Preamble
Midnight Commander has always been my favorite terminal file manager. It's feature-rich, fast, and actually tries to be a file manager compared to modern alternatives. However, there are quite some features that I never used, and I couldn't configure a Vim bindings that works well for me.
With OpenCode, I can finally make my own terminal file manager. I borrowed the main design concepts from Midnight Commander and some behavior from NVim-Tree file explorer.
I hope you would like it, at least I do. Since this project is entirely vibe-coded, so I'm not going to accept PR from the community, but feel free to open issues and fork it.
Features
- Dual pane — navigate two directories side by side, copy/move between them
- Tree expand — expand/collapse directories inline with
l/h, nerd font icons - Vim keybindings —
j/k/h/l,g/G,ctrl+f/ctrl+u - Visual selection — select ranges with
V, operate on multiple files at once - File operations — copy, cut, paste, delete (with confirmation), rename
- Smart create —
acreates a file or directory (trailing/= dir, nested paths supported) - Fuzzy search —
spaceopens fuzzy search in current dir;:findsearches recursively - Command palette —
:opens a command prompt for power-user actions - Goto —
:goto <path>with live directory listing, tab-complete, and~expansion - SSH — browse and operate on remote servers over SFTP via
:ssh user@host - Nerd font icons — file type icons, open/closed folder glyphs
- TokyoNight theme — easy on the eyes
Screenshot
Requirements
- A terminal with Nerd Fonts support (recommended: JetBrainsMono Nerd Font, FiraCode Nerd Font)
- macOS or Linux
Installation
One-liner (macOS and Linux)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/duguyue100/midnight-captain/main/install.sh | bashDownloads the correct pre-built binary for your OS and architecture from the latest GitHub Release and places it at ~/.local/bin/mc. If ~/.local/bin is not in your $PATH, the installer will tell you what to add.
Build from source (local)
Requires Go 1.22+.
git clone https://github.com/duguyue100/midnight-captain
cd midnight-captain
./install.sh --local-buildRuns make build and copies bin/mc to ~/.local/bin/mc.
Manual build
make build # binary at bin/mc
./bin/mcUsage
Launches in the current directory with dual panes.
Keybindings
Navigation
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
j / k |
Move cursor down / up |
ctrl+f / ctrl+u |
Half-page down / up |
g |
Jump to top |
G |
Jump to bottom |
tab |
Switch active pane |
h |
Collapse directory or jump to parent |
l / enter |
Expand directory inline |
o |
Navigate into directory (change cwd) |
. |
Toggle hidden files |
Selection
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
V |
Visual select mode — move to extend selection |
esc |
Cancel / clear selection |
File Operations
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
a |
Smart create — trailing / = dir, nested paths supported |
r |
Rename current file |
y |
Yank (copy) to clipboard |
d |
Cut to clipboard |
p |
Paste into active pane |
x |
Delete (prompts for confirmation) |
e |
Open in $EDITOR (or vi). Supports remote file editing (downloads, edits, uploads on save if <100MB) |
Search & Commands
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
space |
Fuzzy search in current directory |
: |
Open command palette |
? |
Show help overlay |
q |
Quit |
Commands
Open with :, then type a command.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
:ssh user@host |
Connect to remote server (SFTP) in active pane |
:disconnect |
Disconnect SSH, return to local filesystem |
:goto <path> |
Jump to path with live completion |
:find |
Recursive fuzzy search from current directory |
:refresh |
Refresh current directory content |
:sort name|size|date |
Change sort order |
:hidden |
Toggle hidden files |
:cancel |
Cancel an active background operation (copy/move/delete) |
:quit |
Exit |