Zellij Layout Generator is a CLI tool for generating custom Zellij layout files from reusable templates. It streamlines the creation of development workflows by combining configuration and template logic into a seamless process. This tool is specific to my personal workflow, but it might be useful for others as well.

• Dynamic Layout Generation: Define reusable templates with placeholders for specific panels and watch commands.
• Multi-Project Support: Generate layouts for multiple projects in a single configuration file.
• Customizable Commands: Configure individual watch commands for each layout, including the ability to broadcast commands across panes.
• Broadcast watch commands: Add the broadcast flag to any watch command to automatically enable script -f broadcasting for that pane. This will allow you to duplicate the output of shell commands to other terminals.
  • Example:

    { name = "Dev Server", command = ["npm", "run", "dev"], broadcast = true }
    

Define your Zellij layouts in a config.toml file:

template = "layout_template.kdl"

[[layout]]
path = "projectA_layout.kdl"
watch = [
    { name = "Watcher", command = ["npm", "run", "watch"] },
    { name = "Dev Server", command = ["npm", "run", "dev"], broadcast = true },
    { name = "Logs", command = ["tail", "-f", "logs/dev.log"] }
]

[[layout]]
path = "projectB_layout.kdl"
watch = [
    { name = "Start Server", command = ["yarn", "start"] },
    { name = "Build", command = ["yarn", "build"] },
]

• Key Fields:
  • template: Path to the reusable template file.
  • layout: Define one or more layouts.
    • path: Output file for the layout.
    • watch: List of watch commands to include in the layout.
      • name: Pane name for the command.
      • command: Command to run in the pane, specified as an array of strings (e.g., ["npm", "run", "watch"]).
      • broadcast (optional): If true, broadcasts input to all panes in this watch group.

Create a reusable template with placeholders for dynamic content:

layout {
    tab name="Software Development" {
        pane split_direction="vertical" {
            pane size="20%" {
                pane name="Editor" edit="."
            }
            pane size="80%" split_direction="horizontal" {
                pane size="50%" {
                    pane name="Terminal"
                }
                pane size="50%" name="Watch Panel" stacked=true {
                    ${WATCH_PANELS}
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

• Placeholder:
  • ${WATCH_PANELS}: Automatically replaced with panes defined in the watch list of your configuration file.

Given the example configuration and template, the tool generates output files like projectA_layout.kdl:

layout {
    tab name="Software Development" {
        pane split_direction="vertical" {
            pane size="20%" {
                pane name="Editor" edit="."
            }
            pane size="80%" split_direction="horizontal" {
                pane size="50%" {
                    pane name="Terminal"
                }
                pane size="50%" name="Watch Panel" stacked=true {
                    pane name="Watcher" command="npm run watch"
                    pane name="Dev Server" command="script" {
                        args "-fec" "npm run dev" ".broadcast"
                    }
                    pane name="Logs" command="tail -f logs/dev.log"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Run the tool with a configuration file:

zellij-layout-gen config.toml

• This reads config.toml and generates layout files defined in the path field of each layout.

Install the tool with cargo:

git clone https://github.com/BernardIgiri/zellij-layout-generator.git
cd zellij-layout-generator
cargo install --path .