:#99cc99 ' \ --color ' input-border:#996666,input-label:#ffcccc ' \ --color ' header-border:#6699cc,header-label:#99ccff ' Options See the man page ( fzf --man or man fzf ) for the full list of options. Demo If you learn by watching videos, check out this screencast by @samoshkin to explore fzf features. Examples Wiki page of examples Disclaimer: The examples on this page are maintained by the community and are not thoroughly tested Advanced fzf examples Key bindings for command-line By setting up shell integration , you can use the following key bindings in bash, zsh, fish, and Nushell. CTRL-T - Paste the selected files and directories onto the command-line The list is generated using --walker file,dir,follow,hidden option You can override the behavior by setting FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND to a custom command that generates the desired list Or you can set --walker* options in FZF_CTRL_T_OPTS Set FZF_CTRL_T_OPTS to pass additional options to fzf # Preview file content using bat (https://github.com/sharkdp/bat) export FZF_CTRL_T_OPTS= " --walker-skip .git,node_modules,target --preview 'bat -n --color=always {}' --bind 'ctrl-/:change-preview-window(down|hidden|)' " Can be disabled by setting FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND to an empty string when sourcing the script CTRL-R - Paste the selected command from history onto the command-line. Select multiple commands with TAB . If you want to see the commands in chronological order, press CTRL-R again which toggles sorting by relevance Press ALT-R to toggle "raw" mode where you can see the surrounding items of a match. In this mode, you can press CTRL-N and CTRL-P to move between the matching items only. Press CTRL-/ or ALT-/ to toggle line wrapping Press SHIFT-DELETE to delete the selected commands (bash and fish) Fish shell only: Press ALT-ENTER to reformat and insert the selected commands Press ALT-T to cycle through command prefix (timestamp, date/time, none) Set FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS to pass additional options to fzf # CTRL-Y to copy the command into clipboard using pbcopy export FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS= " --bind 'ctrl-y:execute-silent(echo -n {2..} | pbcopy)+abort' --color header:italic --header 'Press CTRL-Y to copy command into clipboard' " # Fish shell: Set date/time as default prefix set -gx FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS " --with-nth 1,3.. --bind 'alt-t:change-with-nth(2..|3..|1,3..)' " # Or display no prefix by default set -gx FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS " --with-nth 3.. --bind 'alt-t:change-with-nth(2..|1,3..|3..)' " Can be disabled by setting FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND to an empty string when sourcing the script Custom override via a non-empty FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND is not yet supported and will emit a warning ALT-C - cd into the selected directory The list is generated using --walker dir,follow,hidden option Set FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND to override the default command Or you can set --walker-* options in FZF_ALT_C_OPTS Set FZF_ALT_C_OPTS to pass additional options to fzf # Print tree structure in the preview window export FZF_ALT_C_OPTS= " --walker-skip .git,node_modules,target --preview 'tree -C {}' " Can be disabled by setting FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND to an empty string when sourcing the script Display modes for these bindings can be separately configured via FZF_{CTRL_T,CTRL_R,ALT_C}_OPTS or globally via FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS . (e.g. FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS='--popup bottom,60% --height 60% --border top' ) More tips can be found on the wiki page . Fuzzy completion Shell integration also provides fuzzy completion for bash, zsh, fish, and Nushell. Files and directories Fuzzy completion for files and directories can be triggered if the word before the cursor ends with the trigger sequence, which is by default ** . COMMAND [DIRECTORY/][FUZZY_PATTERN]**<TAB> # Files under the current directory # - You can select multiple items with TAB key vim ** < TAB > # Files under parent directory vim ../ ** < TAB > # Files under parent directory that match `fzf` vim ../fzf ** < TAB > # Files under your home directory vim ~ / ** < TAB > # Directories under current directory (single-selection) cd ** < TAB > # Directories under ~/github that match `fzf` cd ~ /github/fzf ** < TAB > Process IDs Fuzzy completion for PIDs is provided for kill command. # Can select multiple processes with <TAB> or <Shift-TAB> keys kill -9 ** < TAB > Host names For ssh command, fuzzy completion for hostnames is provided. The names are extracted from /etc/hosts and ~/.ssh/config. ssh ** < TAB > Environment variables / Aliases # bash and zsh unset ** < TAB > export ** < TAB > unalias ** < TAB > # fish set < SHIFT-TAB > Customizing fuzzy completion for bash and zsh Customizing fzf options for completion # Use ~~ as the trigger sequence instead of the default ** export FZF_COMPLETION_TRIGGER= ' ~~ ' # Options to fzf command export