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Trek

A terminal-first visual file browser built for AI-native developers.

Trek gives you a persistent, three-pane window into your project — designed to live in a cmux pane alongside Claude Code, Codex, or whatever AI assistant is working in your codebase. When an AI agent is actively modifying files, Trek keeps you oriented: you can see what changed, preview what was written, and understand the project structure as it evolves.

Trek does not try to be a text editor, a shell, or a replacement for your AI assistant. Its job is transparency and navigation — helping you stay in the loop without interrupting the AI's flow.

What Trek Is

Trek presents your filesystem across three panes:

  • Left — the parent directory, so you always know where you are
  • Center — the current directory, where you navigate
  • Right — a live preview of the selected file or directory

When you open a file, Trek routes it to the appropriate tool — your editor for code, a viewer for images and PDFs, a browser for HTML. It handles the navigation; everything else goes to the best tool for the job.

Key Features

  • Watch mode — the file tree refreshes automatically when the filesystem changes; see what the AI created in real time
  • Git status overlays — modified, staged, untracked, and deleted files are marked inline in the tree as the AI works
  • File preview — inspect what was written without opening an editor; the right pane updates as you navigate
  • Content search — ripgrep-powered full-text search across the project (Ctrl+F)
  • Fuzzy file search — locate any file in the current directory instantly (/)
  • Mouse-resizable panes — drag dividers to reconfigure the layout; mouse and keyboard are both first-class
  • Archive browsing — navigate into .zip, .tar.gz, and other archives as virtual directories
  • Command palette — press : to see every available action with its keybinding, searchable by name
  • Shell integration — the m function launches Trek and cds your shell to the directory you exit from

Install

brew install bradleyfay/trek/trek

Then set up shell integration so your shell follows Trek when you quit:

trek --install-shell
source ~/.zshrc   # or ~/.bashrc

After that, use m anywhere in your terminal to open Trek. When you quit, your shell session moves to whatever directory you were browsing.

Where to Go Next