Fresh

Fast & light

Instant startup. Text appears as you type. Small memory footprint. Stays responsive on multi-GB files and remote editing over SSH.

Instant startup, low-latency input
Low memory footprint
Multi-GB files open without blocking the UI
SSH remote editing transfers only the diff — small edits to huge remote files stay snappy
Project-wide search & replace, even across unsaved buffers

Git review & diff

Split-panel review with staged / unstaged / untracked files on the left and the selected diff on the right. Stage, unstage or discard individual hunks; leave line comments and session notes; export to Markdown. Side-by-side diff view for file comparisons.

Hunk-level stage / unstage / discard
Side-by-side diff view
Line comments and session notes
Git gutter, git log viewer, git grep

Language Server Protocol

Run multiple LSP servers per language (for example pylsp + pyright) with feature routing and merged completions. Per-project workspace roots detected from configurable markers like Cargo.toml or package.json.

Configs shipped for Python, TypeScript, Rust, Go, Java, C/C++, Ruby, PHP, Bash, Vue, Svelte, Terraform, Haskell, OCaml, Elixir and many more
Goto, references and hover in library paths (node_modules, site-packages, .cargo)
Code actions with workspace edits

Detachable sessions

Start a named session, detach and reattach across terminal disconnects. The --wait flag blocks until the buffer is closed, which lets Fresh serve as git core.editor or $EDITOR. Hot Exit persists every buffer across restarts and crashes.

Named and directory-based sessions (fresh -a myproject)
--wait for commit messages, rebases and scripted flows
Hot Exit with crash recovery, including unnamed scratch buffers

                    # Use Fresh as your git editor
                    git config --global core.editor "fresh --wait"
                    
                    # Attach a persistent session
                    fresh -a myproject
                    
                    # Open a file in the running session
                    fresh --cmd session open-file myproject src/main.rs:42
                

SSH remote editing

Open files on an SSH host with fresh user@host:path. Connections reconnect in the background if they drop. Saves to large files transfer only the patch, not the whole file.

Password and key authentication, sudo save
Remote file finder (Ctrl+P) and remote grep
Background reconnect with disconnected-state indicator

                    # Open /etc/nginx/nginx.conf on prod
                    fresh deploy@prod:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
                    
                    # Ctrl+P fuzzy-finds remote files
                    # Save over SSH with sudo
                    # Auto-reconnects on drops
                

TypeScript plugins

Plugins are compiled with OXC and run in an embedded QuickJS VM, sandboxed and shipped inside the same binary. No node_modules on disk. Packages are installed from the official registry; language packs bundle a grammar, settings and LSP config together.

Plugin API for buffers, splits, cursors, processes, virtual buffers and overlays
Custom keybinding modes and embedded terminals
Package scaffolding with --init

Themes, status bar & i18n

Both sides of the status bar are configurable via a visual picker, with reorderable elements including a {clock}, git branch and LSP status. Themes are edited live. The interface is translated into several languages including Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese.

Live theme editor with "Inspect Theme at Cursor"
Built-in themes: high-contrast, Gruvbox, Dracula, Nord, Solarized, Tokyo Night and more
Vertical rulers, whitespace indicators, rainbow brackets, per-language wrap
Nerd-font icons and CJK-safe rendering

Keyboard & editing

Command palette with prefix routing (> commands, # buffers, : lines). Keybinding editor with conflict detection and per-context bindings. Full mouse support.

Vim mode with operators, motions, text objects and colon commands
Multi-cursor, block selection, surround, smart home and smart backspace
Keyboard macros and regex find & replace with capture groups
Integrated terminal with session-persistent scrollback

Fresh editor with file explorer and integrated terminal

Installation even more options →

Linux / macOS (quick install)

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sinelaw/fresh/refs/heads/master/scripts/install.sh | sh

One-line install. No toolchain required.

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install sinelaw/fresh/fresh-editor

Windows (winget)

winget install fresh-editor

Debian / Ubuntu

Grab the .deb from Releases, then:

sudo dpkg -i fresh-editor_*.deb

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S fresh-editor

View on AUR — aarch64 supported.

npm / npx (no install)

npx @fresh-editor/fresh-editor

Or global: npm install -g @fresh-editor/fresh-editor

Pre-built Binaries

Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD binaries on GitHub Releases. Drop anywhere on $PATH.

From source (Cargo)

cargo install --locked fresh-editor

If you already have a Rust toolchain.

Full feature list

Multi-GB file support
Intuitive out of the box
No config file fiddling required
Standard keybindings (Ctrl+S, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+F)
Full mouse support
Menu bar and command palette
Fuzzy file finder (Ctrl+P)
Project-wide grep (live, via ripgrep)
Project-wide search & replace
File explorer with git status
Tabs and split panes
Side-by-side diff view
Markdown preview (compose mode)
Multi-cursor & block selection
Keyboard macros
Regex find & replace with capture groups
Auto-close brackets & quotes (per-language)
Smart home, smart backspace dedent, surround
Auto-indent & auto-dedent (tree-sitter)
Code folding (LSP + indent-based)
Magit-style git diff review
Git gutter, git log viewer, git grep
LSP configs shipped for many languages
Multi-LSP per language
Goto / hover / references in library paths
Code actions with workspace edits
Format-on-save
SSH remote editing
Detachable sessions (fresh -a)
--wait for git core.editor / $EDITOR
Hot Exit with crash recovery
Integrated terminal (mouse forwarding, scrollback)
Vim mode
TypeScript plugins (QuickJS + OXC)
Package manager for plugins, themes, languages
Scaffold new packages with --init
Live-preview theme editor
Built-in themes: Gruvbox, Dracula, Nord, Tokyo Night…
Vertical rulers, whitespace indicators
Customizable status bar with {clock} element
Internationalization (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese…)
Many text encodings (UTF-16, GBK, Shift-JIS, Latin-1…)
Read-only mode for library & toolchain paths
Settings UI with deep search
Keybinding editor with conflict detection
Single static binary, no runtime
Packaging: Homebrew, AUR, winget, apt, Flatpak, AppImage, cargo
Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD
Open source (GPL-2.0)