Core workflows

One loop covers everything in f:ist: filter → inspect → act → undo. Every action is one or two keys away, and undo is always the escape hatch.

Overview

• Filter the current listing by typing; ctrl-f / ctrl-r / ctrl-g switch to find, full-text, and history panes.
• Inspect with ? (preview) and alt-i (info) without opening anything.
• Act on the cursor row or a multi-row selection.
• Undo (ctrl-z) walks back through your pane history — you can't get lost.

Select multiple items

Keys	Action
tab	Toggle selection on the current row (and move down)
ctrl-a	Cycle through selections
ctrl-shift-a	Clear all selections
ctrl-e	Menu of actions for the selection (or cursor, or cwd)

The menu (ctrl-e) shows the actions that make sense for what you have selected — New, Rename, Cut, Copy, Trash, Open With, plus your custom actions. Type the highlighted letter (or an alias like C) to trigger one.

Cut, copy, and paste

File transfer is a two-step dance backed by an operation queue:

1. ctrl-x (cut) or ctrl-c (copy) on a file or selection.
2. Navigate to the destination directory.
3. ctrl-v to paste everything queued.

ctrl-u opens the queue overlay at any time. Each row shows kind · source · destination · progress:

Keys	Row action
↑ / ↓	Move
space	Select rows
shift-↑ / shift-↓	Reorder rows
ctrl-e	Edit the source
ctrl-shift-r	Edit the destination
Enter	Execute the row
delete	Remove the row

The queue is destination-lazy: destinations resolve against the directory you're in at paste time, not at copy time. For the full semantics — queue kinds, selectors, and progress — see The queue.

Note: the queue lives in memory for the run. For mission-critical transfers, prefer a custom menu action that performs the transfer itself.

Search

Three panes answer "where is it?":

Pane	Shortcut	Backend	Use for
Find	ctrl-f	fd	Recursive filename search — see docs
Search	ctrl-r	ripgrep	Full-text content search — see docs
History	ctrl-g	SQLite	Recently visited folders & files — see docs

Search results are ordinary panes: preview, edit, queue, trash, and open-with all work on them.

Preview

Keys	Action
?	Preview (quick look)
alt-i / alt-/	Info preview (metadata)
alt-shift-i	Display preview (richer output)
ctrl-l	Preview paged through the terminal pager
alt-l	Extended preview, paged & interactive
alt-n	Edit the current file
ctrl-enter / alt-o	Open with the system handler

Every key above is a lessfilter preset — you can redefine any of it.

Other everyday actions

Keys	Action
ctrl-y	Copy the full path of the item
ctrl-shift-r	Rename
alt-r	Reload the current listing
ctrl-s	Toggle hidden files
ctrl-d	Toggle "only directories"
ctrl-p	Options overlay: visibility, sort order, search context
alt-u	Clear the query
ctrl-esc	Drop to a shell in the current directory

Example: a real task

fs -t .md ~/notes          # list all markdown under ~/notes
ctrl-r "meeting"           # full-text search for "meeting"
tab                        # select the interesting hit
ctrl-e → R                 # rename it
alt-n                      # open it in your editor
ctrl-z                     # undo the pane walk — back to where you were
ctrl-v                     # paste earlier queued copies into the current dir

FAQ

How do I move files between directories?

ctrl-x on the file, navigate to the destination, ctrl-v. The queue shows the pending cut with ctrl-u.

Is there a way to delete without the trash?

shift-delete deletes permanently (no trash). delete moves to the OS trash.

Can I run an action on many files at once?

Select rows with tab, then ctrl-e — the menu targets the whole selection. Custom actions receive the full path list (see Menu actions).