picky

A Nushell picker that hosts input list inside a Zellij floating pane.

Pipe nushell structured data in, get the user's selection back as nushell structured data — without ever scrolling the host pane.

Why

input list is a great fuzzy picker, but running it in the current pane churns through scrollback and disrupts the surrounding command. picky spawns a transient floating pane just for the picker, captures the selection, and returns the value to the caller as if input list had been called in-place.

Bonus: the --display flag is fully supported — including closures — even though the picker runs in a separate process.

Requirements

Tool	Purpose
Nushell	Host shell
Zellij	Provides the floating pane

Must be invoked from inside a zellij session ($env.ZELLIJ set).

Installation

# clone this repository into one of your NU_LIB_DIRS
let dest = [($env.NU_LIB_DIRS | first) picky] | path join
git clone git@github.com:lassoColombo/picky.git $dest

# use the module
use picky
picky --help

Quick start

use picky

# Plain pick
[apple banana cherry] | picky

# Fuzzy pick over a table, displaying a single column
ls | picky --fuzzy --display name

# Closure-based display
ls | picky -f -d {|r| $"($r.name) — ($r.size)"}

# Multi-select; returns a list
[a b c d] | picky --multi --fuzzy

# Index mode; returns the picked indices instead of the values
[red green blue] | picky --index

# Compose into pipelines
ls | picky -f -d name | get name | save selected.txt

Behavior

Mode	Returns
Single (default)	the picked item
--multi	a list of picked items
--index	the picked index (or list of indices with --multi)
User cancels (Esc / Ctrl-C / q)	null

Flags

All flags of input list are forwarded verbatim:

Flag	Short	Type	Description
--multi	-m	switch	Allow multiple selections
--fuzzy	-f	switch	Enable fuzzy search
--index	-i	switch	Return indices instead of values
--no-footer	-n	switch	Hide the footer
--no-separator		switch	Hide the search-box separator
--case-sensitive	-s	oneof<bool, string>	true, false, or 'smart'
--display	-d	oneof<cell-path, closure>	Field path or closure for display text
--no-table	-t	switch	Disable table rendering
--per-column	-c	switch	Match each column independently

The positional prompt is also forwarded.

See input list for full semantics.

How it works

There is no shared stdin/stdout between the caller and a zellij floating pane, so picky ferries data over .nuon temp files:

1. Pipeline input is serialized to a temp .nuon file.
2. A small runner script is generated. Switches and value-flags are stitched in as code; --display is inlined as a cell-path (via to nuon) or as a closure (via view source).
3. zellij action new-pane --floating --close-on-exit -b -- nu <script> opens the pane and blocks the caller until it closes.
4. The runner writes the selection to a second .nuon file (or leaves it as null when the user cancels).
5. The caller reads the result and cleans up all temp files in a finally block.

Limitations

• Closures that capture outer-scope variables won't work as --display. The closure source is shipped via view source, which emits the literal source only — captured bindings are not re-bound in the child process.
• No preview pane. input list has no --preview equivalent. Use a --display closure to fold any extra context into the line itself.
• Zellij-only. Outside a zellij session, picky errors out.

Tests

use nutest
nutest run-tests --path .

The test suite (test_picky.nu) exercises the script-generation helpers and round-trips the generated runner through a stubbed input list to verify it parses as valid Nushell.

Acknowledgments

• The Nushell team for input list and view source.
• The Zellij team for blocking floating panes.