Switching Zellij sessions with Zoxide

[roberte777]

Hello! I’m the creator of zesh, a project designed to make it easy to create and attach to Zellij sessions, leveraging Zoxide for a more streamlined workflow.

A user recently requested the ability to use zesh from within an existing Zellij session, with the expected behavior being an automatic session switch based on Zoxide rules. However, the current behavior simply opens a new session within the existing one, which isn't ideal.

From my understanding, Zellij does not currently support switching sessions via the CLI, so I am considering possible solutions and would appreciate feedback on my ideas or any alternative suggestions.

Possible Solutions

1. Detach and Reattach to the Correct Session

   • If the user is already in a Zellij session, zesh could first detach them from it and then reattach them to the correct session.
   • This is a simple approach and would work reliably.
   • However, it may cause noticeable screen flashes, which I would prefer to avoid.

2. Create a Zellij Plugin for Session Switching via Zoxide

   • A custom Zellij plugin could integrate Zoxide-based session switching alongside the existing Session Manager.
   • This would allow users to interactively search and switch sessions.
   • Personally, I prefer a more minimal workflow and find GUI-based session management to add cognitive load. However, this approach aligns more closely with Zellij’s design and may be preferable for other users.

Request for Feedback

• Do either (or both) of these approaches seem like a good solution?
• Are there any better ways to achieve seamless session switching within Zellij?
• Have you encountered or solved a similar problem before?

I’d love to hear any thoughts, suggestions, or alternative approaches. Thanks!