how to change cwd when opening file

[k4lizen]

What system are you running Yazi on?

Linux Wayland

What terminal are you running Yazi in?

kitty

yazi --debug output

NA

Describe the question

I have this in my keymap.toml

[[mgr.prepend_keymap]]
on   = "<Enter>"
run  = "plugin smart-enter"
desc = "Enter the child directory, or open the file"

Here "open the file" often means opening a source file in my text editor. However, for my editor to work properly 9/10 times I need it to actually have the current working directory set to be the one containing the file I'm opening. How do I achieve this?

Anything else?

No response

Checklist

• I have read all the documentation
• I have searched the existing discussions/issues

[alastairsounds]

Does something like this work? ya emit is a really cool API, and the shell -- #command syntax allows for a lot of cool workarounds

[mgr]
prepend_keymap = [
  # Replace `code` with your preferred editor
  { on = "<Enter>", run = "shell -- if [ -d %h ]; then ya emit cd %h; else code . && code %h; fi", desc = "Enter the child directory, or open the file" },
]

Or, in your preferred format:

[[mgr.prepend_keymap]]
# Replace `code` with your preferred editor
on   = "<Enter>"
run  = "shell -- if [ -d %h ]; then ya emit cd %h; else code . && code %h; fi"
desc = "Enter the child directory, or open the file"

[alastairsounds]

You could even make it smarter by combining it with the logic in the tip cd back to the root of the current Git repository

[[mgr.prepend_keymap]]
on   = "<Enter>"
run  = 'shell -- [ -f %h ] && code "$(git -C "$(dirname %h)" rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || dirname %h)" %h || ya emit cd %h'
desc = "Open file in code at git root, or enter the child directory"

[k4lizen]

This solution:

[[mgr.prepend_keymap]]
# Replace `code` with your preferred editor
on   = "<Enter>"
run  = "shell -- if [ -d %h ]; then ya emit cd %h; else code . && code %h; fi"
desc = "Enter the child directory, or open the file"

Works for me for vscode, but for helix (a terminal editor), I get:

Error: unable to start Helix

Caused by:
    0: failed to create terminal backend
    1: No such device or address (os error 6)
Exited with status code: 1
Process failed

You can also repro with vim.

[k4lizen]

also, when using run = "plugin smart-enter", it will correctly open stuff like pdf-files in the registered pdf file opener, while your solution does not

[alastairsounds]

Yeah, my solution doesn't implement the smart-enter plugin. I don't know if that plugin's roadmap has intentions on implementing the solution you're looking for. I'm just trying to help out with a little hack you can use for your use case--it'll require you mapping it to a different key so Enter can continue using smart-enter, and perhaps \ (or whatever key you prefer) does this custom functionality.

I haven't used helix, but it looks like a terminal text editor like neovim. It's possible helix isn't getting the folder context? Idk, try this? If it doesn't work, try pasting your error messages into something like Claude or Gemini and have it walk you through a custom implementation.

[[mgr.prepend_keymap]]
# Replace `nvim` with `helix`
on   = "<Enter>"
run  = 'shell --block -- if [ -d %h ]; then ya emit cd %h; else (cd "$(git -C "$(dirname %h)" rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || dirname %h)" && nvim %h); fi'
desc = "Open file in nvim at git root, or cd into directory"

The code above sets my neovim's cwd to the repo containing the hovered file. Hopefully it works with helix.

[k4lizen]

yeah that does work for terminal editors (including helix), thanks