How to go back to Yazi from Nvim w/o closing Nvim?

[sunbearc22]

What system are you running Yazi on?

Linux X11

What terminal are you running Yazi in?

Yazi 25.9.15 (46569a1 2025-10-16)

yazi --debug output

Yazi
    Version: 25.9.15 (46569a1 2025-10-16)
    Debug  : false
    Triple : x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu (linux-x86_64)
    Rustc  : 1.90.0 (1159e78c 2025-09-14)

Ya
    Version: 25.9.15 (46569a1 2025-10-16)

Emulator
    TERM                : Some("xterm-256color")
    TERM_PROGRAM        : Some("WezTerm")
    TERM_PROGRAM_VERSION: Some("20251014-193657-64f2907c")
    Brand.from_env      : Some(WezTerm)
    Emulator.detect     : Emulator { kind: Left(WezTerm), light: false, csi_16t: (10, 30), force_16t: false }

Adapter
    Adapter.matches    : Iip
    Dimension.available: Dimension { rows: 33, columns: 190, width: 1900, height: 990 }

Desktop
    XDG_SESSION_TYPE           : Some("x11")
    WAYLAND_DISPLAY            : None
    DISPLAY                    : Some(":1")
    SWAYSOCK                   : None
    HYPRLAND_INSTANCE_SIGNATURE: None
    WAYFIRE_SOCKET             : None

SSH
    shared.in_ssh_connection: false

WSL
    WSL: false

Variables
    SHELL              : Some("/bin/bash")
    EDITOR             : Some("nvim")
    VISUAL             : None
    YAZI_FILE_ONE      : None
    YAZI_CONFIG_HOME   : None
    YAZI_ZOXIDE_OPTS   : None
    FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS   : None
    FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND: None

Text Opener
    default     : Some(OpenerRule { run: "${EDITOR:-vi} %s", block: true, orphan: false, desc: "$EDITOR", for: None, spread: true })
    block-create: Some(OpenerRule { run: "${EDITOR:-vi} %s", block: true, orphan: false, desc: "$EDITOR", for: None, spread: true })
    block-rename: Some(OpenerRule { run: "${EDITOR:-vi} %s", block: true, orphan: false, desc: "$EDITOR", for: None, spread: true })

Multiplexers
    TMUX               : false
    tmux version       : 3.4
    tmux build flags   : enable-sixel=Unknown
    ZELLIJ_SESSION_NAME: None
    Zellij version     : No such file or directory (os error 2)

Dependencies
    file          : 5.45
    ueberzugpp    : 2.9.7
    ffmpeg/ffprobe: 6.1.1-3 / 6.1.1-3
    pdftoppm      : 24.02.0
    magick        : No such file or directory (os error 2)
    fzf           : 0.65.2
    fd/fdfind     : No such file or directory (os error 2) / 9.0.0
    rg            : 14.1.1
    chafa         : 1.14.0
    zoxide        : 0.9.8
    7zz/7z        : No such file or directory (os error 2) / 23.01
    resvg         : No such file or directory (os error 2)
    jq            : 1.7

Clipboard
    wl-copy/paste: No such file or directory (os error 2) / No such file or directory (os error 2)
    xclip        : 0.13
    xsel         : No such file or directory (os error 2)

Routine
    `file -bL --mime-type`: text/plain

Describe the question

From the terminal, I first ran Yazi. I call up a few tabs to do different file/directory stuff. I then open a file from one of these opened tabs. Nvim is called up because I have configured Yazi to use nvim as Editor. So the file is opened in nvim. While working in nvim, I now I want to return to one of the tabs opened in Yazi to do some other file/folder stuff. How do I go back to the same Yazi object that opened the nvim object? If I use yazi.nvim now, it will call up a totally new yazi object which is not the first Yazi object that I had started out with.

To return to the original Yazi object, so far I only know of quiting nvim by doing :q. But what is I don't want to quit nvim? I just want to return to the first Yazi object to do some file-folder stuff and then return back to nvim to continue with my file editing tasks. How do I return to the same Yazi object and then back again to nvim? Is this workflow possible/allowed?

