Caution
Built entirely by AI — OpenCode (Go)
- DeepSeek v4 Pro, costing around $15 in API credits. Born from a rabbit hole: I set out to use Helix, hit its missing pieces, and AI-shoved my way into a PTY manager in a language I don't know. Use at your own risk. If your terminal catches fire, your files vanish, or Helix speaks in tongues — that's on you.
The shroud for Helix.
abaran wraps your editor with the
terminal tools you need day-to-day — a file tree, git interface, and
project-wide find-and-replace — all without leaving the terminal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1iJ05Y5YRg
The name comes from the Bengali word আবরণ — a shroud or covering. abaran cloaks Helix behind a seamless TUI layer: you browse your project in the tree, open files directly into Helix, toggle into gitui for git ops, or drop into serpl for interactive find-and-replace. The PTY machinery that pipes I/O between tools runs invisibly underneath.
This is a stopgap. Once Helix ships a plugin system that handles file manager, git UI, project wide search and replace plugins, this project becomes obsolete. Until then, abaran is here to fill the gap.
No pull requests. I can't responsibly review PRs — this codebase is entirely AI-generated and I have no way to verify that incoming changes aren't malicious. If you find a bug or want a feature, open an issue and I'll look into it.
- File tree — gitignore-aware, Nerd Font icons, lazy-loaded directories
- File operations — create, rename, delete (trash or rm -f), copy/paste
- gitui — toggle into gitui for staging, commits, and branch management (Ctrl+G)
- serpl — toggle into serpl for interactive project-wide find-and-replace (Ctrl+S)
- Seamless Helix integration — files open in Helix running inside a PTY with zero-latency I/O forwarding
- No tmux required — all tools share a single terminal window
| Dependency | Required | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | Yes | abaran only runs on Linux |
Helix (hx) |
Yes | The editor abaran wraps |
| gitui | No | Git operations |
| serpl | No | Find-and-replace |
| gio | No | Trash support (falls back to rm -rf) |
| Kitty-compatible terminal | Recommended | Ghostty, kitty, WezTerm, or Alacritty |
| Nerd Font | Recommended | File tree icons |
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pxlmrror/abaran/main/install.sh | bashInstalls the latest release binary to ~/.local/bin. Supports x86_64 and
aarch64 Linux.
If ~/.local/bin is not in your PATH, add this to your shell config:
export PATH="${HOME}/.local/bin:${PATH}"git clone https://github.com/pxlmrror/abaran.git
cd abaran
cargo install --path .To upgrade to the latest release:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pxlmrror/abaran/main/install.sh | bashOr if built from source:
cd abaran
git pull
cargo install --path .abaran # open current directory
abaran ~/projects # open a specific directory| Key | Action |
|---|---|
j / k / ↑ / ↓ |
Navigate tree |
h / l / ← / → |
Collapse / expand directory |
Enter |
Toggle directory / open file in Helix |
Ctrl+O |
Toggle between tree and Helix |
Ctrl+G |
Toggle gitui |
Ctrl+S |
Toggle serpl |
Ctrl+Z |
Suspend to background (fg to resume) |
/ |
Search (with n/p for next/prev) |
Esc |
Clear search / clear selection |
c |
Mark for copy |
m |
Mark for cut |
v |
Paste clipboard |
a |
Create file |
A |
Create directory |
r |
Rename |
d |
Delete (trash via gio) |
D |
Delete permanently |
g |
Jump prefix (gg top, ge bottom) |
za |
Toggle expand/collapse all directories |
q |
Quit |
? |
Toggle help |
abaran creates a pseudo-terminal (PTY) via nix::pty::openpty, forks Helix
inside it, and stores the PTY master file descriptor. In tree mode,
ratatui renders the file tree on the alternate screen.
Pressing Enter writes :open <path> to the PTY master to open the selected
file. In tool mode, a poll-based I/O loop forwards keystrokes to the PTY
and PTY output to stdout, intercepting toggle keys inline. When you switch
back to the tree, Helix keeps running — its output is drained in a non-blocking
loop to prevent flow-control deadlocks.