TTT Editor: Terminal Text Tool

The IDE that lives in your terminal. A TUI that feels like GUI. A real alternative to VS Code, Zed, and Sublime that happens to run in your terminal. Single Go binary, zero config.

Full documentation lives in docs-web/src/content/docs/ (published at tttedit.dev).

Installation

Prerequisites

• Git — required for source control features
• ripgrep (rg) — required for workspace search

Quick Install MacOS (brew)

brew tap eugenioenko/ttt
brew trust eugenioenko/ttt
brew install ttt

Quick Install Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, & Android (Termux)

curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eugenioenko/ttt/main/install.sh | sh

The script downloads the latest release binary for your OS/architecture and installs it to ~/.local/bin on Linux, /usr/local/bin on macOS and FreeBSD, or $PREFIX/bin in Android Termux (arm64). To install elsewhere:

curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eugenioenko/ttt/main/install.sh | INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/bin" sh

Set INSTALL_DIR on sh so the installer receives it.

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S ttt

NixOS

Available in nixpkgs:

environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.ttt ];

Or install directly from the repo flake (tracks the development branch):

nix run github:eugenioenko/ttt

Quick Install Windows (scoop)

scoop install ttt

Go Install

Requires Go 1.18 or newer:

go install github.com/eugenioenko/ttt/cmd/ttt@latest

This installs the ttt binary to your $GOPATH/bin (or $HOME/go/bin by default). Make sure that directory is in your PATH.

Download Binary

Pre-built binaries for Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Android (arm64), and Windows are available on the Releases page. Windows downloads include ttt-windows-amd64.exe for Intel/AMD PCs and ttt-windows-arm64.exe for ARM PCs. Download the one for your platform, make it executable, and put it in your PATH.

From Source

Note: Building from source compiles the latest development code, which may include work-in-progress features and could be less stable than official releases.

git clone https://github.com/eugenioenko/ttt.git
cd ttt
make build

This produces an optimized binary at bin/ttt. Add it to your PATH or copy it somewhere convenient:

cp bin/ttt ~/.local/bin/

Herdr

TTT is available as a Herdr plugin, so you can open it as a pane inside your Herdr terminal workspace.

herdr plugin install eugenioenko/ttt/herdr-plugin

Once installed, bind it to a key (e.g. Ctrl+b e) to launch TTT in the active worktree with a single keystroke. See the Herdr plugin README for setup and configuration details.

Features

Editor

• Syntax highlighting powered by textmate-go, our pure Go port of VS Code's TextMate engine: 124 languages, with multi-line constructs handled correctly
• Bracket matching with highlighted pairs
• Find and Replace — inline find bar (Ctrl+F) with match navigation, replace bar (Ctrl+R) with replace-one and replace-all
• Go to Line (Ctrl+G)
• Selection, copy/cut/paste (Ctrl+C/X/V) with system clipboard support
• Undo/redo (Ctrl+Z/Y) via a command-pattern undo stack
• Code folding — toggle folds (Ctrl+K [), fold/unfold all, fold-aware search and navigation
• Line operations — toggle line comment, move/duplicate/delete line, join lines, sort lines, split selection into lines
• Multi-cursor editing — Ctrl+D to select next occurrence, Ctrl+K L to select all occurrences, Alt+Click to add cursors; typing, backspace, delete, and enter work at all positions simultaneously
• .editorconfig support and indent detection — indentation is picked up automatically per file; manual override via the status bar indent picker
• Mouse support — click to position cursor, click tabs, drag sidebar/panel dividers, right-click context menus
• Auto-completion — LSP-powered completions with live filtering, debounce, and auto-import support
• Signature help — parameter hints shown automatically on ( and ,
• Diagnostics — inline curly underline squiggles, problems panel, hover popup, and status bar counts
• Document formatting — format document, format selection, and format-on-save via LSP or external formatters
• Git blame — inline blame info for the current line shown in the status bar (author, relative time, summary)
• Line numbers with current-line highlighting
• Diff-based renderer for efficient terminal updates (double-buffered cell grid)

Multi-Folder Workspaces

Open multiple project directories in a single session. Each root appears as a collapsible group in the explorer, search, and changes panels.