Anything else?

No response

Checklist

• I have read all the documentation
• I have searched the existing discussions/issues

[bulletmark]

If you prefer to remain in nvim then perhaps you are better off using mini.files instead of yazi? It is a (very popular) nvim plugin that provides file navigation/operations much like yazi.

[sunbearc22]

Thanks but this suggested workflow seem to me to be equivalent to using yazi.nvim from within nvim which is different to the question that I was inquiring on.

[sxyazi]

Yazi just launches Neovim as a subprocess and transfers the complete terminal control to Neovim. To achieve what you described, Neovim would need to somehow return control back to Yazi (the parent process) without exiting, but I'm not sure if that's possible.

[sunbearc22]

I really tried using Yazi's Command command to run terminal command but was unsuccessful. I resorted to using Lua's os.execute command and it worked. Below is the amended file:

~/.config/yazi/plugins/nvim-file-in-wezterm-split.yazi/main.lua

local get_hovered = ya.sync(function()
    local file = tostring(cx.active.current.hovered.url)
    local cwd = tostring(cx.active.current.cwd)
    ya.dbg("file = ", file)
    ya.dbg("cwd = ", cwd)
    return file, cwd
end)

local function entry()
    local file_url, cwd = get_hovered()
    local command = "wezterm cli split-pane --right --cwd " .. cwd .. " -- nvim " .. file_url
    os.execute(command)
end

return { entry = entry }

Below shows what happens when Ctrl+o is pressed on a hovered file. Nvim opens that file in a new pane in the Wezterm terminal. I then revert back to the original pane to change the directory to show that yazi is running concurrently with Nvim. I then go back to the new pane to quit Nvim. When Nvim quits, the new pane that hosted it also quitted.

I am glad this proof-of-concept plugin worked.

Can someone explain to me why the yazi Command did not work? I could not leverage the benefits mentioned in the documentation. I would like to understand how to use Command.

[sxyazi]

Nice to see you get your way to make it work!

Can someone explain to me why the yazi Command did not work? I could not leverage the benefits mentioned in the documentation. I would like to understand how to use Command.

You're using a method :args(...) that doesn't exist on Command, what you're looking for is :arg(), see https://yazi-rs.github.io/docs/plugins/utils#Command.arg

Also, don't call ya.dbg(tostring(child)) as the child is a child process object which can't be converted to a string, just ya.dbg(child) instead

[sunbearc22]

@sxyazi You wrote:

You're using a method :args(...) that doesn't exist on Command, what you're looking for is :arg(), see https://yazi-rs.github.io/docs/plugins/utils#Command.arg

But documentation showed args:

Thank you for the other advice on child. I will try using arg later and keep you posted.

[sxyazi]

Oh that's a typo, nice catch! Fixed in yazi-rs/yazi-rs.github.io@478d267

[sunbearc22]

@sxyazi After much try-and-error, I finally found a way to get the Command command to work in my entry function. See below.

local function entry()
    local file_url, cwd = get_hovered()
    -- local command = "wezterm cli split-pane --right --cwd " .. cwd .. " -- nvim " .. file_url
    -- os.execute(command)
    local status, err = Command("wezterm")
        :arg { "cli", "split-pane", "--right", "--cwd", cwd, "--", "nvim", file_url }
        :status()
        -- :output()   --- this method also worked.
    ya.dbg(status)
    ya.dbg(err)
end

The spawn method of Command did not work for this purpose. Instead, the status and the output methods of Command had to be used. This outcome implies to me that the status and output methods of Command is more of an equivalent of Lua's os.execute than is the spawn method. Am I correct to think so? If true, I suggest you mentioned this in the documentation so as to help other yazi users. Because the use of spawn is featured in the documentation for Command, it mislead me to think that it had to be the equivalent of os.execute.

Can you help me understand how to show the value of status and output in ya.dbg? I even tried using tostring() but will always get a statement like DEBUG yazi_plugin::utils::log: "Output: 0x7fada193d728" . ya.dbg(status) also showed something similar.