What it does
Zellij is a terminal workspace and multiplexer aimed at developers and operations users. It supports panes, tabs, reusable layouts, session attachment, and a command interface. The official documentation provides package and binary installation paths, while the source repository is licensed under MIT.
Install the package or prebuilt binary for your operating system, then start a Zellij session in the directory where you are working. Use panes or layouts to keep a shell, test command, and logs visible together. The command guide documents attaching to a named session and running an initial command in a new pane, which helps when a remote terminal disconnects and you want to return to the same workspace.
Zellij is a terminal workspace rather than a process supervisor; it keeps interactive sessions organized but does not replace service management for production daemons. Its layout and session model overlaps with terminal multiplexers such as tmux, while the project provides its own configuration, command set, and plugin approach.
Strengths
- Supports sessions, panes, tabs, and reusable layouts.
- Can attach to an existing named session and supports platform packages or prebuilt binaries.
- The official repository uses the MIT License and publishes releases.
Watch out for
- It organizes interactive terminal sessions but is not a service/process supervisor.
- Users moving from another multiplexer need to learn its own commands and layout configuration.
Best for
- Keeping several interactive development tasks visible in one terminal workspace
- Reattaching to named terminal sessions on a remote machine
Sources
- Introduction | Zellij User Guide (Oct 25, 2026)
- Installation | Zellij User Guide (Oct 25, 2026)
- Commands | Zellij User Guide (Oct 25, 2026)
- README.md | zellij-org/zellij (Oct 25, 2026)
- LICENSE.md | zellij-org/zellij (Oct 25, 2026)
- Latest release | zellij-org/zellij GitHub API (Oct 25, 2026)