Seamlessly navigate through Vim / Neovim and Zellij using this Vim plugin ( zellij.vim ) paired with the Zellij plugin zellij-autolock.

It works by using the same mapping -- Ctrl + h/j/k/l by default -- to navigate through Vim windows and Zellij panes. When already at the edge of a Vim instance, focus is moved to the neighboring Zellij pane.

In addition to providing the commands and mappings, this plugin will defines autocmds to put ZelliJ into "locked" mode on VimEnter and "normal" mode on VimLeave. This Vim plugin relies on the Zellij plugin zellij-autolock to provide a seamless experience. With both of these plugins installed, Zellij will toggle its "locked" mode depending on whether the focused pane is running [neo]vim. When in "locked" mode, Zellij keybindings will not interfere with Vim keybindings.

Here is a demonstration of how you can seamlessly navigate through Zellij panes running Vim, Neovim, and even other commands like FZF.

Open full screen demo recording.

Notice how the Zellij mode ( "Normal" or "Locked" in the top-right corner ) automatically toggles depending which process is running within the focused Zellij pane. This allows you to use the same mappings (Ctrl+h/j/k/l) to navigate between Zellij panes, Vim windows, and even FZF results.

Plug 'https://github.com/fresh2dev/zellij.vim.git'

{
  'https://github.com/fresh2dev/zellij.vim.git',
  lazy = false,
}

This plugin creates the following commands for navigation:

• :ZellijNavigateUp - Move up one Vim window or Zellij pane.
• :ZellijNavigateDown - Move down one Vim window or Zellij pane.
• :ZellijNavigateLeft - Move left one Vim window or Zellij pane.
• :ZellijNavigateRight - Move right one Vim window or Zellij pane.

And these commands for opening a new pane while preserving Vim's current working directory:

• :ZellijNewPane - Open a floating Zellij pane.
• :ZellijNewPaneSplit - Open a Zellij pane below.
• :ZellijNewPaneVSplit - Open a Zellij pane to the right.

These are the default mappings for navigation:

noremap <C-h> :ZellijNavigateLeft<CR>
noremap <C-j> :ZellijNavigateDown<CR>
noremap <C-k> :ZellijNavigateUp<CR>
noremap <C-l> :ZellijNavigateRight<CR>

Disable the default mappings with:

let g:zellij_navigator_no_default_mappings = 1

Notice that there are no default mappings for :ZellijNewPane.... If desired, define these yourself.

This is what I use...

...in Vim:

" Open floating Zellij pane with `<leader>tt` or `Alt+f`.
nnoremap <leader>tt :ZellijNewPane<CR>

execute "set <M-f>=\ef"
noremap <M-f> :ZellijNewPane<CR>

" Open Zellij pane below with `Alt+t`.
execute "set <M-t>=\et"
noremap <M-t> :ZellijNewPaneSplit<CR>

" Open Zellij pane to the right with `Alt+v`.
execute "set <M-v>=\ev"
noremap <M-v> :ZellijNewPaneVSplit<CR>

...in Neovim (using lazy.nvim):

keys = {
  { '<leader>tt', ':ZellijNewPane<CR>', mode = { 'n' }, { noremap = true } },
  { '<M-f>', ':ZellijNewPane<CR>', mode = { 'n', 'i' }, { noremap = true } },
  { '<M-t>', ':ZellijNewPaneSplit<CR>', mode = { 'n', 'i' }, { noremap = true } },
  { '<M-v>', ':ZellijNewPaneVSplit<CR>', mode = { 'n', 'i' }, { noremap = true } },
},

Even without this plugin, you can control Zellij by calling the Zellij CLI from within Vim. For example, here's a Vim autocommand which names the current Zellij tab after Vim's current working directory (an excerpt from my dotfiles):

In Vimscript:

autocmd DirChanged,WinEnter,BufEnter * \
  call system('zellij action rename-tab "' . fnamemodify(getcwd(), ':t') . '"')

In Lua:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({ 'DirChanged', 'WinEnter', 'BufEnter' }, {
  pattern = '*',
  callback = function()
    vim.fn.system('zellij action rename-tab "' .. vim.fn.fnamemodify(vim.fn.getcwd(), ':t') .. '"')
  end,
})

• zellij-org/zellij
• christoomey/vim-tmux-navigator