The Nova docs are the canonical user guide for the current Stable release. Start there for installation, configuration, keybindings, updates, and recovery.
Yazelix Nova is a Nix-packaged terminal workspace built around Nova Rio, a minimal upstream Zellij distribution, Yazi, Nushell, Bash, Zsh, and Fish with Atuin history. It includes a lazygit popup with support for other Git clients and an optional coding-agent popup.
Yazelix Forest provides the default managed Helix file tree, and the narrow
Yazelix Radar fork provides the
collapsible Zellij rail. Nova uses the
Nova Helix fork by default;
editor.command can select another terminal editor. yzx launch opens the
desktop workspace through Rio, while yzx enter opens Yazelix in any capable
terminal emulator or over SSH. Great defaults out of the box!
If Yazelix is useful to you, support its development on GitHub Sponsors.
Yazelix requires Nix with flakes enabled. Install the checked Stable release:
nix profile add --refresh github:Yazelix/nova/stableOpen Nova through its packaged Rio terminal:
yzx launchEnter the same workspace in the current capable terminal or over SSH:
yzx enterLearn the core workspace keys inside Nova:
yzx tutor beginTo try the split work area, open a second work pane with Alt m, then press
Alt ] or Alt [ to switch between the stacked and split arrangements. The
Radar sidebar stays open or collapsed as you left it. The command palette's
layout entry remains available with Alt Shift M.
Alt Shift B or Toggle bottom hints in the command palette hides or restores
bottom hint rows throughout the current session. Hiding them frees one row for
work panes; sidebar and layout switches retain the choice. New tabs inherit it,
and fresh sessions start with hints visible. Toggling preserves pane order,
including manually rearranged stacks and splits.
Open managed popups resize with the hint row, preserving their running process
and keyboard focus.
Set keybindings.bottom_hints to remap the shortcut, or false to disable it.
The hint row uses compact C, C-A, A and A-S modifier headers. Core
workspace and Nova shortcuts take priority as the terminal narrows; managed
hints follow shortcut remapping and disabling. C-A hl/jk move groups tab
movement with h/l and vertical pane movement with j/k.
Alt-Shift hints keep menu first, followed by fullscreen, hints and the HJKL shortcuts.
If startup fails, inspect Nova's owned runtime without opening Rio or Zellij:
yzx doctorLinux is the dogfooded platform. Native aarch64-darwin builds cover the Rio
packages and Home Manager closure; interactive macOS behavior and the Rio GUI
do not yet have complete release evidence. Use the
website install guide for Stable setup.
The repository installation reference covers Main and
Edge channels, all eight package variants, platform evidence, Home Manager,
updates, and the binary cache.
The website holds the user guides:
Source, Edge, and maintainer references stay with the code:
- Architecture
- Runtime contracts
- Installation and package reference
- Development and verification
- Contributing
- Agent-status evidence
- Changelog
Enter the pinned development shell, then run the local gates:
nix develop
nix flake check
nix flake show --all-systems
nix build .#yazelix --no-link --print-build-logsThe repository works directly on edge. main and stable receive exact
verified revisions through the promotion process documented in
Development.
Report defects and focused proposals in GitHub Issues. Participation follows the Code of Conduct.
Special thanks to soderluk for sustained reports through unstable periods of Yazelix.
Special thanks to tag-und-nacht for detailed macOS, Home Manager, theming, and configuration reports.
Special thanks to TyceHerrman for thorough macOS and Nix packaging reports that hardened Darwin delivery.
Yazelix owns 28,253 code/configuration lines and 5,378 documentation/text lines. The reproducible scorecard excludes Beads, lockfiles, and binary assets. The native pane-order correction and stronger interaction check account for the 61-line code/configuration growth. Agent guidance covers full-launcher startup, socket-path limits, cache isolation, ordered-pane regressions and historical build artifact identity. The startup-picker check waits for rendered search input before accepting it.

