Fresh

August 23, 2026 · View on GitHub

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

Fresh Demo

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.

Command Palette

Multitask with the Orchestrator

Start each task in its own worktree, hop between them with an arrow key, and leave the rest running.

Orchestrator

Multi-Cursor Editing

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

Multi-Cursor

Themes & Customization

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

Select Theme

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

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
Multitasking (Orchestrator)	one workspace per git worktree, terminals and long-running commands per workspace, coding agents (claude, codex, opencode, aider) with resumable sessions, dock switcher, remote/SSH workspaces
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:

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

On Linux this installs the universal build: one statically linked binary that runs on every distro, unpacked under ~/.local, owned by you. It needs no root, and it updates itself — fresh --cmd update, or the update prompt in the editor. On macOS it uses Homebrew.

Prefer your distro's package manager? Ask for it explicitly:

curl -fsSL .../install.sh | sh -s -- --method=deb    # also: rpm, aur, nix, cargo, npm, brew, appimage

Packages are fully supported — they are opt-in rather than the default because installing one needs root and hands updates to that package manager. fresh records how it was installed either way, and updates through that same mechanism. --method=auto restores the old autodetecting behaviour, and install.sh --help lists everything.

Or, pick your preferred method:

Platform	Method
Linux (any distro)	universal build — self-updating, no root
macOS	brew
Bazzite/Bluefin/Aurora Linux	brew
Windows	winget
Arch Linux	AUR
Debian/Ubuntu	.deb
Fedora/RHEL	.rpm, Terra
OpenSUSE	.rpm
FreeBSD	ports / pkg
Gentoo	GURU
Linux (sandboxed / portable)	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

Universal build (Linux)

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

A single static (musl) binary for x86_64 and aarch64 with every feature compiled in, including plugins. It unpacks to ~/.local/share/fresh-editor and symlinks ~/.local/bin/fresh; set FRESH_INSTALL_DIR / FRESH_BIN_DIR to put them elsewhere. Ensure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH.

Because nothing else owns these files, this is the one Linux install that can replace itself: fresh --cmd update downloads the next release, verifies it against both its published checksum and GitHub's release attestation, and swaps the binary in place.

The archive also carries the same desktop entry and icon theme the .deb and .rpm install, and the installer copies them into $XDG_DATA_HOME (~/.local/share by default) so Fresh shows up in your application menu. Pass --no-desktop-integration, or set FRESH_NO_DESKTOP=1, to skip that — usually what you want on a server or in a container. Every file written outside the install directory is listed in ~/.local/share/fresh-editor/installed-files.txt, so re-running the installer cleans up after the previous run and uninstalling is rm over that list plus the install directory and the symlink.

Downloading the archive by hand from the releases page works the same way — it ships the same install receipt, so a hand-unpacked copy self-updates too. Only the binary is swapped on update, so the desktop entry and icons are refreshed by re-running the installer, not by fresh --cmd update.

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 (.rpm)

There is no openSUSE repository for fresh yet, so install the .rpm from the release directly:

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 zypper --no-gpg-checks install ./fresh-editor.rpm

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

Gentoo (GURU)

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

emerge --ask app-editors/fresh

AppImage

On most systems the universal build is the better choice: same "runs anywhere" property, no FUSE dependency, and no mount overhead on each launch. install.sh no longer selects AppImage automatically — pass --method=appimage if you specifically want it.

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.

On Linux, prefer the -unknown-linux-musl archives: they are statically linked, so they run on any distro regardless of its glibc version, and they are gzipped so a stock tar can unpack them without xz-utils. Every archive carries an install receipt, so an unpacked copy knows how to update itself.

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