Pointer - Terminal File Manager

A fast, feature-rich terminal file manager written in Rust. Two-pane layout with syntax-highlighted previews, inline image display, archive browsing, SSH remote access, async file operations, OpenAI integration, and comprehensive undo. Feature clone of RTFM.

Built on crust (TUI) and glow (images). Single binary, ~3.6MB, ~50ms startup.

Quick Start

# Download from releases (Linux/macOS, x86_64/aarch64)
# Or build from source:
git clone https://github.com/isene/pointer
cd pointer
cargo build --release

# Run
./target/release/pointer

# Start in specific directory
pointer ~/Documents

# Use as file picker
pointer --pick=/tmp/selected.txt

# Start with a clean slate (don't restore cursor positions)
pointer --fresh

Press ? for built-in help. Press q to quit (saves state).

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Screenshots

Directory browsing	File preview with bat
Image preview

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Key Features

• Two-pane layout with configurable width ratio and border styles
• LS_COLORS support for consistent terminal theming
• Syntax highlighting built-in (20+ languages, plus dedicated Markdown/LaTeX/plaintext renderers with URL/TODO detection) with 6 themes, bat as optional toggle
• Image preview via kitty/sixel/w3m protocols (using glow)
• Archive browsing and editing (zip, tar, gz, bz2, xz, rar, 7z as virtual directories — enter with ENTER/→, then d to delete, D to extract, p to paste in files tagged before entering)
• SSH/SFTP remote browsing (Ctrl-E)
• Async file operations with progress for large copy/move
• Comprehensive undo (delete, move, rename, copy, symlink, permissions, bulk rename)
• Trash system with toggle and browser
• Tab management (create, close, switch, duplicate, rename)
• Bookmarks with instant single-key jump
• Search (filename), grep (content), filter (extension/regex)
• fzf and navi integration
• locate with jump-to-result
• Bulk rename (regex, case conversion, extension change, prefix/suffix)
• File comparison (diff between two tagged files)
• Git status display
• Directory hashing (SHA1 change detection)
• Claude integration (I = one-shot claude -p file description; Ctrl+A = full Claude session, follows you to a directory you ask it to open)
• Plugin system (JSON manifests, external commands)
• Script evaluator (@ mode with full context via env vars)
• Top bar color matching (path-based, like RTFM's @topmatch)
• File picker mode (--pick=/path for external tool integration)
• Scrolloff (3-line margin) and wrap-around navigation

Keyboard Reference

Deletion is a two-step flag-then-purge (same convention as kastrup, so muscle memory carries between the two): press d to flag the current item (or all tagged items) for deletion — flagged entries render in dark red with a D prefix and d toggles the flag off. Nothing is removed until you press < to purge every flagged item (single-key confirm by default; set confirm_delete: false to skip it, moving to trash when enabled). So t to tag, d to flag, < to purge. d is now safe to press by reflex — it never deletes on its own.

Quick Reference

Key	Action	Key	Action
Navigation		View
j/k	Move down/up	a	Toggle hidden files
h/l	Go up / enter	A	Toggle long format
PgDn/PgUp	Page down/up	o	Cycle sort mode
HOME/END	First/last	i	Invert sort
~	Home directory	-	Toggle preview
'	Jump to mark	_	Toggle images
>	Follow symlink	b	Toggle bat/internal syntax
Tags		Search
t	Tag/untag	/	Search filenames
T	Show tagged	n/N	Next/prev match
u	Clear tags	\	Clear search & filter
Ctrl-T	Tag by pattern	f/F	Filter ext/regex
		g	Grep file contents
		Ctrl-F	fzf fuzzy finder
File Ops		Tabs
p	Copy here	] / [	New / close tab
P	Move here	J/K	Prev/next tab
d	Flag for deletion	1-9	Switch to tab
<	Purge (delete flagged)
c	Rename	{ / }	Rename / duplicate
s	Create symlink	Command
=	Create directory	:	Shell command
E	Bulk rename	;	Command history
X	Compare (2 tagged)	@	Script evaluator
U	Undo	+	Add to interactive
Marks		UI
m	Set mark	w/W	Pane width fwd/back
M	Show marks	Ctrl-B	Cycle border
r	Recent files/dirs	C	Preferences editor
Clipboard		Info
y	Yank to primary	e	File properties
Y	Yank to clipboard	G	Git status
Ctrl-Y	Copy right pane	H	Hash directory
Ctrl-A	Claude session	S	System info
Ctrl-L/Ctrl-R	Redraw/Refresh	I	Describe file (claude -p)

