What is fzf used for?

fzf is listed as a Developer Tools tool on TiloBox. Review the overview, features, and official documentation on this page to decide whether it solves your specific workflow.

How do I get started with fzf?

Start with the project's GitHub repository and official website for supported installation and deployment instructions. Test the setup with representative data or a small project before rolling it out more widely.

What license does fzf use?

fzf is listed under the MIT license. Read the complete license text and the project's notices before using, modifying, or distributing the software.

Is fzf ready for production use?

Production readiness depends on your requirements. Review maintenance activity, security practices, documentation, backup and upgrade procedures, and compatibility with your stack; then validate it in a non-production environment.

Is fzf an alternative to ripgrep?

fzf is listed as an alternative to ripgrep. Compare the core workflow, deployment model, integrations, and licensing against your must-have requirements before switching.

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fzf

A general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder for interactively filtering lines from files, history, processes, and commands.

View on GitHub Visit website

LicenseMIT

GitHub stars82.6k

Last commit1 weeks ago

Tags5 topics

CliShellFuzzy SearchOpen SourceTerminal Ui

Overview

Why consider fzf?

fzf is a general-purpose, interactive command-line fuzzy finder written in Go. It reads a list from STDIN, lets you filter it with fuzzy matching in real time, and writes the selection to STDOUT — making it composable with any Unix pipeline. It ships as a single portable binary and includes built-in shell integrations for Bash, Zsh, Fish, and Nushell, plus Vim/Neovim plugins.

Guided learning

Learn fzf by building

Practical setup notes, real use cases, and copy-ready examples in one focused guide.

5 min read 13 sections

In this guide13 sections

fzf — Command-Line Fuzzy Finder

fzf is a general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder and an interactive terminal toolkit. It reads a list of items from standard input, lets you filter them interactively with fuzzy matching, and writes the selected item to standard output. You can think of it as an interactive version of grep that slots into any Unix pipeline.

Source: github.com/junegunn/fzf

Key Highlights

The README lists four headline features:

Portable — distributed as a single binary for easy installation
Fast — optimized to process millions of items in milliseconds
Programmable — event-driven architecture for building custom terminal interfaces and workflows
Batteries-included — comes with integrations for Bash, Zsh, Fish, Nushell, Vim, and Neovim

fzf is written in Go, which gives it a single self-contained binary with no runtime dependencies.

Installation

macOS / Linux via Homebrew

1brew install fzf

Linux package managers

fzf is available in virtually every major Linux package manager:

Package Manager	Distribution	Command
APT	Debian 9+ / Ubuntu 19.10+	`sudo apt install fzf`
DNF	Fedora	`sudo dnf install fzf`
Pacman	Arch Linux	`sudo pacman -S fzf`
Nix	NixOS	`nix-env -iA nixpkgs.fzf`

Windows

On Windows, fzf is available via Chocolatey, Scoop, and Winget:

1# Chocolatey

2choco install fzf

4# Scoop

5scoop install fzf

7# Winget

8winget install fzf

From source (git)

1git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.git ~/.fzf

2~/.fzf/install

The install script adds lines to your shell configuration file to update $PATH and set up shell integration.

Shell Integration

After installing, set up key bindings and fuzzy completion by adding one line to your shell config:

Bash (~/.bashrc):

1# Set up fzf key bindings and fuzzy completion

2eval "$(fzf --bash)"

Zsh (~/.zshrc):

1# Set up fzf key bindings and fuzzy completion

2source <(fzf --zsh)

Fish (~/.config/fish/config.fish):

fish

1# Set up fzf key bindings

2fzf --fish | source

Once set up, three powerful shortcuts become available in your shell:

CTRL-T — fuzzy-search files and paste the selection into the command line
CTRL-R — fuzzy-search command history
ALT-C — fuzzy-search directories and cd into the selected one

Basic Usage

fzf follows Unix philosophy: it is a filter. It reads from STDIN and writes to STDOUT.

1# Open fzf over all files; write the selection to 'selected'

2find * -type f | fzf > selected

4# Open a file in vim, chosen via fzf

5vim $(fzf)

7# Open fzf in a 40% tall window below the cursor

8fzf --height 40%

10# Reverse layout with a border

11fzf --height 40% --layout reverse --border

Without a STDIN pipe, fzf automatically traverses the current directory to build the file list.

Advanced: Pipelines and Dynamic Reloading

fzf's real power shows in pipeline compositions. Here is the canonical process-killer example from the ADVANCED.md docs:

1# 1. ps: Feed the list of processes to fzf

2# 2. fzf: Interactively select a process using fuzzy matching algorithm

3# 3. awk: Take the PID from the selected line

4# 3. kill: Kill the process with the PID

5ps -ef | fzf | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill -9

The --bind and reload actions let you dynamically update the candidate list without restarting fzf:

1(date; ps -ef) |

2 fzf --bind='ctrl-r:reload(date; ps -ef)' \

3 --header=$'Press CTRL-R to reload\n\n' --header-lines=2 \

4 --preview='echo {}' --preview-window=down,3,wrap \

5 --layout=reverse --height=80% | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill -9

You can also switch between multiple data sources with separate key bindings:

1find * | fzf --prompt 'All> ' \

2 --header 'CTRL-D: Directories / CTRL-F: Files' \

3 --bind 'ctrl-d:change-prompt(Directories> )+reload(find * -type d)' \

4 --bind 'ctrl-f:change-prompt(Files> )+reload(find * -type f)'

Preview Window

fzf supports a built-in preview window that runs an arbitrary command on the highlighted item:

1# Preview file contents with bat

2fzf --preview 'bat --color=always {}'

4# Preview with syntax highlighting, border and 60% height

5fzf --preview 'bat --color=always {}' --preview-window '~3'

Vim / Neovim Integration

For Vim users with vim-plug:

vim

1Plug 'junegunn/fzf', { 'do': { -> fzf#install() } }

2Plug 'junegunn/fzf.vim'

junegunn/fzf provides the core library and keeps the binary up-to-date via fzf#install().
junegunn/fzf.vim is a separate project that wraps fzf into convenient Vim commands like :Files, :Buffers, :Commits, and more.

Neovim users who prefer Lua-based plugins can use the community-maintained fzf-lua plugin.

Customizing Defaults

All options can be set permanently via the $FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS environment variable:

1export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS="--height=40% --layout=reverse --info=inline --border --margin=1 --padding=1"

Override the default file source with $FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND:

1# Use fd (respects .gitignore) as the default file source

2export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND='fd --type f --hidden --follow --exclude .git'

License

fzf is released under the MIT License.

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