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zellij-client.nvim

Compatibility and development

Supported environment

Section titled “Supported environment”

Use Neovim 0.11.5 or newer with LuaJIT, on macOS or Linux. The client has passed protocol and socket checks on Neovim 0.11.5, and live dotfiles navigation on 0.12.6.

The supported server is lanej/Zellij 0.46.0 at 744c99f5, using contract_version_1. Compatibility with other revisions is unverified. The internal socket protocol can change independently of the version string.

Regenerate the contract

Section titled “Regenerate the contract”

protocol/source.json pins the upstream repository and revision. The five protocol/*.proto files and protocol/LICENSE.md are copied from that revision. Generation reads those local sources, so it needs no runtime checkout or network after the pinned Python dependencies have been cached.

Terminal window
uv run scripts/generate.py
uv run scripts/generate.py --check

The generator writes lua/zellij/schema.lua and independent Python protobuf reference messages in tests/protobuf.json. Edit the generator or source contract, not the generated files. When changing the runtime pin, deliberately replace all five source files, update the metadata and compatibility statement, and exercise a real integration.

Run checks

Section titled “Run checks”
Terminal window
nvim --headless -u NONE -i NONE -l tests/protobuf.lua
nvim --headless -u NONE -i NONE -l tests/client.lua
stylua --check lua tests

The socket checks use private local servers. They cover fragmented replies, acknowledgement-before-query output, server errors, malformed frames, cancellation, close and uncertain timeouts without replay. They do not establish compatibility with another Zellij revision. The consuming dotfiles repository retains the live editor-to-pane acceptance test.

Build this documentation

Section titled “Build this documentation”
Terminal window
cd website
npm ci
npm run check
npm run build

The static site uses /zellij-client.nvim/ as its base path. The lanej.io website pins a reviewed package commit, builds this directory and assembles the output into its single GitHub Pages bundle. Update the website’s .zellij-client-version pin to publish a documentation revision.

MIT covers the Lua client and tooling; vendored Zellij definitions retain the upstream MIT license in protocol/LICENSE.md.