ttt                             # opens the current directory
ttt .                           # also opens the current directory
ttt /path/to/dir                # opens that directory as the workspace
ttt /path/to/file.go            # opens just the file — no workspace folder
ttt /path/to/file.go:42:5       # opens the file at line 42, column 5
ttt /path/to/repo/subdir        # opens that folder; git features (changes,
                                # branch) use the enclosing git repo root
ttt dir1 dir2                   # opens multiple folders as a multi-root workspace
ttt --workspace project.ttt     # loads a saved workspace file
ttt https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/123 # opens pull request review
git diff | ttt                  # opens piped output in an unsaved tab (or: ttt -)

Set "reuseWindow": true in settings.json (off by default; restart required) to open command-line files in the newest reachable editor using the same config directory. If none answers, ttt starts normally. Use ttt --new-window file to start a separate editor. With reuse enabled, EDITOR=ttt returns immediately; use EDITOR="ttt --new-window" for commands that wait for editing.

Workspace files use the .ttt extension and store a list of folders as relative paths:

{
  "folders": [
    { "path": "." },
    { "path": "../other-project" }
  ]
}

• Save Workspace As... from the File menu to create a workspace file
• Add Folder to Workspace and Remove Folder from Workspace via the command palette
• The git branch in the status bar switches automatically based on which workspace folder the active file belongs to

See File Explorer & Workspaces.

File Explorer

Multi-root file tree in the sidebar (Ctrl+K E). When multiple folders are open, each root is shown as a collapsible group.

• Directories sorted before files, both alphabetically
• Expand/collapse with Enter or arrow keys
• Right-click context menu: New File, New Folder, Rename, Delete
• Sidebar actions button for Refresh and New File
• Explorer: Reveal Active File expands the tree to the active file and selects it; set explorer.autoReveal to do it on every tab switch
• File-type icons, colored by the theme (glyph mappings from nvim-web-devicons). They need a Nerd Font in your terminal, so they default off; turn them on with "appearance": { "icons": "nerd-font" } or Options > Font Icons

Search

Sidebar search panel (Ctrl+K F) powered by ripgrep. Results are grouped by file with match counts.

• Smart-case matching by default
• Include/Exclude glob filters — click the toggle arrow to reveal filter inputs (e.g. *.go, vendor/**)
• Tab between search, include, and exclude inputs
• Searches across all workspace folders simultaneously
• Click a result to jump to the file and line

See Search.

Git Integration

Changes panel in the sidebar (Ctrl+K C) with full staging workflow.

Working-tree files and files under expanded commits can be shown as a compact directory Tree or a full-path List (the default). The choice persists in git.fileView. File-type icons sit between the status letter and the file name; like the Explorer's, they follow the shared appearance.icons setting, need a Nerd Font, and default off — Options > Font Icons toggles them. Changes, commit details, and Explorer expose safe Expand All and Collapse All actions in their relevant menus.

Staging: - Spacebar — toggle stage/unstage on the selected file - a — stage all unstaged files - u — unstage all staged files - + / - buttons on the section headers — stage/unstage all files in that section

Committing: - Inline commit message input below the file list (Tab from the tree to focus it) - Type a message and press Enter to commit all staged files - Commit History starts with the 10 most recent commits; activate Load older commits… to append bounded pages from the same HEAD snapshot

Remote operations: - Pull, Push, Sync (pull then push) from the sidebar actions button - Per-repo actions via the group header menu button in multi-root workspaces

Diff view: - Select a changed file to open a split or unified diff with syntax highlighting layered on diff backgrounds - Working-tree changes open in the file's own editor tab in diff mode, so you can edit and save there; the diff updates as you type. Git: Toggle Inline Diff turns diff mode on or off for any tracked file - Set the global view mode, context, wrapping, and high-contrast presentation under Options; the Changes panel menu provides the same contextual controls - Changes-only views show quiet collapsed-context rows that can be expanded in place; full-file context remains available globally or per diff - Untracked files open directly in the editor

Multi-root: - Changes are grouped by repository, each with its own collapsible Staged/Changes sections and commit input - File status badges: M (modified), A (added), D (deleted), R (renamed), U (untracked)

GitHub pull request review:

ttt https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/123      # review a PR
ttt . https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/123    # review a PR with the repo tree open

Opens the PR as a review surface — commit-by