MELLOW · DOCUMENTATION · 0.3.3 BETA

Edit files in your terminal. Start with the keys you know.

Mellow is a modeless terminal text editor for macOS and Linux, written in Rust by Ritru Labs. Open a text file or a project folder, type immediately, and save with Ctrl+S. There is no insert mode to enter or command language to learn before your first edit.

Install Mellow Make your first edit

What is this repository?

ritru-labs/mellow contains the native mellow executable, its Rust source and tests, packaging scripts, and this MkDocs documentation site. The website explains the editor; the editor itself runs inside your terminal, locally or on a machine you reach over SSH.

Mellow is useful for people who want to edit configuration, notes, scripts or source code without leaving the shell, including people unfamiliar with modal editors. Core editing works offline and needs no account, AI provider or language server. It is an Apache-2.0 open-source project, currently in beta.

Start here

• 1 · Install

  Choose a binary package, Homebrew or Cargo and check your terminal setup.

  Installation and prerequisites →

• 2 · Make a first edit

  Create a practice file, save it, quit, and verify the result in your shell.

  Five-minute quickstart →

• 3 · Work on a project

  Find files, search text, compare panes, run a command and review Git changes.

  Everyday workflows →

• 4 · Understand the code

  See how buffers, terminal rendering and optional integrations fit together.

  Architecture and repository map →

What works today?

Capability in 0.3.3	What you need
Editing, undo/redo, mouse selection, tabs, split panes, file search and replace	The Mellow binary and an interactive terminal
Project file picker, file tree, project search, session restore and crash journals	A local project folder; UTF-8 text files
Six themes, configurable keys and settings	No extra packages
Built-in shell sessions	A supported Unix environment and a shell
Git changes, staging, commits, branches, history, fetch, pull and push	System git; existing repository and authentication for remote operations
Tree-sitter highlighting for Rust, Python, JSON, Shell, YAML and Terraform/HCL	Bundled with Mellow
Completion, diagnostics, navigation and other language-aware actions	A separately installed language server; capabilities vary by server
Format on save	A separately installed formatter, and the setting enabled
AI explanations, reviewed selection edits and optional inline suggestions	Explicit AI setup, a reachable provider and a key where required

Know the boundaries

Mellow is a text editor with optional integrations, not a complete IDE or an autonomous coding agent. Native Windows is unsupported; use the Linux build inside WSL. Files must be UTF-8 and no larger than 100 MiB. Files over 5 MiB use reduced functionality without parsing or language servers.

Project search is bounded and reports skipped files or truncated results. Language-server and AI integrations exist, but have not been tested against every live server or provider account. See limitations and troubleshooting before depending on a particular workflow. Design goals and future hardening are identified separately in the architecture.

Find an answer

• A key or command: Keyboard reference, or Ctrl+P inside Mellow.
• Appearance or behavior: Settings and themes.
• Something did not work: Troubleshooting.
• Contributing or publishing docs: Development guide.
• A bug to report: GitHub issues.

October audit

Audit workflows describe the editing and trust controls added in 0.3.1. The complete audit tracker separates implemented work, local evidence, native validation gates and deliberately deferred ideas.