feat(lua): add choose method and ui by idursun · Pull Request #427 · idursun/jjui

idursun · 2025-12-15T20:21:15Z

Added a Bubble Tea-based chooser overlay with optional title styling, and extended the Lua API with choose/split_lines so scripts can prompt for selections (positional options or table with options/title) and split text into lines.

The UI is barebones at the moment but gets the job done.

New Lua functions are:

choose(...options) → string|nil
choose({ options = { ... }, title = "Your title" }) → string|nil
split_lines(text: string, keep_empty?: boolean) → {strings}

[custom_commands."choose bookmark"]
  key_sequence = ["w", "i"]
  lua = '''
  local output, err = jj("bookmark", "list",  "-T", "name ++ '\n'")
  choice = choose({options = split_lines(output), title="choose a bookmark"})
  if choice then 
    flash("choice: " .. choice)
  else
    flash("none selected")
  end
  '''

baggiiiie

this is great, i am curious about your thoughts on some new features, since with the updates of lua support, we can achieve certain functionalities with either source code or lua.

one example is what's mentioned in #352 (comment): support for a yank panel, e.g., pressing Y triggers a yank panel, where user can choose to copy different metadata of a commit (bookmark, change/commit id, etc) this functionality would be achieveable (or close) with the choose menu in this PR.

how would we judge if a feature like this should be added to jjui, or left as a user's custom config?

idursun · 2025-12-16T10:37:11Z

@baggiiiie There's not a definite answer to that. It's usually a gut feeling after working on this project more than a year now.

I see core functionality at the level that we are interacting with the jj cli. (e.g. new commits, squash, rebase, etc)

The request you linked is a convenience feature on top of the core functionality. They are still very important but I would like them to be implemented through customisation. Customisation options we have might not be enough to implement those so then I prefer closing the gap in the customisation rather then implementing the feature in the core. There might be exceptions to this rule if implementing it in the core is more convenient, more performant or there's a huge ask about having it natively.

Additionally, if you can inflate a feature request in various ways then it is good sign that it should be a customisation.

For example,

I would like to copy the change id
I would like to copy the commit id
I would like to copy the commit id of the checked revisions
I would like to copy the file name of the currently selected file
I would like to copy the file name without the extension
I would like to copy the file name as absolute/relative path
I would like to copy the description
I would like to copy the issue number from the description
I would like to copy the file names that are checked

baggiiiie · 2025-12-16T14:26:44Z

if you can inflate a feature request in various ways then it is good sign that it should be a customisation

well put, totally agree!

just for discussion:

in this very particular example of a yank panel, from my understanding of the codebase, i think certain info would be appropriate to implement natively (change/commit id, bookmark, file path in details view)
for others you've listed (issue number from description, filename without extension) are highly individual dependent, and their implementations are doing more pollution the codebase rather than providing more convenient to users. in fact, for such requests, it might be even easier to implement with lua as complementary script than in source code

idursun · 2025-12-16T20:37:34Z

in this very particular example of a yank panel, from my understanding of the codebase, i think certain info would be appropriate to implement natively (change/commit id, bookmark, file path in details view)

Yes, totally. We should expose those through Lua. Except bookmark because we don't hold any information about the bookmarks.

For the time being, users can get the commit id using something like jj("log", "-r", revisions.current(), "-T", "commit_id", "--no-graph").

We need to implement something for exposing the current and checked files.