FZF_COMPLETION_OPTS= ' --border --info=inline ' # Options for path completion (e.g. vim **<TAB>) export FZF_COMPLETION_PATH_OPTS= ' --walker file,dir,follow,hidden ' # Options for directory completion (e.g. cd **<TAB>) export FZF_COMPLETION_DIR_OPTS= ' --walker dir,follow ' # Advanced customization of fzf options via _fzf_comprun function # - The first argument to the function is the name of the command. # - You should make sure to pass the rest of the arguments ($@) to fzf. _fzf_comprun () { local command= $1 shift case " $command " in cd) fzf --preview ' tree -C {} | head -200 ' " $@ " ;; export|unset) fzf --preview " eval 'echo \$ '{} " " $@ " ;; ssh) fzf --preview ' dig {} ' " $@ " ;; * ) fzf --preview ' bat -n --color=always {} ' " $@ " ;; esac } Customizing completion source for paths and directories # Use fd (https://github.com/sharkdp/fd) for listing path candidates. # - The first argument to the function ($1) is the base path to start traversal # - See the source code (completion.{bash,zsh}) for the details. _fzf_compgen_path () { fd --hidden --follow --exclude " .git " . " $1 " } # Use fd to generate the list for directory completion _fzf_compgen_dir () { fd --type d --hidden --follow --exclude " .git " . " $1 " } Supported commands (bash) On bash, fuzzy completion is enabled only for a predefined set of commands ( complete | grep _fzf to see the list). But you can enable it for other commands as well by using _fzf_setup_completion helper function. # usage: _fzf_setup_completion path|dir|var|alias|host COMMANDS... _fzf_setup_completion path ag git kubectl _fzf_setup_completion dir tree Custom fuzzy completion (Custom completion API is experimental and subject to change) For a command named "COMMAND" , define _fzf_complete_COMMAND function using _fzf_complete helper. # Custom fuzzy completion for "doge" command # e.g. doge **<TAB> _fzf_complete_doge () { _fzf_complete --multi --reverse --prompt= " doge> " -- " $@ " < <( echo very echo wow echo such echo doge ) } The arguments before -- are the options to fzf. After -- , simply pass the original completion arguments unchanged ( "$@" ). Then, write a set of commands that generates the completion candidates and feed its output to the function using process substitution ( < <(...) ). zsh will automatically pick up the function using the naming convention but in bash you have to manually associate the function with the command using the complete command. [ -n " $BASH " ] && complete -F _fzf_complete_doge -o default -o bashdefault doge If you need to post-process the output from fzf, define _fzf_complete_COMMAND_post as follows. _fzf_complete_foo () { _fzf_complete --multi --reverse --header-lines=3 -- " $@ " < <( ls -al ) } _fzf_complete_foo_post () { awk ' {print $NF} ' } [ -n " $BASH " ] && complete -F _fzf_complete_foo -o default -o bashdefault foo Fuzzy completion for fish Fuzzy completion for fish differs from bash and zsh in that: It doesn't require a trigger sequence like ** . Instead, if activates on Shift-TAB (replacing the native pager search mode), while TAB preserves fish's native completion behavior. It relies on fish's native completion system to populate the candidate list, rather than performing a recursive file system traversal. For recursive searching, use the CTRL-T binding instead. If the current command line token is a wildcard pattern, it performs search on the wildcard expansion path list (instead of the native behavior of inserting all the results in command line). Because the shell is used for the expansion, there is a limit in the number of results. The only supported configuration variables are FZF_COMPLETION_OPTS and FZF_EXPANSION_OPS . The function that is used by custom completion functions is named fzf_complete , which only accepts fzf options as arguments, and can be also called without any redirected input, to just modify fzf options while presenting the native completion results. For compatibility with other shells, a function named _fzf_complete is provided, that can accept -- $argv in its command line arguments, after fzf options. For commands that are not covered by fish completions, it is better to create regular fish completion functions (which will work for both TAB and Shift-TAB ), and create fzf completion functions only when needing to modify fzf options for a specific command or want different results for Shift-TAB : # Customize git completion function _fzf_complete_git # Show header text with active branch for all git completions set -lx -- FZF_COMPLETION_OPTS --header = " ' " (git branch --show-current 2> /dev/null) " ' " # No other changes when less than 3 arguments, or when completing options if not set -q argv[3]; or string match -q -- ' -* ' $argv [-1] fzf_complete return end # Check subcommand switch $argv [2] case checkout diff log show # Set preview and display all branches and commits for subcommands: checkout, diff, log, show begin git branch --all --format = ' %(refname:short) ' git log --all --oneline --color =always end | fzf_complete --no-multi --ansi --accept-nth =1 --query = $argv [-1] --preview = ' git show --color=always {1} ' case add rm mv # Only set preview for subcommands: add, rm, mv # Special characters in fish completion lists are escaped, so the r flag must be used. fzf_complete --preview = " git diff --color=always {r1} " case ' * ' # No changes for other subcommands fzf_complete end end Similar to bash and zsh, the output of fzf can be processed before inserted in command line, by defining a function named _fzf_complete_COMMAND_post or _fzf_post_complete_COMMAND : function _fzf_complete_foo ls -sh --zero --color =always | fzf_complete --read0 --print0 --ansi --no-multi-line --header-lines =1 end function _fzf_post_complete_foo while read -lz result string escape -n -- $result | string trim -l -c ' \ ' | string split -m 1 -f 2 ' ' end end Fuzzy completion for Nushell Fuzzy completion in Nushell works via the external completer mechanism. There are some differences compared to bash and zsh: On Nushell >= 0.103.0, the external completer is no longer called for built-in commands (e.g. cd , ls ). Fuzzy completion with **<TAB> only works for external commands. Custom completers can be defined via the $env.FZF_COMPLETERS record in your config.nu . Each entry is a closure that receives the prefix and the command spans, and returns either a list of candidate strings or a record { candidates: [...], opts: [...] } for custom fzf options: $env . FZF_COMPLETERS = { pacman: { | prefix , spans | let sub = $spans | skip 1 | first let candidates = ( if ( $sub = ~ " -[SF] " ) { ^pacman - Slq | lines } else if ( $sub = ~ " -[QR] " ) { ^pacman - Qq | lines } else { [] }) { candidates: $candidates , opts: [ " --preview " , " pacman -Si {} " ] } } } See shell/completion-examples.nu for more examples. The following environment variables are supported: FZF_COMPLETION_TRIGGER , FZF_COMPLETION_OPTS , FZF_COMPLETION_PATH_OPTS , FZF_COMPLETION_DIR_OPTS , FZF_COMPLETION_DIR_COMMANDS . Vim plugin See README-VIM.md . Advanced topics Customizing for different types of input Since fzf is a general-purpose text filter, its algorithm was designed to "generally" work well with any kind of input. However, admittedly, there is no true one-size-fits-all solution, and you may want to tweak the algorithm and some of the settings depending on the type of the input. To make this process easier, fzf provides a set of "scheme"s for some common input types. Scheme Description --scheme=default Generic scheme designed to work well with any kind of input --scheme=path Suitable for file paths --scheme=history Suitable for command history or any input where chronological ordering is important (See fzf --man for the details) Performance fzf is fast. Performance should not be a problem in most use cases. However, you might want to be aware of the options that can affect performance. --ansi tells fzf to extract and parse ANSI color codes in the input, and it makes the initial scanning slower. So it's not recommended that you add it to your $FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS . --nth makes fzf slower because it has to tokenize each line. A plain string --delimiter should be preferred over a regular expression delimiter. --with-nth makes fzf slower as fzf has to tokenize and reassemble each line. Executing external programs You can set up key bindings for starting external processes without leaving fzf ( execute , execute-silent ). # Press F1 to open the file with less without leaving fzf # Press CTRL-Y to copy the line to clipboard and aborts fzf (requires pbcopy) fzf --bind ' f1:execute(less -f {}),ctrl-y:execute-silent(echo {} | pbcopy)+abort ' See KEY/EVENT BINDINGS section of the man page for details. Turning into a different process become(...) is similar to execute(...) / execute-silent(...) described above, but instead of executing the command and coming back to fzf on complete, it turns fzf into a new process for the command. fzf --bind ' enter:become(vim {}) ' Compared to the seemingly equivalent command substitution vim "$(fzf)" , this approach has several advantages: Vim will not open an empty file when you terminate fzf with CTRL-C Vim will not open an empty file when you press ENTER on an empty result Can handle multiple selections even when they have whitespaces fzf --multi --bind ' enter:become(vim {+}) ' To be fair, running fzf --print0 | xargs -0 -o vim instead of vim "$(fzf)" resolves all of the issues mentioned. Nonetheless, become(...) still offers additional benefits in different scenarios. You can set up multiple bindings to handle the result in different ways without any wrapping script fzf --bind ' enter:become(vim {}),ctrl-e:become(emacs {}) ' Previously, you would have to use --expect=ctrl-e and check the first line of the output of fzf You can easily build the subsequent command using the field index expressions of fzf # Open the file in Vim and go to the line git grep --line-number . | fzf --delimiter : --nth 3.. --bind ' enter:become(vim {1} +{2}) ' Reloading the candidate list By binding reload action to a key or an event, you can make fzf dynamically reload the candidate list. See #1750 for more details. 