Floating and stacked panes
Two special pane arrangements. Floating panes hover above the tiled layout like a heads-up window; you toggle the whole floating layer in and out without disturbing the panes underneath. Stacked panes collapse several panes into one slot, showing one at a time with the others tucked into a stack you page through.
Floating is perfect for a throwaway shell, a quick git status, or a scratch pane you summon and dismiss. The floating layer sits on top and remembers its contents while hidden. You can embed a floating pane down into the tiled layout, or pin it so it stays visible even when you toggle the layer off.
Stacked panes are the space-saver. Instead of shrinking three panes to fit, Zellij can stack them so only the focused one is expanded and the rest are collapsed to a single line each. You create one with s in Pane mode; moving focus into a collapsed member expands it and collapses the previous.
Try it yourself
Summon and dismiss a floating pane
Get a feel for the floating layer.
- From Normal, press
Alt fto open a floating pane - Run something in it, like
git statusorls - Press
Alt fagain to hide the floating layer; the tiled panes are untouched - Press
Alt fonce more; your floating pane and its output are still there
Embed a floating pane
Push a float down into the tiled layout.
- Open a floating pane with
Alt f - Press
Ctrl pthene - The pane becomes a normal tiled pane in the layout
Build a stack
Create stacked panes and page through them.
- In Pane mode, press
sto add a stacked pane - Do it once or twice more to build a stack
- Move focus up and down the stack with
Alt kandAlt j; watch each member expand as it gains focus