tte: TUI Text Editor

A free terminal text editor for macOS, Linux, and Windows. Edit files with familiar shortcuts, tabs, and a mouse—right where you run your commands.

Install the terminal editor · Open the browser editor →

TTE File Edit View Help
~/proj/demo≪ main.go × notes.md ×
1▾func main() {
2 editor := tte.New(".")
3 editor.RestoreSession() // drafts survive restarts
4 editor.Run()
5}
1 folder · 3 files main.goLn 2, Col 13
This is the real tte layout — click a folder to fold it, or press Ctrl+E to hide the file explorer.

Edit files without leaving your terminal

Open notes, configuration files, or a project folder with tte .. Type directly, save with Ctrl+S, and switch between files in tabs.

Use it alongside command-line tools, in tmux, or on a remote machine over SSH. The file explorer and mouse controls make everyday edits easy to find.

Looking for an alternative to nano or Vim? Start with the TTE terminal editing guide to see its shortcuts and workflow.

Install TTE on macOS, Linux, or Windows

macOS or Linux — run it again anytime to update:

curl -fsSL https://trytte.com/install.sh | sh

Alpine Linux — install prerequisites as root (or with configured doas), then run the installer above as your normal user:

apk add --no-cache curl ca-certificates

Alpine, Arch, and Ubuntu setup · Add TTE to PATH for your shell

Windows PowerShell:

irm https://trytte.com/install.ps1 | iex

Or download a binary directly:

macOS (Apple silicon) macOS (Intel) Linux (x86-64) Linux (ARM64) Linux (32-bit x86) Windows (x86-64) Windows (32-bit x86) checksums

Then open a workspace:

tte .

Text files, Markdown, CSV, and document previews

Edit text and configuration files directly. Switch to a preview for reading Markdown, tables, and documents:

.md .markdownrendered markdown with an optional table of contents, hidden by default for more reading space — Ctrl+D flips back to the source
.csv .tsva real table: aligned columns, row numbers, a cell cursor you can drive with the arrow keys — Ctrl+K
any filehex viewer and editor — Ctrl+H. Binary files open here on their own, and two typed hex digits rewrite a byte, undoably
.docx .pptx .pdfread as markdown — headings, lists, tables, slides. On by default; TTE → Preferences… opens them as bytes instead
.png .jpg .jpeg .gifexperimental grayscale ASCII art, framed and fitted to the editor width — enable it under TTE → Experimental…

Documents are read in a separate process with time and memory limits, so a malformed file costs an error message rather than your editor. Those previews are read-only — an encrypted PDF asks for its password, and Ctrl+D exports what you are looking at to a .md file beside the original, which is never rewritten.

Terminal editor keyboard shortcuts

Ctrl+Ssave
Ctrl+Ofuzzy quick-open
Ctrl+F Ctrl+Rfind · replace
Ctrl+Efile explorer
Ctrl+Ggo to line
Ctrl+Nnew file
Ctrl+Z Ctrl+Yundo · redo
Ctrl+T Ctrl+Wnew tab · close tab
⌃⌥← ⌃⌥→switch tabs
Ctrl+D Ctrl+Kmarkdown · table view
Ctrl+Hhex editor
Ctrl+Ureload from disk
Ctrl+Ppower user — hide the menus
Ctrl+Qquit — your session reopens
mouseclick, drag, scroll — it all works

Files changed behind your back follow Atom's rules: clean buffers reload automatically, conflicts keep your edits and ask before anything is lost, and unsaved drafts are stored in the session so you can resume after closing the terminal. Save and back up important files.

Get started with TTE