WezTerm Power-User Guide (with Dracula + Nix Home Manager config)

wezterm-power-user-guide.md

WezTerm Power-User Guide

Configured via Nix Home Manager with Dracula theme, Fira Code Nerd Font, and custom keybindings.

Your Custom Keybindings

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+D	Split pane horizontally (side by side)
Cmd+Shift+D	Split pane vertically (top/bottom)
Cmd+W	Close current pane
Cmd+K	Clear scrollback + viewport

Built-in WezTerm Shortcuts

Tabs

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+T	New tab
Cmd+W	Close tab/pane
Cmd+1-9	Switch to tab 1-9
Cmd+Shift+[ / ]	Previous/next tab
Ctrl+Tab	Cycle tabs

Panes

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+D	Split right
Cmd+Shift+D	Split below
Cmd+Opt+Arrow	Navigate between panes
Cmd+Shift+Z	Toggle pane zoom (fullscreen one pane)

Copy/Paste & Selection

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+C	Copy
Cmd+V	Paste
Click + drag	Select text
Double-click	Select word
Triple-click	Select line
Cmd+F	Search in scrollback

Font & Display

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+Plus	Increase font size
Cmd+Minus	Decrease font size
Cmd+0	Reset font size
Cmd+Enter	Toggle fullscreen

Scrollback

Shortcut	Action
Shift+PageUp/Down	Scroll up/down
Cmd+K	Clear scrollback (custom)

Your Config Features

• Dracula (Official) color scheme
• FiraCode Nerd Font with fallback to Fira Code
• 95% opacity + macOS blur — slight transparency with backdrop blur
• Fancy tab bar that hides when there's only one tab
• 10,000 lines scrollback
• Blinking bar cursor for precise editing
• Window decorations: resize-only (no title bar chrome)

Power-User Tips

1. Command Palette

Cmd+Shift+P opens WezTerm's command palette — search any action by name, just like VS Code.

2. Quick Select Mode

Cmd+Shift+Space enters quick-select mode. WezTerm highlights URLs, git hashes, file paths, IP addresses, and other patterns. Press the shown letter to copy that item instantly.

3. Copy Mode (vim-like)

Cmd+Shift+X enters copy mode:

• Navigate with h/j/k/l
• v to start selection
• V for line selection
• Ctrl+V for rectangular selection
• y to yank (copy)
• Escape to exit

4. Hyperlinks

Cmd+Click on:

• URLs → opens in browser
• File paths → opens in default app
• file:line patterns → opens in editor

5. Image Protocol

WezTerm supports the iTerm2 inline image protocol. Tools like lf, viu, or imgcat can display images directly in the terminal.

6. Multiplexing

WezTerm has a built-in multiplexer (alternative to tmux). Since you're using tmux with Dracula + resurrect/continuum, use:

• WezTerm panes (Cmd+D) for quick throwaway splits
• tmux panes (Ctrl-B % / Ctrl-B ") for persistent session splits

7. SSH Domains

You can define SSH domains in your config to connect to remote machines as native WezTerm tabs:

config.ssh_domains = {
  { name = 'my-server', remote_address = 'user@host', username = 'user' },
}

Then use Cmd+Shift+P → "Connect to SSH Domain".

WezTerm + tmux Together

Since you have tmux with vim-tmux-navigator and resurrect:

Use case	Tool
Session persistence across restarts	tmux (resurrect + continuum)
Quick throwaway splits	WezTerm panes (Cmd+D)
Persistent named splits	tmux panes (Ctrl-B %)
Navigate between panes	Ctrl+H/J/K/L (vim-tmux-navigator)
Zoom a single pane	Ctrl-B z (tmux) or Cmd+Shift+Z (WezTerm)

Your Nix Config

The WezTerm config lives in ~/.local/share/fleek/programs.nix under programs.wezterm.extraConfig. The generated Lua file is at ~/.config/wezterm/wezterm.lua (managed by Home Manager — don't edit directly).

To modify, edit programs.nix and run:

sudo -H darwin-rebuild switch --flake ~/.local/share/fleek

Or just run topgrade --yes to upgrade everything including the config.