What is forest.hx?

forest.hx adds a file browsing panel to Helix, a terminal based code editor, since Helix does not include one on its own. It shows the folders and files of your project as a tree you can click or navigate through with the keyboard, similar to the sidebar found in editors like VS Code, but built for people who prefer working inside a terminal. The plugin offers two different looks you can pick between. One is a sidebar panel that stays open next to your code and includes a fuzzy search box for quickly jumping to a file by typing part of its name. The other is a floating column style, where each folder you open slides in as its own column next to the last, along with a live preview of whatever file is currently selected. From either view you can open a file, expand or collapse a folder, create a new file or folder, rename an existing entry, or delete one, all without leaving the keyboard. You can also toggle whether hidden dotfiles and git ignored files are shown, and resize the panel to fit your terminal. Installing it requires a specific plugin enabled version of Helix, since Helix's plugin system is not yet part of the main editor release. Once that is set up, the plugin itself installs through a package manager built for Helix plugins, and you activate it by adding a few lines of configuration written in Scheme, the same language the plugin itself is written in. It depends on two smaller companion plugins from the same style of ecosystem: one that handles file operation notifications, and one that provides the icons shown next to each file and folder type.