Fresh

Why Use Fresh?

Fresh is a terminal editor written in Rust that aims to bring the UX of a modern GUI editor into the terminal. It ships with the keybindings you already know, mouse support, and IDE features like LSP and git review enabled out of the box — there is no config file to write before you can be productive.

Installation

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install fresh-editor

# Linux (universal installer, self-updating, no root required)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sinelaw/fresh/refs/heads/master/scripts/install.sh | sh

# Arch Linux (AUR)
yay -S fresh-editor-bin

# Windows (winget)
winget install fresh-editor

# Rust toolchain (Cargo)
cargo install --locked fresh-editor

# npm
npm install -g @fresh-editor/fresh-editor

# Try it without installing
npx @fresh-editor/fresh-editor

# Check version
fresh --version

Debian/Ubuntu .deb, Fedora/RHEL .rpm, Nix, and pre-built binaries for Linux, macOS, Windows, and FreeBSD are published on GitHub Releases.

Basic Usage

# Open an empty buffer
fresh

# Open a file
fresh src/main.rs

# Open at a specific line
fresh src/main.rs:42

# Open at a specific line and column
fresh src/main.rs:42:10

# Open multiple files at once
fresh Cargo.toml src/lib.rs:100:5

# Edit a file on a remote host over SSH
fresh user@host:/path/to/file.txt

# Open a remote directory as a workspace
fresh user@host:~/projects

# Skip the daily update check
fresh --no-upgrade-check

Command Palette

Ctrl+P opens the command palette, which is the main entry point to everything in Fresh. A prefix character switches between modes, and a hints line at the bottom reminds you which prefixes are available.

Frequently Used Keybindings

Fresh uses the same shortcuts as mainstream GUI editors, so most of these need no learning. Run Show Keyboard Shortcuts or the Keybinding Editor from the command palette for the authoritative list on your platform.

Editing

Deletion

Multiple Cursors and Block Selection

Navigation

Macros and Bookmarks

Git Integration

Fresh treats git review as a first-class editor feature rather than a plugin. Open these from the command palette with the > prefix.

Diff and Blame Panel Keys

Configuration

Fresh runs fine with no config at all. When you do want to change something, settings live in JSONC (JSON with comments and trailing commas) and cascade through layers: system defaults, then user, then project, then session.

{
  "version": 1,
  "theme": "builtin://dracula",
  "editor": {
    "tab_size": 4,
    "line_numbers": true,
    "line_wrap": false
  }
}

Customize Keybindings

Bindings are declared in the same config file. A binding can also be a sequence of key presses rather than a single combination, which is how the emacs keymap expresses C-x C-s for save.

{
  "keybindings": [
    {
      "key": "s",
      "modifiers": ["ctrl"],
      "action": "save",
      "when": "normal"
    }
  ]
}

You can also edit settings and keybindings interactively: open Edit → Settings... or run the Keybinding Editor from the command palette, which lists, rebinds, and disables existing bindings without touching the file by hand.

Plugins and Advanced Features

Tips