Copy and paste

Select text from scrollback

1. Press Ctrl-f [ or Ctrl-f e to enter native keyboard copy mode.
2. Move with h/j/k/l or arrows. Use w/b/e for words, 0/^/$ within a row, gg/G for the first/last retained row, or a count such as 42G.
3. Press v for character selection or V for whole logical lines, then extend the selection with the same motions.
4. Press y to copy to the system clipboard and return to the application. Use your terminal’s normal paste shortcut to paste it.

Esc cancels an active selection; press it again to leave copy mode. q, Enter, or Ctrl-c leaves immediately. Ctrl-u/d and Ctrl-b/f move by half or full pages. The pane stays in place and keeps its terminal colors; no editor opens. New output resumes when copy mode exits.

Choose a paste source

Source	How to paste
This Zellij session’s last Neovim yank	Ctrl-f p
The system clipboard	Your terminal’s usual paste shortcut

Ctrl-f p reads the dedicated session buffer. It is shared across panes and tabs in the same session and survives detaching and reattaching. A new yank replaces it. Renaming the session selects a different buffer, so yank again if the old text is no longer available.

The terminal’s paste shortcut remains the path from the system clipboard. Native copy mode requests a copy to the system clipboard, including over SSH, but whether it arrives depends on your terminal’s clipboard settings. Native copying does not replace the dedicated session buffer used by Ctrl-f p.

Search before selecting

Press Ctrl-f /, type a query, and press Enter. Use n for the next match and N for the previous one. Press e to enter native keyboard copy mode, or Esc to return to the application.

Session-buffer paste needs the modern configuration. In the legacy configuration, scrollback opens as plain text and Ctrl-f p is unavailable.