zed-fuzzel-filepicker

A recursive fuzzy file picker for Zed editor using Fuzzel, inspired by Emacs’ dired navigation.

Github: GCaggianese/zed-fuzzel-filepicker

What it does

Browse and open files with fuzzy search and recursive directory navigation Press the keybind and fuzzy-search files, and open them directly in Zed from within Zed.

Why

When I started trying out Zed the first thing I missed was dired’s file picker, this tries to close that gap bringing it to Zed.

Demo

Requirements

• Zed editor with zeditor CLI tool
• Fuzzel (or rofi/dmenu — see adapting section)
• fd (faster alternative to find)
• Any Unix-like system

Installation

1. Install dependencies

# Arch
sudo pacman -S fuzzel fd zed

# Debian (zed via official install)
sudo apt install fuzzel fd-find

2. Set up the script

# Copy script to your local bin
cp fuzzel-file-picker ~/.local/bin/
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/fuzzel-file-picker

3. Configure Zed

Add to your tasks.json (~/.config/zed/tasks.json):

[
  {
    "label": "file-picker",
    "command": "~/.local/bin/fuzzel-file-picker \"${ZED_DIRNAME:-$ZED_WORKTREE_ROOT}\" > /dev/null 2>&1",
    "use_new_terminal": false,
    "reveal": "never",
    "hide": "always",
    "show_summary": false,
    "show_command": false
  }
]

Add to your keymap.json (~/.config/zed/keymap.json):

{
  "bindings": {
    "space .": ["task::Spawn", { "task_name": "file-picker" }]
  }
}

(Change space . to whatever keybind you prefer)

Usage

1. Open Zed in your project
2. Press Space + . (or your keybind)
3. Navigate:
   • Type to fuzzy-search files/directories
   • Select .. to go up a directory
   • Select a directory to dive deeper
   • Select a file to open it in Zed
   • You can create new files too
4. Esc to cancel at any point

How it works

• Uses fd to list files/directories
• Fuzzel does the fuzzy-search interface
• Recursively navigates directories until you select\create a file
• Opens selected file via zeditor CLI

Use a different launcher

I guess you can replace fuzzel --dmenu with:

• rofi: rofi -dmenu -p
• dmenu: dmenu -p
• fzf: fzf --prompt But I haven’t tried it yet.

Integration from Zed

This pattern works for integrating any external tool with Zed via tasks:

1. Write a script that outputs to stdout/stderr
2. Add task to tasks.json with output redirected
3. Bind task to keybind in keymap.json

This is really cool as let’s Zed be easily extensive!

Troubleshooting

“zeditor: command not found”

• Install Zed’s CLI: Open Zed → Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P → “Install CLI”

“fd: command not found”

• In some systems fd is called diferent, you’ll need to adapt the script to yours.

Questions / bugs? Want to adapt this?

Open an issue or PR. Hack it however you want! Using this task integration pattern for other tools? I’d love to see what you build! Drop a link in the issues or tag this repo. Building a collection of Zed integrations would be amazing.