Shortcut to run command in a floating pane

[pomdtr]

Hey, I'm the author of sunbeam, a command line launcher.

sunbeam pairs really well with the floating window feature of zellij.

However, I was not able to setup a shortcut in my config to run sunbeam in a floating pane

keybinds {
  normal
    bind "Ctrl k" { Run "sunbeam"; }
}

Is there a way to replicate the zellij run --floating --close-on-exit -- sunbeam command in the config ?

[Lockszmith-GH]

from the doc:

Run - run the specified command
Required arguments: The command to run, followed by optional arguments
Possible arguments: cwd - current working directory, direction - the direction to open the new command pane

  // will run "tail -f /tmp/foo" in a pane opened below the focused one
  bind "a" {
      Run "tail" "-f" "foo" {
          cwd "/tmp"
          direction "Down"
      }
  }

Have you tried:

keybinds {
  normal
    bind "Ctrl k" { Run "zellij" "run" "--floating" "--close-on-exit" "--" "sunbeam"; }
}

Seems that should do the trick for you.

[angaz]

It seems there is quite a big difference between the docs and the code in this area. My current solution is quite a hack using features which are undocumented. It's pretty similar to what @Lockszmith-GH suggested. But a problem I had which I didn't like is that there is a left over pane which you have to press Ctrl+C to get rid of. So I looked into the code and found that the Run action supports close_on_exit, so I added that, and this still opens a pane which causes re-renders of my other panes, but it immediately closes, which is a lot nicer, but still not ideal.

bind "Ctrl k" {
  Run "zellij" "run" "--floating" "--close-on-exit" "--" "sunbeam" {
    close_on_exit true
  }
}

I'm not sure why there is such a feature gap between the CLI and the actions in the config.

[pomdtr]

Yeah I ended up going the same road. I'm looking at building a plugin to smooth out the integration between the two tools

[angaz]

If the NewPane action had the command argument, or the Run action had a floating argument, it would be really good and maybe fewer plugins would be needed. But yeah, seems like it's getting there. Unfortunately, I don't know enough Rust to contribute a refactor here.

[flinesse]

Hey, agreed with the above discussion regarding the feature discrepancy between keyboard-bindable and CLI commands, but I believe this achieves what you're looking for correct?

bind "Ctrl k" {
  Run "sunbeam" {
    close_on_exit true
  };
  TogglePaneEmbedOrFloating;
}

[pomdtr]

It's quite similar to the solution shared by angaz above. It works, but causes an unnecessary re-render of existing panes

[logoff]

Any news on this feature request? Sounds quite interesting, not only for sunbeam.

[gnur]

the solution seems quite simple in the end:

        bind "Super p" {
          Run "sunbeam" {
            close_on_exit true
            floating true
          }
        }