fpv — Ultra Fast Previewer TUI

fpv is the ultra-fast terminal-native file cockpit for code discovery.
Explore folders, preview files, and review diffs instantly without leaving your terminal workflow.

Built for speed and clarity, fpv delivers near-instant preview updates with an intentionally minimal UI: just a focused tree and preview, keyboard-first controls, and zero extra clutter.
Under the hood, fpv is powered by Ratatui for responsive, terminal-native rendering.

Current release: v0.1.12

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Features

• Split-pane power flow — Keep context with a directory tree on the left and instant file preview on the right
• Multi-language syntax highlighting — Tree-sitter powered rendering for major languages (see Supported file types)
• Git-aware navigation — Spot status and change intent directly in the tree and preview
• Instant reload loop — Navigate quickly with low-latency file switching and stable frame refresh
• Minimal interface, maximal signal — Minimal, focused chrome so diff and code content stay the center of attention
• Inline diff-first reviews — Toggle diff mode to surface added/removed lines inside the preview with visual markers in the scrollbar
• Visual file previews — See PNG, JPEG, and GIF content as compact ASCII art directly in the terminal, including proportional scaling
• Fully customizable — Tune key bindings and theme behavior with a simple TOML configuration
• Reliable fallbacks — Safe plain-text rendering for binaries or files that cannot be highlighted
• Ratatui-powered — Smooth, low-latency interface updates built on the Ratatui widget/rendering ecosystem
• Preview-pane text search — Find and jump to text matches inside the active file preview quickly.

Installation

Homebrew

brew tap digicrafts/tap
brew install fpv

Ubuntu(APT)

curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/digicrafts/fpv/setup.deb.sh' | sudo -E bash
sudo apt install fpv

From source

See Build from source below.

Usage

# Open current directory
fpv

# Open a specific path
fpv /path/to/project

# Use a custom config file
fpv /path/to/project --config ~/.config/fpv/config

**Quick tips: Press ? in the app for shortcut help.

Build from source

Prerequisites

• Rust (Rust 1.70+)

Build and run

git clone https://github.com/digicrafts/fpv.git
cd fpv
cargo build --release

The binary will be at target/release/fpv. Run it with:

./target/release/fpv
# or, if installed: fpv

To run without installing (e.g. for development):

cargo run -- /path/to/project
cargo run -- /path/to/project --config config/sample.user.toml

Configuration

On first run, fpv creates a default config at:

• Linux / macOS: ~/.config/fpv/config

You can override keybindings and theme there. Example config:

[mappings]
quit = "ctrl+q"
switch_focus = "ctrl+tab"

[theme]
directory_color = "yellow"
hidden_dim_enabled = true

status_display_mode = "bar"   # or "title"

Config keys under [mappings] include: move_up, move_down, expand_node, collapse_node, open_node, exit_fullscreen_preview, switch_focus, page_up, page_down, preview_scroll_up, preview_scroll_down, toggle_preview_line_numbers, toggle_preview_wrap, toggle_help, toggle_hidden, resize_preview_narrower, resize_preview_wider, quit. Use key names like up, down, enter, tab, ctrl+q, etc.

Supported file types

Syntax highlighting is supported for:

Category	Extensions / names
Shell	bash, sh, zsh, ksh
C / C++	c, h, cpp, cxx, hpp, hxx
Web	html, htm, css, xml
Go	go
Java	java
JavaScript / TypeScript	js, jsx, mjs, cjs, ts, tsx
Data	json, toml, yaml, yml
Markdown	md, markdown
Python	py
Rust	rs

Other files are shown as plain text or with a safe fallback.

Roadmap

Future planning features

Planned feature	Completed
In-preview search across text content	[✓]
Theme refinement and usability improvements	[ ]
Plugin architecture for extensible preview features	[ ]
Git graph view for commit history context	[ ]

Credits

fpv is built on the shoulders of open-source infrastructure:

• Ratatui — terminal UI framework that powers the full-screen rendering and interaction model.
• Tree-sitter — fast language parsing for syntax highlighting support.
• The Rust terminal tooling and open-source contributors behind the ecosystem.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.