broot Interactive Tree-View File Navigator
broot is a Rust-based terminal tool that provides a new way to see and navigate directory trees. It offers fuzzy search, file preview, git status integration, and an interactive tree view that adapts to your terminal size.
npx skills add agentskillexchange/skills --skill broot-interactive-tree-view-file-navigator
broot is an innovative terminal file manager and directory navigator written in Rust. Unlike traditional tools like tree or ls, broot provides an interactive, adaptive tree view that fits your terminal while letting you search, filter, and act on files without ever leaving the interface.
What this skill actually does
Overview
Key Features
- Adaptive Tree View: broot intelligently adjusts how much of the directory tree it shows based on your terminal size, never overflowing the screen like
treedoes on large repos. - Fuzzy Search: Start typing to instantly filter and find files across the entire directory tree with fuzzy matching, similar to fzf but integrated into the tree context.
- Git Integration: View git status for each file and directory directly in the tree view. Filter to see only modified, untracked, or staged files.
- File Preview: Preview file contents with syntax highlighting directly inside broot, including images in supported terminals.
- Custom Verbs: Define custom actions (verbs) in the configuration to run arbitrary commands on selected files or directories.
- Panels: Open multiple panels side by side for copying, moving files, or comparing directories.
How It Works
An agent skill built around broot enables AI agents to navigate project structures efficiently. The agent can invoke broot’s search capabilities to locate files by name or content pattern, inspect directory layouts, and perform bulk file operations. broot outputs structured data about matched files including paths, sizes, dates, and git status, making it ideal for programmatic directory exploration.
Technical Details
broot is distributed as a single Rust binary via cargo install broot, Homebrew (brew install broot), or system package managers. Configuration is stored in ~/.config/broot/ as HJSON or TOML files. The tool supports cross-platform operation on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It is released under the MIT license with over 12,000 GitHub stars and active development.
Integration Points
- Shell function installation via
brfor directory-changing navigation - Configurable verbs for running editors, git commands, or custom scripts
- JSON output mode for structured file listing data
- Integration with other CLI tools through piping and command composition