feat: support for external actions #669

lalvarezt · 2025-07-27T14:10:43Z

📺 PR Description

resolves #16; resolves #658, resolves #297
This PR adds support for definition of external actions, allowing the following

[metadata]
name = "files"
description = "A channel to select files and directories"
requirements = ["fd", "bat"]

[source]
command = ["fd -t f", "fd -t f -H"]

[preview]
command = "bat -n --color=always '{}'"
env = { BAT_THEME = "ansi" }

[keybindings]
shortcut = "f1"
f8 = "thebatman"
f9 = "lsman"
f10 = "copy"

[actions.thebatman]
description = "cats the file"
command = "bat '{}'"
env = { BAT_THEME = "ansi" }

[actions.lsman]
description = "show stats"
command = "ls '{}'"

[actions.copy]
description = "Copies filename to the clipboard"
command = "echo -n '{split:.:0}' | xsel -i -b"

Checklist

my commits and PR title follow the conventional commits format
if this is a new feature, I have added tests to consolidate the feature and prevent regressions
if this is a bug fix, I have added a test that reproduces the bug (if applicable)
I have added a reasonable amount of documentation to the code where appropriate

alexpasmantier · 2025-07-27T22:02:07Z

This is awesome. It's pretty much what I was thinking of too which is great 😁 Here are the other things I had in mind for this summed up in part of a channel prototype:

# open the selected entry/ies in vim without leaving tv (i.e. exiting vim returns to tv)
# this is calling `fork` behind the scenes
[actions.open-in-vim]
description = "open the selected entry with vim"
command = "vim '{}'"
become = false

# this makes tv become vim (i.e. the tv process turns into vim so leaving vim will
# return you to the shell)
# this is calling `execve` behind the scenes
[actions.become-vim]
description = "exit tv and open the selected entry in vim"
command = "vim '{}'"
become = true

# when you don't care about the command's output
[actions.rm]
description = "delete a file"
command = "rm '{}'"
silent = true  # or 'verbose' or something like that

# when you actually care about the command's output
[actions.ls]
description = "list the entries in the currently selected directory"
command = "ls '{}'"
silent = false

These extra features shouldn't be added directly in this PR, but we should try to shape the code in a way that makes it easier to add them later on.

I also was thinking of adding a channel-like selection UI for the actions of a given channel, e.g.:

you're on the files channel and have your matching item
you want to perform an action that isn't tied to a keybinding and open a popup fuzzy finder with all actions for this channel as well as their description and any other useful metadata
you start typing, find your action and press enter to trigger it

The UI would be very similar to what the remote control already looks like. And the code would be very similar too (the remote control is more or less implemented as a hard-coded channel to reuse as much existing logic as possible).

What do you think?

PS: was considering either using libc directly or https://crates.io/crates/nix (at least for unix) unless there's a simpler way to do the equivalent of execve using the standard lib that I'm not aware of 🤔

alexpasmantier · 2025-07-27T22:16:34Z

cable/unix/files.toml

@@ -12,3 +12,8 @@ env = { BAT_THEME = "ansi" }

 [keybindings]
 shortcut = "f1"
+ctrl-f12 = "edit"


Maybe we should use a prefix here to avoid clashes with tv's builtin actions, e.g.:

[keybindings] ctrl-f12 = "actions:edit" ctrl-f11 = "actions:copy-entry-to-clipboard" # the action defined below ctrl-f10 = "copy-entry-to-clipboard" # tv's builtin Action::CopyEntryToClipboard [actions.edit] [actions.copy-entry-to-clipboard]

This would also probably re-simplify deserialisation below.

yup, makes sense, thanks

alexpasmantier · 2025-07-27T22:23:41Z

television/app.rs

+                    Action::ExternalAction(ref action_name) => {
+                        debug!("External action triggered: {}", action_name);
+
+                        // Handle external action execution
+                        if let Some(selected_entry) =
+                            self.television.get_selected_entry()
+                        {
+                            debug!("Selected entry: {}", selected_entry.raw);
+
+                            if let Some(action_spec) = self
+                                .television
+                                .channel_prototype
+                                .actions
+                                .get(action_name)
+                            {
+                                debug!(
+                                    "Found action spec for: {}",
+                                    action_name
+                                );
+                                // Store the external action info and exit - the command will be executed after terminal cleanup
+                                self.should_quit = true;
+                                self.render_tx.send(RenderingTask::Quit)?;
+                                return Ok(ActionOutcome::ExternalAction(
+                                    action_spec.clone(),
+                                    selected_entry.raw.clone(),
+                                ));
+                            }
+
+                            error!("Unknown action: {}", action_name);
+                            // List available actions for debugging
+                            let available_actions: Vec<&String> = self
+                                .television
+                                .channel_prototype
+                                .actions
+                                .keys()
+                                .collect();
+                            debug!(
+                                "Available actions: {:?}",
+                                available_actions
+                            );
+                            self.action_tx.send(Action::Error(format!(
+                                "Unknown action: {}",
+                                action_name
+                            )))?;
+                        } else {
+                            error!("No entry selected for external action");
+                            self.action_tx.send(Action::Error(
+                                "No entry selected for external action"
+                                    .to_string(),
+                            ))?;
+                        }
+                    }


A couple of things here:

we possibly need to deal with multiple entries (the user might have selected 3 entries and wishes to execute rm on all three)

we won't always want to exit tv after performing an action (see PR main comment)

alexpasmantier · 2025-07-27T22:25:48Z

television/main.rs

+        let formatted_command =
+            action_spec.command.get_nth(0).format(&entry_value)?;


it kind of feels weird having to call get_nth(0) here but I guess that's how we ended up implementing multiple sources per-channel 🤷🏻

not a big deal

alexpasmantier · 2025-07-27T22:26:54Z

television/main.rs

+        .stdin(Stdio::inherit())
+        .stdout(Stdio::inherit())
+        .stderr(Stdio::inherit())
+        .spawn()?;


This is where we don't always want to:

inherit std file descriptors

spawn a new process

feat: support for external actions

31636c7

lalvarezt force-pushed the external-actions branch from bf58c52 to 4062c1a Compare July 27, 2025 14:25

refactor(tests): follow other tests conventions

fd6a4ef

lalvarezt force-pushed the external-actions branch from 4062c1a to fd6a4ef Compare July 27, 2025 14:31

alexpasmantier reviewed Jul 27, 2025

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feat: support for external actions #669

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lalvarezt commented Jul 27, 2025 •

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		let formatted_command =
		action_spec.command.get_nth(0).format(&entry_value)?;

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📺 PR Description

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lalvarezt commented Jul 27, 2025 •

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