DotnetTerminalExplorer 1.1.1

Dotnet Terminal Explorer

Dotnet Terminal Explorer (dte) is a deliberately lightweight, scoped file explorer for the terminal. It opens a filesystem tree on the left and an interactive file preview and editor on the right with support for text files and TrueColor image rendering.

dte explores only the directory passed to it, similar to opening a folder with code. If the directory is omitted, it uses the current working directory.

Requirements

• Standalone Native Binary (Recommended): None — zero dependencies or .NET runtime installation required (pre-compiled with Native AOT).
• .NET Global Tool (dotnet tool): Requires .NET 10 Runtime or SDK.
• Building from Source: Requires .NET 10 SDK.

Installation

Option 1: Standalone Native Binary (Zero .NET runtime required)

Linux & macOS

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/enisn/DotnetTerminalExplorer/main/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/enisn/DotnetTerminalExplorer/main/install.ps1 | iex

Manual Download

You can also download prebuilt standalone binaries directly from the GitHub Releases page (linux-x64, linux-arm64, osx-arm64, win-x64, win-arm64).

Option 2: As a .NET Global Tool (requires .NET 10 Runtime)

dotnet tool install --global DotnetTerminalExplorer

Uninstallation

Standalone Native Binary

Linux & macOS

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/enisn/DotnetTerminalExplorer/main/uninstall.sh | bash

(Or simply remove ~/.local/bin/dte)

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/enisn/DotnetTerminalExplorer/main/uninstall.ps1 | iex

(Or remove the $HOME\.dte folder)

.NET Global Tool

dotnet tool uninstall --global DotnetTerminalExplorer

Usage

Run it for the current directory or a specific scoped folder:

dte
dte ./src
dte /path/to/project
dte --page-size 200 ./src    # 200 entries per page instead of 500
dte --page-size 0 ./src      # disable paging entirely

Use dte --help or dte --version without initializing Terminal.Gui or filesystem services.

Shortcuts

Ctrl+F / F3 is context-aware: pressing it while focused on the editor opens an in-editor find bar with instant match navigation (Enter/F3 for next, Shift+Enter/Shift+F3 for previous, Alt+C for case sensitivity); pressing it while focused on the file tree (or pressing Ctrl+Shift+F anytime) opens a ripgrep-grade workspace search modal streaming matches asynchronously across the repository with GitIgnore filtering, regex support, and file/content mode toggles.

While the in-editor find bar is open, press Ctrl+H or Alt+R (or click the Replace button on the right of the find bar) to reveal the replace field (Tab / Shift+Tab switches between the Find and Replace inputs). Enter in the replace field replaces the current match and advances to the next one, Ctrl+Enter replaces all occurrences at once, and Alt+C toggles case sensitivity for both find and replace. Replace actions show a read-only hint for non-editable previews; save the file with Ctrl+S afterwards.

Note: some terminals encode Ctrl+H as 0x08 (historic backspace), which reaches the app as Ctrl+Backspace. Both encodings are intercepted before the editor's word-delete binding, so Ctrl+H opens the replace bar in either case.

F8 and Ctrl+S are disabled for directories. Files can be edited directly in the right-hand editor pane and saved with Ctrl+S. Pressing Enter on a selected text file in the file tree automatically focuses the editor, and pressing Esc inside the editor immediately returns focus to the file tree. Pressing Esc while on the file tree prompts a confirmation dialog before quitting to prevent accidental exits. Press Ctrl+N to create a new file in the current directory or F2 to trigger an inline rename bar in the tree pane (Enter commits, Esc cancels). Press Del to delete the selected file or directory after confirming in a modal dialog. Press F1 at any time to open the full help dialog.

On ultra-wide terminals, the left file panel is automatically clamped (to 24–48 columns by default) to keep the preview pane spacious. You can manually adjust the width at any time with Alt+Left / Alt+Right (or Alt+[ / Alt+]).

File previews load asynchronously so navigating the tree never blocks. Binary files and files larger than 2 MB are not read automatically; the preview shows file metadata instead and Ctrl+L loads them as text on demand.

Very large directories are paged (500 entries per page by default, configurable via --page-size): the next page loads automatically as the selection approaches the end of the loaded items, and a ── Load more… row is available for explicit jumps to the bottom. Ctrl+Right expands one level at a time (recursive expand-all is disabled so huge trees never freeze the UI).

Initial behavior

• Directories are listed before files, and hidden entries are included.
• Only the root's immediate children are enumerated at startup. Descendants are read when their directory is expanded.
• Directory symlinks and reparse points inside the selected scope are shown but are not expanded.
• Text files support inline viewing and editing with dirty state tracking and Ctrl+S saving.
• Image files (.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .webp, .gif, .bmp, .ico, etc.) are rendered inline as TrueColor half-block (▀) thumbnails with format, dimension, and size metadata.
• Non-image binary files display structured metadata summaries instead of unprintable characters.
• Press F8 on any selected file to open it with the operating system's default viewer or editor.

Lightweight startup

The startup path intentionally avoids Generic Host and dependency injection containers. Only one source-generated CliFx command descriptor is registered, command activation uses an explicit type switch, and the command constructor stores only a runner delegate. Path validation completes before filesystem services and Terminal.Gui are created.

Projects

• src/DotnetTerminalExplorer.Core — UI-independent explorer logic.
• src/DotnetTerminalExplorer — the packable Terminal.Gui application.
• tests/DotnetTerminalExplorer.Core.Tests — Core unit tests.
• tests/DotnetTerminalExplorer.Tests — CLI and TUI tests.

Build

dotnet restore
dotnet build DotnetTerminalExplorer.sln --no-restore -c Release
dotnet test DotnetTerminalExplorer.sln --no-build --no-restore -c Release

Pack and install for development

Create the tool and symbol packages under nupkg:

pwsh ./pack.ps1

Repack and install the local package globally:

pwsh ./install-dev.ps1

The development install script removes an existing global development installation first so rebuilding the same version is deterministic.

Publishing

CI restores, builds, tests, packs, installs the tool into an isolated directory, and exercises dte --help and dte --version. NuGet.org publishing is a separate manual GitHub Actions workflow that requires the NUGET_API_KEY repository secret.

License

MIT