docs

Everything you need to run Ziro.

Installation

Ziro supports Linux, macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), and Windows. Tested primarily on Arch Linux — other Linux distros and macOS should work but are less thoroughly tested.

Stable (Linux & macOS)

Downloads a prebuilt binary. No Rust required.

bash

curl -sSL https://ziro.faizeenhoque.dev/install.sh | bash

Rolling (Linux & macOS)

Builds from the latest commit on main. Requires Rust and Cargo.

bash

curl -sSL https://ziro.faizeenhoque.dev/install-rolling.sh | bash

» note

Rolling may be unstable. Use stable unless you want the absolute latest changes.

Windows

There's no install script for Windows yet. Download ziro-windows-x86_64.exe directly from the GitHub Releases page and run it, or place it somewhere on your PATH.

» note

The curl-bash scripts above are Linux/macOS only — they won't run natively in PowerShell or cmd. Use the manual download until a proper Windows installer exists.

Building from source

bash

git clone https://github.com/FaizeenHoque/ziro
cd ziro
cargo build --release
sudo mv target/release/ziro /usr/local/bin/ziro

Requires Rust 1.78+. Install Rust from rustup.rs. On Windows, build with cargo build --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc instead of moving to /usr/local/bin — copy the resulting .exe wherever you keep it.

» note

Both install scripts require sudo to move the binary to /usr/local/bin. Read the script before running if you're cautious about piping curl to bash.

Opening Files

ziro              # open a blank buffer
ziro file.txt     # open a specific file

If you open Ziro without a file, you'll start with a blank buffer. You'll be prompted for a filename the first time you save.

File Explorer

The explorer opens as a sidebar and keeps folder state inline instead of jumping between directories. Click a folder to expand or collapse it. Click a file to load it in the editor. Drag entries to move them within the tree.

Key	Action
`Ctrl+E`	Toggle the file explorer sidebar.
`Click folder`	Expand or collapse that folder in place.
`Click file`	Open the file in the editor.
`Drag entry`	Move a file or folder into another directory.

» note

The editor shifts to the right while the explorer is open, so the cursor stays lined up with the visible text area.

Tabs & Saving

Ziro keeps open files in a tab bar above the editor. Opening a file adds it to the bar, clicking a tab switches to it, dragging a tab reorders the bar, and closing the last tab returns you to a blank buffer. Each tab keeps its own cursor and scroll position.

Feature	Behavior
`Tab bar`	Shows every open file, with the current file highlighted.
`Click tab`	Switch to that file immediately.
`Click x`	Close that file tab.
`Drag tab`	Reorder the open tabs by dragging.
`Unnamed save`	Pressing `Ctrl+S` on a blank buffer opens the filename popup.
`Enter`	Confirms the filename and saves the file.
`Esc`	Cancels the filename popup without saving.

→ tip

If you want to exit immediately, use Ctrl+Alt+W. Ctrl+W closes the current tab instead.

Mouse Controls

Mouse input works directly in the text area, independent of the file explorer and tab bar behavior described above.

Action	Behavior
`Click`	Moves the text cursor to that position in the document.
`Scroll wheel`	Scrolls the viewport up or down without moving the cursor.
`Hover`	Shows type/definition info after a short pause, if an LSP is running.

» note

If you scroll far enough that the cursor's line goes off-screen, the cursor snaps back to the nearest visible line rather than staying hidden off-screen.

Keybindings

These work anywhere in the document (not mode-gated), except where noted.

Key	Action
`Ctrl+E`	Open or close the file explorer.
`Ctrl+S`	Save. Opens the filename popup if the buffer has no path yet.
`Ctrl+W`	Close the current tab.
`Ctrl+Alt+W`	Exit the editor immediately if the buffer is clean.
`Ctrl+Z`	Undo the last change.
`Ctrl+Shift+Z`	Redo the last undone change.
`↑ ↓ ← →`	Move the cursor.
`Ctrl+← / Ctrl+→`	Jump the cursor a full word left or right.
`Enter`	Insert a newline, splitting the current line.
`Backspace`	Delete the character before the cursor.
`Esc`	Cancel the filename popup (only active while it's open).

→ tip

Ctrl+W closes the current file tab. If you close the last tab, Ziro drops back to a blank buffer instead of exiting.

Undo & Redo

Ziro snapshots the full buffer and cursor position before each edit, not per-keystroke. Consecutive character insertions and consecutive backspaces are grouped into a single undo step; typing a word and then deleting it are still two separate steps.

Key	Action
`Ctrl+Z`	Undo
`Ctrl+Shift+Z`	Redo

» note

Redo history is cleared as soon as you make a new edit after undoing — same behavior you'd expect from any standard editor.

Syntax Highlighting

Ziro detects the language from the file's extension and applies syntax highlighting via syntect, using the Ziro Dark theme. Supported languages include anything syntect ships by default: Rust, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, C, C++, HTML, CSS, JSON, TOML, Markdown, and more.

» note

If you open Ziro without a filename, there's no extension to detect — highlighting falls back to plain text until you save the buffer with a real name.