Fileview

FileView (fv)

[](https://crates.io/crates/fileview) [](https://crates.io/crates/fileview) [](https://github.com/Hiro-Chiba/fileview/actions/workflows/ci.yml) [](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT) [](https://www.rust-lang.org)

> Browse files with image previews, Git status, and search in your terminal. No configuration needed.

Quick Start

Download a prebuilt binary for your OS. Rust is not required. Choose the archive with the matching filename ending below, then extract it and run the included executable from a terminal.

| System | Archive filename ending | | --- | --- | | macOS, Apple Silicon | aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz | | macOS, Intel | x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz | | Linux, x86-64 (GNU) | x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | | Windows, x86-64 | x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip |

The Linux binary requires glibc 2.39 or newer. For older glibc versions or musl-based systems, use the Cargo installation below to build for your environment.

macOS and Linux

Save your downloaded archive as fileview.tar.gz. In the folder containing it, run:

tar -xzf fileview.tar.gz
./fv

Windows (PowerShell)

Save your downloaded archive as fileview.zip. In the folder containing it, run:

Expand-Archive -Path .\fileview.zip -DestinationPath .\fileview
.\fileview\fv.exe

Use j/k to move, / to search, P to toggle the preview, and q to quit. Git status requires Git to be installed. Image previews adapt to your terminal. To use fv from any folder or in the MCP configuration below, place the executable in a directory on your PATH.

Install with Cargo

If you already have Rust 1.90 or newer:

cargo install fileview --locked
fv

Features

• Image previews with automatic terminal detection (Kitty, iTerm2, Sixel, Halfblocks)
• Git status, syntax highlighting, search, and fuzzy finder
• PDF previews with Poppler's pdftoppm installed
• Vim keybindings, mouse support, Lua plugins
• Live reflection of fv --mcp-server activity in the TUI ([details](docs/CLAUDE_CODE.md))

See the [performance comparison](docs/BENCHMARKS.md) for local measurements and their test conditions.

Install Options

Chafa image support: cargo install fileview --features chafa Speed-optimized build: cargo install fileview --profile release-fast Slim build (drops arboard clipboard, mlua Lua plugin, zip / tar / flate2 archive, and tiktoken-rs / petgraph AI helper dependencies): cargo install fileview --no-default-features Pick individual features: cargo install fileview --no-default-features --features ai,clipboard,lua,archive

Image Preview

Your terminal is auto-detected:

| Terminal | Protocol | |----------|----------| | Kitty / Ghostty / Konsole | Kitty Graphics | | iTerm2 / WezTerm / Warp | iTerm2 Inline | | Foot / Windows Terminal | Sixel | | VS Code / Alacritty | Halfblocks |

Keybindings

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | j/k | Navigate up/down | | h/l | Collapse/expand | | g/G | Top/bottom | | Space | Toggle mark | | / | Search | | Ctrl+P | Fuzzy finder | | P | Preview panel | | q | Quit |

See [docs/KEYBINDINGS.md](docs/KEYBINDINGS.md) for the full list.

One-shot helpers for AI workflows

A few non-interactive flags for use from scripts and AI agents:

fv --tokens README.md            # cl100k_base token estimate (one integer to stdout)
fv --snapshot-create base        # capture working tree manifest to .fileview/snapshots/
fv --snapshot-diff base          # + added / - removed / M modified since snapshot
fv --watch path/to/file          # block until the file changes, print path, exit
fv --watch path/to/file --watch-timeout-secs 5

See [docs/CLAUDECODE.md](docs/CLAUDECODE.md) for the full list.

Claude Code Integration

FileView includes an MCP server for Claude Code (fv --mcp-server).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fileview": {
      "command": "fv",
      "args": ["--mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Details: [docs/CLAUDECODE.md](docs/CLAUDECODE.md)

Docs

• [Keybindings](docs/KEYBINDINGS.md)
• [Claude Code / MCP](docs/CLAUDE_CODE.md)
• [Lua Plugins](docs/PLUGINS.md)
• [Performance comparison](docs/BENCHMARKS.md)

License

MIT

Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Hiro-Chiba
• Source: Hiro-Chiba/fileview
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.