This MR contains the following updates: | Package | Update | Change | |---|---|---| | [idursun/jjui](https://github.com/idursun/jjui) | patch | `v0.9.8` → `v0.9.9` | MR created with the help of [el-capitano/tools/renovate-bot](https://gitlab.com/el-capitano/tools/renovate-bot). **Proposed changes to behavior should be submitted there as MRs.** --- ### Release Notes <details> <summary>idursun/jjui (idursun/jjui)</summary> ### [`v0.9.9`](https://github.com/idursun/jjui/releases/tag/v0.9.9) [Compare Source](idursun/jjui@v0.9.8...v0.9.9) ### Release Notes Another release with small improvements and bug fixes. Thanks to all contributors! #### 🎉 New Features ##### Custom Commands & Lua API Enhancements - **Custom Commands with Sequence Keys** ([#420](idursun/jjui#420)) - Added `key_sequence` property allowing custom commands to be invoked with multiple key presses in sequence - Added `desc` property for command descriptions - Introduced sequence overlay UI showing available key sequences when first key is pressed - Example: `key_sequence = ["w", "b", "l"]` - **Lua API: Choose Method and UI** ([#427](idursun/jjui#427)) ([#442](idursun/jjui#442)) - New `choose()` function for interactive selection prompts in Lua scripts - New `input()` function to prompt users for text input with customizable title and prompt - New `split_lines()` function for text processing - **Lua API: Await on Operation Results** ([#422](idursun/jjui#422)) - `start_inline_describe()` now returns boolean indicating if operation was applied or cancelled - Enables conditional command execution based on user actions - Fixes [#310](idursun/jjui#310) - **Lua API: Interactive Commands** ([commit 8b257263](idursun/jjui@8b257263)) - Added `jj_interactive` Lua function for interactive jj command execution ##### Navigation & UI Improvements - **Ace Jump for Operations** ([#445](idursun/jjui#445)) - Pressing 'f' in set\_parents/duplicate/rebase/squash modes now triggers ace jump - After jump completes, returns to the original operation mode instead of normal mode - Closes [#394](idursun/jjui#394) - **Preview Width Variable** ([#452](idursun/jjui#452)) - Added `$preview_width` placeholder variable for preview commands - Exposes actual view width (in columns) to enable tools like delta to use `--side-by-side` correctly - Width updates dynamically when preview pane is resized - Similar to fzf's `$FZF_PREVIEW_COLUMNS` - **Configurable Flash Message Display Time** ([#456](idursun/jjui#456)) - New config key: `ui.flash_message_display_seconds` (default: 4) - Special value `0` means messages display until manually dismissed - Fixes [#455](idursun/jjui#455) - **Page Up/Down Key Configuration** ([#437](idursun/jjui#437)) - ScrollUp/Down keys now registered in config instead of hardcoded - Keys exposed to configuration for customization - Fixes [#360](idursun/jjui#360) ##### SSH & Authentication - **SSH Askpass Support** ([#423](idursun/jjui#423)) - New `[ssh] hijack_askpass` setting to prompt for SSH passphrases/PINs within jjui - Works on Linux and macOS - Properly handles prompt overriding and cancellation - Fixes [#100](idursun/jjui#100) #### 🐛 Bug Fixes - **Exec Command History** ([#458](idursun/jjui#458)) - Fixed issue where selected command history wasn't applied in exec mode - Input value now properly updated when selecting from fuzzy/regex suggestions - Selected commands correctly saved to history - **Menu Pagination Display** ([#446](idursun/jjui#446)) - Fixed incorrect `%d/%d` pagination display - Height now calculated before pagination render - Added tab/shift+tab to short help menu - Fixes [#444](idursun/jjui#444) - **Flash Message Width** ([#432](idursun/jjui#432)) - Added maxWidth (50% of screen) to flash message rendering - Messages now properly line-wrap instead of extending beyond window width - **Operation Log Refresh** ([#431](idursun/jjui#431)) - Operation log now returns Refresh and SelectionChanged messages upon closing - Fixes [#430](idursun/jjui#430) - **Custom Commands List Sorting** ([commit 3fa9783a](idursun/jjui@3fa9783a)) - Fixed