manage-zellij-installation

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name: manage-zellij-installation description: Installs and configures Zellij terminal multiplexer from GitHub releases. Use when setting up Zellij for terminal workspace management.

Prerequisites

• macOS or Linux
• curl installed
• tar installed

Installation

1. Ensure ~/.local/bin exists and is in PATH

Copymkdir -p ~/.local/bin

Add to ~/.bashrc if not already present:

Copyexport PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Then reload:

Copysource ~/.bashrc

2. Download and install Zellij binary

Determine OS and architecture, then download the appropriate release from https://github.com/zellij-org/zellij/releases

For macOS (Apple Silicon):

Copycurl -L https://github.com/zellij-org/zellij/releases/latest/download/zellij-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz -o /tmp/zellij.tar.gz

For macOS (Intel):

Copycurl -L https://github.com/zellij-org/zellij/releases/latest/download/zellij-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz -o /tmp/zellij.tar.gz

For Linux (x86_64):

Copycurl -L https://github.com/zellij-org/zellij/releases/latest/download/zellij-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz -o /tmp/zellij.tar.gz

For Linux (aarch64):

Copycurl -L https://github.com/zellij-org/zellij/releases/latest/download/zellij-aarch64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz -o /tmp/zellij.tar.gz

3. Extract and install

Copytar -xvf /tmp/zellij.tar.gz -C /tmp
chmod +x /tmp/zellij
mv /tmp/zellij ~/.local/bin/
rm /tmp/zellij.tar.gz

4. Configure Zellij

Create config directory and dump default configuration:

Copymkdir -p ~/.config/zellij
zellij setup --dump-config > ~/.config/zellij/config.kdl

5. Set locked mode as default

Edit ~/.config/zellij/config.kdl and ensure this line is present (uncommented) near the top:

Copydefault_mode "locked"

Verify

Copyzellij --version

Confirm config exists:

Copycat ~/.config/zellij/config.kdl | grep default_mode

Update

1. Download the latest release (repeat step 2 from Installation with the new version)
2. Extract and replace the binary:

Copytar -xvf /tmp/zellij.tar.gz -C /tmp
chmod +x /tmp/zellij
mv /tmp/zellij ~/.local/bin/
rm /tmp/zellij.tar.gz

Check releases at: https://github.com/zellij-org/zellij/releases

Uninstall

1. Remove the binary:

Copyrm ~/.local/bin/zellij

1. Remove configuration:

Copyrm -rf ~/.config/zellij

1. Remove cache and data (if any):

Copyrm -rf ~/.cache/zellij
rm -rf ~/.local/share/zellij