Dired sidebar

The dired sidebar is a Dired buffer pinned to a side window: an expandable directory tree where you both navigate and operate on files. Directories expand and collapse inline (the dired-subtree behavior), selecting a file shows it in the main editor while the tree stays put, and the usual dired file operations — mark, delete, rename, copy, mkdir — work on the entry under point.

It's the bundled file-tree, built on the reusable dired-subtree rendering engine (render-buffer, set-line-icon, and overlays) — entirely Scheme, no Rust support specific to it.

Opening the sidebar#

Key	Command
C-c t	dired-sidebar

Keys#

Navigation#

Key	Command	Action
Enter / Tab	dired-sidebar-visit	Expand/collapse a directory, or open a file in the main pane
mouse-1	dired-sidebar-visit	Same, with the mouse
n / p		Move down / up
g	dired-sidebar-refresh	Re-read the tree
q	dired-sidebar-quit	Close the sidebar (and its pane)

File operations#

Key	Command	Action
d	dired-sidebar-mark	Flag the file under point for deletion (shows a D)
u	dired-sidebar-unmark	Remove the flag
x	dired-sidebar-do-delete	Delete the flagged files (with confirmation)
R	dired-sidebar-rename	Rename the file under point
C	dired-sidebar-copy	Copy the file under point
+	dired-sidebar-mkdir	Create a directory (in the directory under point)

As in dired, deletion is a two-step flag-then-execute: mark with d, then run x. These keys resolve the same way under evil-mode — the sidebar is a special buffer, so its only evil overlay is j/k, and the rest fall through to the mode's own keymap.

Live refresh#

The tree refreshes automatically when files are created, renamed, or deleted in the directories it shows — it watches the root and every expanded subdirectory and re-renders on change, in place, without stealing focus from the pane you're editing in.

Icons#

Each file is iconed by extension using Lucide SVG icons (assets/icons/<name>.svg). The extension → icon mapping is plain Scheme (dired-subtree-icon), so you can customize it freely in your config.

The tree opts out of the line-number gutter (it sets line-numbers:dired-sidebar-mode to false) — a good example of the per-mode option pattern.

Customizing#

Its look is set with per-mode options scoped to dired-sidebar-mode, which you can override in your init.scm:

(set-option "line-numbers:dired-sidebar-mode" #f)       ; no line numbers (default)
(set-option "hl-line:dired-sidebar-mode"      #t)       ; highlight the current row
(set-option "word-wrap:dired-sidebar-mode"    #f)       ; truncate long names

(define-key "fundamental" "ctrl-c t" 'dired-sidebar)   ; rebind the toggle

Dired sidebar vs. Dired#

The sidebar is a persistent, expandable tree you keep open beside your code, with file operations built in. The flat Dired buffer (C-x d) is one directory at a time, focused on bulk file operations — the two complement each other.

Prefer the classic Treemacs sidebar? It now ships as a separate, opt-in package (macros-treemacs) you can install with package-install.