nnn is a file manager that stays out of the way: no menus and no key to press first — start typing and the listing narrows to what matches, letter by letter. It keeps four directories open at once and moves at whatever speed you type.
It is written in C, starts in a few milliseconds and uses almost no memory, which is why it is a common pick for servers and small machines. Everything beyond browsing — previews, archive handling, batch renames, fuzzy jumps — is a plugin, a small script you drop into a directory, so the core stays tiny and you only carry what you use.
The demo opens in a small working directory — a source tree, some photos,
some reports. Move with the arrow keys, Enter to go in and Left to come
back. Type ph to filter down to photos, press d for sizes and
permissions, 2 for a second directory kept open beside this one, and ?
for the full list of keys. The VM is private to your browser tab; nothing
you type leaves it.
Keys to know
any letters | filter the listing as you type |
Enter / Right | open the directory or file |
Left / Backspace | go to the parent directory |
1 2 3 4 | switch between four independent contexts |
d | toggle the detail view (sizes and permissions) |
Space | select the file under the cursor |
p | copy the selection here |
v | move the selection here |
? | show every key |
q | quit |
Install nnn on your own machine
| Alpine | apk add nnn |
| Debian / Ubuntu | apt install nnn |
| macOS (Homebrew) | brew install nnn |
| Arch | pacman -S nnn |
This VM was last built on Aug 26, 2026. How Demoshell demos work →
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