Fresh

A modern, full-featured terminal text editor, with zero configuration. Familiar keybindings, mouse support, and IDE-level features — no learning curve required.

Official Website  ·  Documentation  ·  Discord  ·  Contributing

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

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Fresh brings the intuitive UX of VS Code and Sublime Text to the terminal. Standard keybindings, full mouse support, menus, and a command palette — everything works the way you'd expect, right out of the box. No modes, no memorizing shortcuts.

Built for real-world performance: Fresh handles multi-gigabyte files with negligible memory overhead and delivers consistently low-latency input, regardless of file size.

Command Palette & Fuzzy Finder

One shortcut to find files, run commands, switch buffers, and jump to any line.

Multi-Cursor Editing

Select and edit multiple occurrences simultaneously — the same workflow you know from graphical editors.

Themes & Customization

Browse and apply color themes instantly. Full settings UI and interactive keybinding editor included.

See more feature demos: Editing (search & replace, block selection, sort lines, ...) · Productivity (file explorer, split view, integrated terminal, ...) · Themes

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Feature Overview

Category	Features
File Management	open/save/new/close, file explorer, tabs, auto-revert, git file finder
Editing	undo/redo, multi-cursor, block selection, smart indent, comments, clipboard
Search & Replace	incremental search, find in selection, query replace, git grep
Navigation	go to line/bracket, word movement, position history, bookmarks, error navigation
Views & Layout	split panes, line numbers, line wrap, backgrounds, markdown preview
Language Server (LSP)	go to definition, references, hover, code actions, rename, diagnostics, autocompletion
Productivity	command palette, menu bar, keyboard macros, git log, diagnostics panel
Extensibility	TypeScript plugins (sandboxed QuickJS), color highlighter, TODO highlighter, merge conflicts, path complete, keymaps
Internationalization	Multiple language support (see locales/), plugin translation system

Installation

Quick install (autodetect best method):

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

Or, pick your preferred method:

Platform	Method
macOS	brew
Bazzite/Bluefin/Aurora Linux	brew
Windows	winget
Arch Linux	AUR
Debian/Ubuntu	.deb
Fedora/RHEL	.rpm, Terra
OpenSUSE	zypper, .rpm
FreeBSD	ports / pkg
Gentoo	GURU
Linux (any distro)	AppImage, Flatpak
All platforms	Pre-built binaries
npm	npm / npx
Rust users (Fast)	cargo-binstall
Rust users	crates.io
Nix	Nix flakes
Developers	From source

Brew

On macOS and some linux distros (Bazzite/Bluefin/Aurora):

Note: On macOS, see macOS Terminal Tips for recommended terminal configuration.

brew install fresh-editor

Windows (winget)

winget install fresh-editor

Alternatively, Windows users can use npm.

Arch Linux (AUR)

Binary package (recommended, faster install):

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/fresh-editor-bin.git
cd fresh-editor-bin
makepkg --syncdeps --install

Build from source:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/fresh-editor.git
cd fresh-editor
makepkg --syncdeps --install

Using an AUR helper (such as yay or paru):

# Binary package (recommended, faster install)
yay -S fresh-editor-bin

# Or build from source
yay -S fresh-editor

Debian/Ubuntu (.deb)

Download and install the latest release:

curl -sL $(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/sinelaw/fresh/releases/latest | grep "browser_download_url.*_$(dpkg --print-architecture)\.deb" | cut -d '"' -f 4) -o fresh-editor.deb && sudo dpkg -i fresh-editor.deb

Or download the .deb file manually from the releases page.

Fedora/RHEL (.rpm)

Download and install the latest release:

curl -sL $(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/sinelaw/fresh/releases/latest | grep "browser_download_url.*\.$(uname -m)\.rpm" | cut -d '"' -f 4) -o fresh-editor.rpm && sudo rpm -U fresh-editor.rpm

Or download the .rpm file manually from the releases page.

OpenSUSE (zypper)

zypper install fresh-editor

Gentoo (GURU)

Enable the repository as read in Project:GURU/Information for End Users then emerge the package:

emerge --ask app-editors/fresh

AppImage

Download the .AppImage file from the releases page and run:

chmod +x fresh-editor-VERSION-x86_64.AppImage
./fresh-editor-VERSION-x86_64.AppImage

For faster startup (recommended): Extract the AppImage instead of running it directly. This avoids the FUSE mount overhead on each launch (~10x faster):

./fresh-editor-VERSION-x86_64.AppImage --appimage-extract
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fresh-editor ~/.local/bin
mv squashfs-root/* ~/.local/share/fresh-editor/
ln -sf ~/.local/share/fresh-editor/usr/bin/fresh ~/.local/bin/fresh

Ensure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH. Available for x86_64 and aarch64 architectures.

Flatpak

Download the .flatpak bundle from the releases page and install:

flatpak install --user fresh-editor-VERSION-x86_64.flatpak
flatpak run io.github.sinelaw.fresh

See flatpak/README.md for building from source.

Pre-built binaries

Download the latest release for your platform from the releases page.

Using mise

mise use github:sinelaw/fresh

npm

npm install -g @fresh-editor/fresh-editor

Or try it without installing:

npx @fresh-editor/fresh-editor

Using cargo-binstall

To install the binary directly without compiling (much faster than crates.io):

First, install cargo-binstall if you haven't already

cargo install cargo-binstall

Then install fresh

cargo binstall fresh-editor

Nix flakes

Run without installing:

nix run github:sinelaw/fresh

Or install to your profile:

nix profile add github:sinelaw/fresh

From crates.io

cargo install --locked fresh-editor

From source

git clone https://github.com/sinelaw/fresh.git
cd fresh
cargo build --release
./target/release/fresh [file]

Documentation

• User Guide
• macOS Tips - Terminal configuration, keyboard shortcuts, and troubleshooting for Mac users
• Plugin Development

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Privacy

Fresh checks for new versions daily to notify you of available upgrades. Alongside this, it sends basic anonymous telemetry (version, OS/architecture, terminal type) to help understand usage patterns. No personal data or file contents are collected.

To disable both upgrade checks and telemetry, use --no-upgrade-check or set check_for_updates: false in your config.

License

Copyright (c) Noam Lewis

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0 (GPL-2.0).