ya

CLI utility for interacting with Yazi instances

Overview

ya is a command-line utility for interacting with running Yazi instances. It provides commands for sending actions, publishing messages, subscribing to events, and managing packages.

Synopsis

ya [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

Options

-V, --version · boolean · default: "false"

Print version information and exit.

ya --version
# Output: Ya 0.x.x (commit-hash build-date)

Commands

emit

Emit a command to be executed by the current instance.

ya emit <NAME> [ARGS]...

See emit command documentation for details.

emit-to

Emit a command to be executed by a specific instance.

ya emit-to <RECEIVER> <NAME> [ARGS]...

See emit command documentation for details.

pkg

Manage packages (plugins and flavors).

ya pkg <SUBCOMMAND>

Available subcommands:

• add - Add packages
• delete - Delete packages
• install - Install all packages
• list - List all packages
• upgrade - Upgrade packages

See package command documentation for details.

pub

Publish a message to the current instance.

ya pub <KIND> [OPTIONS]

See pub-sub documentation for details.

pub-to

Publish a message to a specific instance.

ya pub-to <RECEIVER> <KIND> [OPTIONS]

See pub-sub documentation for details.

sub

Subscribe to messages from all remote instances.

ya sub <KINDS>

See pub-sub documentation for details.

Examples

Quick Command Execution

# Navigate to parent directory
ya emit leave

# Refresh the file list
ya emit refresh

# Search for files
ya emit search --args="*.txt"

Instance Communication

# Send command to specific instance
ya emit-to 12345 cd --args="/home/user/Downloads"

# Publish message to specific instance
ya pub-to 12345 my-event --str="Hello from another instance"

Package Management

# List installed packages
ya pkg list

# Add a new plugin
ya pkg add yazi-rs/plugins:git

# Upgrade all packages
ya pkg upgrade

Environment Variables

ya uses the following environment variables:

• YAZI_ID / YAZI_PID - Instance ID for the current Yazi instance (set automatically)
• YA_FORCE_ANSI - Set to 1 to force ANSI color output

Exit Codes

• 0 - Success
• 1 - Error occurred (e.g., cannot connect to instance, invalid arguments)

Communication Protocol

ya communicates with Yazi instances using DDS (Data Distribution Service). The instance must be running with a valid client ID for communication to work.

Finding Instance IDs

When Yazi starts, it sets the YAZI_ID environment variable. You can use this in shell commands:

echo $YAZI_ID

For sending commands from outside a Yazi shell, you need to know the instance ID (specified via --client-id when starting Yazi).

See Also

• yazi - Main Yazi command
• emit - Command emission reference
• pub-sub - Pub/sub messaging reference
• package - Package management reference