Splits with Tmux, Neovim, FZF & Yabai

[PhrantiK]

Managed to get pane navigation working across yabai windows|displays, tmux & neovim with a single set of keybindings. Resizing & Swapping works across tmux & neovim splits.

I can never remember key bindings so try to use the same ones for direction including C-j C-k for up & down in FZF, telescope.

Hope this helps prevent anyone else from sustaining the same injuries as I do from banging my head on the desk. If anyone can spot improvements please let me know!

smart-splits.lua

return {
  "mrjones2014/smart-splits.nvim",
  config = function()
    require("smart-splits").setup({
      at_edge = function(context)
        local dmap = {
          left = "west",
          down = "south",
          up = "north",
          right = "east",
        }
        if context.mux.current_pane_at_edge(context.direction) then
          local ydirection = dmap[context.direction]
          local command = "yabai -m window --focus " .. ydirection

          if ydirection == "west" or ydirection == "east" then
            command = command .. " || yabai -m display --focus " .. ydirection
          end

          vim.fn.system(command)
        end
      end,
    })
  end,
}

bindings

-- navigation
vim.keymap.set('n', '<C-h>', require('smart-splits').move_cursor_left)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<C-j>', require('smart-splits').move_cursor_down)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<C-k>', require('smart-splits').move_cursor_up)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<C-l>', require('smart-splits').move_cursor_right)
-- resizing
vim.keymap.set('n', '<A-h>', require('smart-splits').resize_left)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<A-j>', require('smart-splits').resize_down)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<A-k>', require('smart-splits').resize_up)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<A-l>', require('smart-splits').resize_right)
-- swapping
vim.keymap.set('n', '<A-H>', require('smart-splits').swap_buf_left)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<A-J>', require('smart-splits').swap_buf_down)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<A-K>', require('smart-splits').swap_buf_up)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<A-L>', require('smart-splits').swap_buf_right)

tmux.conf

not_tmux="ps -o state= -o comm= -t '#{pane_tty}' | \
  grep -iqE '^[^TXZ ]+ +(\\S+\\/)?(g?(view|n?vim?x?)(diff)?|fzf)$'"

bind-key -n C-h if "$not_tmux" { send-keys C-h } {
  if -F '#{==:#{pane_at_left},1}' {
    run 'yabai -m window --focus west || yabai -m display --focus west'
  } {
    select-pane -L
  }
}

bind-key -n C-j if "$not_tmux" { send-keys C-j } {
  if -F '#{==:#{pane_at_bottom},1}' {
    run 'yabai -m window --focus south'
  } {
    select-pane -D
  }
}

bind-key -n C-k if "$not_tmux" { send-keys C-k } {
  if -F '#{==:#{pane_at_top},1}' {
    run 'yabai -m window --focus north'
  } {
    select-pane -U
  }
}
bind-key -n C-l if "$not_tmux" { send-keys C-l } {
  if -F '#{==:#{pane_at_right},1}' {
    run 'yabai -m window --focus east || yabai -m display --focus east'
  } {
    select-pane -R
  }
}

bind-key -n M-h if "$not_tmux" 'send-keys M-h' 'resize-pane -L 3'
bind-key -n M-j if "$not_tmux" 'send-keys M-j' 'resize-pane -D 3'
bind-key -n M-k if "$not_tmux" 'send-keys M-k' 'resize-pane -U 3'
bind-key -n M-l if "$not_tmux" 'send-keys M-l' 'resize-pane -R 3'

bind-key -n M-H if "$not_tmux" { send-keys M-H } {
  swap-pane -t '{left-of}'; select-pane -t '!'
}

bind-key -n M-J if "$not_tmux" { send-keys M-J } {
  swap-pane -t '{down-of}'; select-pane -t '!'
}

bind-key -n M-K if "$not_tmux" { send-keys M-K } {
  swap-pane -t '{up-of}'; select-pane -t '!'
}

bind-key -n M-L if "$not_tmux" { send-keys M-L } {
  swap-pane -t '{right-of}'; select-pane -t '!'
}

skhdrc

Note: no clue if the kitty mux works or not, I don't use it.

ctrl - h [
  *           : yabai -m window --focus west || yabai -m display --focus west
  "Kitty"     : skhd -k "ctrl - h"
]

ctrl - j [
  *           : yabai -m window --focus south
  "Kitty"     : skhd -k "ctrl - j"
]

ctrl - k [
  *           : yabai -m window --focus north
  "Kitty"     : skhd -k "ctrl - k"
]

ctrl - l [
  *           : yabai -m window --focus east || yabai -m display --focus east
  "Kitty"     : skhd -k "ctrl - l"
]

[mrjones2014]

This is really neat, thanks for sharing!

[nianiam]

Thanks for this, I’ve always fallen short figuring out the tmux part of this. One little thing is that you should be ignoring the keybindings in skhd using ~ rather than re-passing the same thing:

E.g:

ctrl - h [ 
  *        : yabai -m window --focus west || yabai -m display --focus west
  "Kitty"  ~       # REMOVE  : skhd -k "ctrl - h"
]

Synthesizing the keybind causes some issues with some terminals and how they interpret "ctrl", "meta", "alt" etc

Additionally, (at least on macOS) wrapping the yabai command in the following can squash undesired tmux messages: sh -c “yabai -m window --focus west || yabai -m display --focus west” || true.

[PhrantiK]

Good catch on the skhd config, thanks!

I added || true a little while ago to stop those messages lol, great minds:

koekeishiya/yabai#2238 (comment)

Not sure if you use ssh much but if you can figure out a way of making yabai navigation work across nested tmux sessions I'm all ears!

[assaf758]

@PhrantiK can you please elaborate a bit how the smart-splits.lua above is to be used? Is it a patch to https://github.com/mrjones2014/smart-splits.nvim plugin smart-splits.lua file? Something else?

Also, is there an assumption that Kitty is running tmux/neovim?

[PhrantiK]

Yep, tmux running neovim inside kitty.

The smart-splits.lua file is the returning the setup config for smart splits with lazy.nvim:

https://github.com/mrjones2014/smart-splits.nvim?tab=readme-ov-file#configuration

I have my neovim config separated into files but it doesn't have to be:

https://github.com/folke/lazy.nvim