1. Update the list of processes by pressing CTRL-R ps -ef | fzf --bind ' ctrl-r:reload(ps -ef) ' \ --header ' Press CTRL-R to reload ' --header-lines=1 \ --height=50% --layout=reverse 2. Switch between sources by pressing CTRL-D or CTRL-F FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND= ' find . -type f ' \ fzf --bind ' ctrl-d:reload(find . -type d),ctrl-f:reload(eval "$FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND") ' \ --height=50% --layout=reverse 3. Interactive ripgrep integration The following example uses fzf as the selector interface for ripgrep. We bound reload action to change event, so every time you type on fzf, the ripgrep process will restart with the updated query string denoted by the placeholder expression {q} . Also, note that we used --disabled option so that fzf doesn't perform any secondary filtering. : | rg_prefix= ' rg --column --line-number --no-heading --color=always --smart-case ' \ fzf --bind ' start:reload:$rg_prefix "" ' \ --bind ' change:reload:$rg_prefix {q} || true ' \ --bind ' enter:become(vim {1} +{2}) ' \ --ansi --disabled \ --height=50% --layout=reverse If ripgrep doesn't find any matches, it will exit with a non-zero exit status, and fzf will warn you about it. To suppress the warning message, we added || true to the command, so that it always exits with 0. See "Using fzf as interactive Ripgrep launcher" for more sophisticated examples. Preview window When the --preview option is set, fzf automatically starts an external process with the current line as the argument and shows the result in the split window. Your $SHELL is used to execute the command with $SHELL -c COMMAND . The window can be scrolled using the mouse or custom key bindings. # {} is replaced with the single-quoted string of the focused line fzf --preview ' cat {} ' Preview window supports ANSI colors, so you can use any program that syntax-highlights the content of a file, such as Bat or Highlight : fzf --preview ' bat --color=always {} ' --preview-window ' ~3 ' You can customize the size, position, and border of the preview window using --preview-window option, and the foreground and background color of it with --color option. For example, fzf --height 40% --layout reverse --info inline --border \ --preview ' file {} ' --preview-window up,1,border-horizontal \ --bind ' ctrl-/:change-preview-window(50%|hidden|) ' \ --color ' fg:#bbccdd,fg+:#ddeeff,bg:#334455,preview-bg:#223344,border:#778899 ' See the man page ( man fzf ) for the full list of options. More advanced examples can be found here . Warning Since fzf is a general-purpose text filter rather than a file finder, it is not a good idea to add --preview option to your $FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS . # ********************* # ** DO NOT DO THIS! ** # ********************* export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS= ' --preview "bat --style=numbers --color=always --line-range :500 {}" ' # bat doesn't work with any input other than the list of files ps -ef | fzf seq 100 | fzf history | fzf Previewing an image fzf can display images in the preview window using one of the following protocols: Kitty graphics protocol iTerm2 inline images protocol Sixel See bin/fzf-preview.sh script for more information. fzf --preview ' fzf-preview.sh {} ' Tips Respecting .gitignore You can use fd , ripgrep , or the silver searcher to traverse the file system while respecting .gitignore . # Feed the output of fd into fzf fd --type f --strip-cwd-prefix | fzf # Setting fd as the default source for fzf export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND= ' fd --type f --strip-cwd-prefix ' # Now fzf (w/o pipe) will use the fd command to generate the list fzf # To apply the command to CTRL-T as well export FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND= " $FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND " If you want the command to follow symbolic links and don't want it to exclude hidden files, use the following command: export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND= ' fd --type f --strip-cwd-prefix --hidden --follow --exclude .git ' Fish shell CTRL-T key binding of fish, unlike those of bash and zsh, will use the last token on the command-line as the root directory for the recursive search. For instance, hitting CTRL-T at the end of the following command-line ls /var/ will list all files and directories under /var/ . When using a custom FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND , use the unexpanded $dir variable to make use of this feature. $dir defaults to . when the last token is not a valid directory. Example: set -g FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND " command find -L \$ dir -type f 2> /dev/null | sed '1d; s#^\./##' " fzf Theme Playground fzf Theme Playground created by Vitor Mello is a webpage where you can interactively create fzf themes. Related projects https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/wiki/Related-projects License The MIT License (MIT) Copyright (c) 2013-2026 Junegunn Choi Goods Grab fzf T-shirts, mugs, and stickers here: https://commitgoods.com/collections/fzf Sponsors ❤️ I would like to thank all the sponsors of this project who make it possible for me to continue to improve fzf. If you'd like to sponsor this project, please visit https://github.com/sponsors/junegunn .