Rusty

A fast, friendly terminal code editor written in Rust. Run rusty <dir> in any terminal and get a full-screen TUI — file tree, tabs, syntax highlighting, line numbers, a fuzzy command palette, and find — that's modeless and nano-easy (the shortcuts are always shown at the bottom).

Built on ratatui + crossterm, with syntect highlighting. Single ~2 MB binary, no runtime dependencies.

Install (one line)

With a Rust toolchain (rustup), this builds and installs the rusty command to ~/.cargo/bin on macOS, Linux, and Windows:

cargo install --git https://github.com/codingsushi79/rusty

Update later with the same command plus --force, or run Rusty: Update from the command palette (Ctrl+P).

No Rust yet? The bootstrap scripts install it for you:

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/codingsushi79/rusty/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/codingsushi79/rusty/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

Or run from source: cargo run --release -- .

Usage

rusty            # open the current directory
rusty ./my-proj  # open a folder

Key	Action
Ctrl+P	command palette — fuzzy-open files & run commands
Ctrl+G	search across files (Tab → replace field, Ctrl+R = replace all)
Ctrl+J	toggle the interactive terminal pane (and return from it)
Ctrl+F	find in file (Enter = next, Esc = close)
Ctrl+Space	LSP completion (↑/↓ select, Enter/Tab accept, Esc dismiss)
F12	go to definition · Ctrl+K hover type info
Ctrl+N	new file — pick a spot in the tree, type name.ext
Ctrl+,	settings screen
Ctrl+S	save
mouse	click to place cursor / open files / switch tabs · drag to select · wheel to scroll
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y	undo / redo
Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X / Ctrl+V	copy / cut / paste (system clipboard)
Shift+arrows	select text
Ctrl+B	focus the file tree (again to hide it)
Ctrl+W	close the current buffer
Ctrl+Q	quit
arrows / PgUp / PgDn / Home / End	move around
in the tree	↑/↓ or j/k move, Enter/→ open or expand, ← collapse, n new file here, d delete (with confirm), Esc back to editor

What works today

• File tree — collapsible directories, keyboard navigation, create files in place (Ctrl+N / n, type name.ext), and delete files/folders (d, with a confirm).
• Editing — insert/delete, newline, tab, cursor movement, page scrolling, horizontal scroll, undo/redo, selection (Shift+arrows), and copy/cut/paste via the system clipboard.
• Line numbers with the current line highlighted.
• Syntax highlighting (truecolor) via syntect.
• Tabs / multiple buffers, dirty (●) indicators; an empty-state welcome screen when nothing is open (closing the last tab doesn't force an untitled).
• Command palette (Ctrl+P) — fuzzy over commands + every file.
• Find in file (Ctrl+F) and workspace search & replace (Ctrl+G) — live results across files; Ctrl+R replaces all occurrences on disk.
• Integrated terminal (Ctrl+J) — a fully interactive PTY running your $SHELL in a bottom pane, with colors and cursor addressing, so vim, top, less, etc. work. While focused, keys go to the shell; Ctrl+J returns to the editor.
• LSP — diagnostics (in the gutter, status counts, and the hint bar), completion (Ctrl+Space), go-to-definition (F12), and hover type info (Ctrl+K) — also in the palette. Auto-starts a server for the file's language if one is on your PATH.
• Git — a diff gutter (added / modified / removed markers vs HEAD), file-tree decorations (M/A/U/D badges with colored names), plus init repo, add remote, stage file / stage all, discard changes, commit, and push / pull / fetch from the palette. Network commands run in the background (no pane) using your existing git credentials, and report the result in the status bar.
• Settings (Ctrl+,) — tab size, line numbers, syntax theme; saved to ~/.config/rusty/config.toml (or the platform equivalent).
• Self-update — Rusty: Update in the palette reinstalls the latest build.
• Mouse — click to place the cursor, open files, and switch tabs; drag to select; wheel to scroll.
• Status bar — git branch, file, diagnostics, Ln/Col, language; hint bar.

Language servers

LSP auto-starts if the server binary is on your PATH:

Language	Server	Install
Rust	rust-analyzer	rustup component add rust-analyzer
Python	pylsp	pipx install python-lsp-server
TS/JS	typescript-language-server	npm i -g typescript-language-server typescript
Go	gopls	go install golang.org/x/tools/gopls@latest

Roadmap

Feature	Notes
LSP go-to-definition / hover	jump to symbols, show types on demand
Extensions & local AI	scripting hooks; opt-in local model, no telemetry
Config & themes	~/.config/rusty/config.toml, selectable themes

Architecture

src/
  main.rs        terminal setup, event loop, teardown
  app.rs         state, input handling, focus, fuzzy palette, find
  ui.rs          ratatui rendering (tree, editor, tabs, status, palette)
  buffer.rs      editable text buffer (cursor, scroll, highlight cache)
  highlight.rs   syntect → ratatui styled spans
  tree.rs        workspace file tree
  config.rs      settings (tab size, line numbers, theme) load/save
  git.rs         branch, HEAD blob (diff gutter), init, remote, stage, commit
  lsp.rs         JSON-RPC language-server client (diagnostics, completion)
  term.rs        interactive PTY terminal (vt100 emulator + key encoding)

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0.