Right Pane Scrolling

Key	Action
Shift-Down/Up	Scroll line
TAB / Shift-TAB	Page down/up
ENTER	Refresh preview

Configuration

Config: ~/.pointer/conf.json (auto-created on first run) State: ~/.pointer/state.json (marks, history, recent files) Trash: ~/.pointer/trash/ Plugins: ~/.pointer/plugins/

Config Options

{
  "width": 4,
  "border": 2,
  "preview": true,
  "trash": true,
  "confirm_delete": true,
  "bat": true,
  "show_hidden": false,
  "long_format": false,
  "sort_mode": "name",
  "sort_invert": false,
  "interactive": ["vim", "less", "top", "htop", "fzf", "navi"],
  "c_top_fg": 0, "c_top_bg": 249,
  "c_status_fg": 252, "c_status_bg": 236,
  "topmatch": [["Projects", 171], ["Work", 72], ["", 249]],
  "ai_key": "",
  "ai_model": "gpt-4o-mini",
  "syntax_theme": "monokai",
  "remember_positions": true
}

confirm_delete (default true) asks a single-key y/n before < purges the delete-flagged items. Set it false to purge immediately — handy with trash on, where d d d < flags three files and deletes them in one keystroke, recoverable from ~/.pointer/trash/.

remember_positions (default true) persists the cursor position per directory across sessions. Toggle at runtime with r in the C config screen, or launch with pointer --fresh to bypass restoration for a single session.

Script Evaluator (@)

Press @ to run a shell command with pointer context as environment variables:

Variable	Content
POINTER_SELECTED	Full path of selected item
POINTER_DIR	Current working directory
POINTER_TAGGED	Newline-separated tagged paths
POINTER_INDEX	Selected index (0-based)
POINTER_COUNT	Number of files
POINTER_CONTEXT	JSON with all above

Scripts can control pointer via stderr directives: cd:/path, select:filename, status:message.

Plugin System

Plugins live in ~/.pointer/plugins/. Each plugin is a JSON manifest (.json file) describing an external command bound to a key.

Manifest format:

{
  "name": "Git",
  "description": "Interactive git client",
  "key": "C-G",
  "command": "bash ~/.pointer/plugins/git.sh",
  "interactive": true
}

Field	Description
name	Display name shown in help
description	Short description
key	Trigger key (e.g. F5, C-G for Ctrl-G)
command	Shell command to execute
interactive	If true, runs in raw terminal (full TUI). Default: false

Non-interactive plugins run in the background; their stdout appears in the right pane. Interactive plugins take over the terminal (like vim or lazygit) and pointer restores its screen on exit.

Commands receive POINTER_CONTEXT env var with JSON state. Unmatched keys fall through to plugin dispatch, so plugins can bind any free key.

Part of the Rust Terminal Suite (Fe2O3)

See the Fe₂O₃ suite overview and the landing page for the full list of projects.

Tool	Clones	Type
rush	rsh	Shell
crust	rcurses	TUI library
glow	termpix	Image display
pointer	RTFM	File manager
kastrup	Heathrow	Messaging
tock	Timely	Calendar
scroll	brrowser	Browser

Dependencies

Build: Rust toolchain (cargo)

Runtime (optional, for full features):

• bat or batcat for external syntax highlighting (optional, built-in highlighter is default)
• fzf for fuzzy finding
• ImageMagick (convert, identify) for image preview
• pdftotext for PDF preview
• git for git status
• xclip for clipboard (also uses OSC 52)
• locate for file search
• navi for cheatsheets
• curl for AI integration

License

Unlicense - public domain.

Credits

Created by Geir Isene (https://isene.org) with extensive pair-programming with Claude Code.