custom commands list to use stable sort - Fixes [#424](idursun/jjui#424) - **JJ Error Pass-through** ([#421](idursun/jjui#421)) - jjui now properly passes through stderr from jj commands - Error messages are more informative and show actual jj errors - **Navigation Message Display** ([commit 94a4a874](idursun/jjui@94a4a874)) - Navigation messages now only shown for paged scrolls #### What's Changed - main: pass through jj error by [@baggiiiie](https://github.com/baggiiiie) in [#421](idursun/jjui#421) - feat(lua): add ability to await on operation results (cancelled/applied) by [@idursun](https://github.com/idursun) in [#422](idursun/jjui#422) - oplog: return Refresh and SelectionChanged upon oplog closing by [@baggiiiie](https://github.com/baggiiiie) in [#431](idursun/jjui#431) - feat(nix): add comprehensive nix flake by [@doprz](https://github.com/doprz) in [#426](idursun/jjui#426) - Add option to hijack SSH Askpass to prompt for passphrase/pin by [@oliverpool](https://github.com/oliverpool) in [#423](idursun/jjui#423) - feat(lua): add choose method and ui by [@idursun](https://github.com/idursun) in [#427](idursun/jjui#427) - flash: add maxWidth to flash msg rendering by [@baggiiiie](https://github.com/baggiiiie) in [#432](idursun/jjui#432) - keys: add pageup/down to keys config by [@baggiiiie](https://github.com/baggiiiie) in [#437](idursun/jjui#437) - chore(github): Add Adda0 as an automatic reviewer for Nix-related changes by [@Adda0](https://github.com/Adda0) in [#440](idursun/jjui#440) - feat: add .editorconfig by [@doprz](https://github.com/doprz) in [#434](idursun/jjui#434) - Add input and log to custom\_commands API by [@ArnaudBger](https://github.com/ArnaudBger) in [#442](idursun/jjui#442) - oplog,list: refactor scrolling with Scrollable/StreamableList interface by [@baggiiiie](https://github.com/baggiiiie) in [#429](idursun/jjui#429) - menu: calculate height before pagination render by [@baggiiiie](https://github.com/baggiiiie) in [#446](idursun/jjui#446) - operations: enable ace jump for set\_parents/duplicate/rebase/squash by [@baggiiiie](https://github.com/baggiiiie) in [#445](idursun/jjui#445) - feat: make flash message display time configurable by [@living180](https://github.com/living180) in [#456](idursun/jjui#456) - feat: add $width variable for preview commands by [@pablospe](https://github.com/pablospe) in [#452](idursun/jjui#452) - status: fix exec command history not applied by [@baggiiiie](https://github.com/baggiiiie) in [#458](idursun/jjui#458) #### New Contributors - [@doprz](https://github.com/doprz) made their first contribution in [#426](idursun/jjui#426) - [@oliverpool](https://github.com/oliverpool) made their first contribution in [#423](idursun/jjui#423) - [@living180](https://github.com/living180) made their first contribution in [#456](idursun/jjui#456) - [@pablospe](https://github.com/pablospe) made their first contribution in [#452](idursun/jjui#452) **Full Changelog**: <idursun/jjui@v0.9.8...v0.9.9> </details> --- ### Configuration 📅 **Schedule**: Branch creation - At any time (no schedule defined), Automerge - At any time (no schedule defined). 🚦 **Automerge**: Enabled. ♻ **Rebasing**: Whenever MR becomes conflicted, or you tick the rebase/retry checkbox. 🔕 **Ignore**: Close this MR and you won't be reminded about this update again. --- - [ ] If you want to rebase/retry this MR, check this box --- This MR has been generated by [Renovate Bot](https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate).

feat(lua): add choose method and ui

ec05bb0

baggiiiie reviewed Dec 16, 2025

View reviewed changes

idursun merged commit 4220262 into main Dec 16, 2025
3 checks passed

idursun deleted the push-mtnvyqxvplpr branch December 16, 2025 20:37

BrewTestBot mentioned this pull request Jan 9, 2026

jjui 0.9.9 Homebrew/homebrew-core#261935

Merged

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

feat(lua): add choose method and ui#427

feat(lua): add choose method and ui#427
idursun merged 1 commit intomainfrom
push-mtnvyqxvplpr

idursun commented Dec 15, 2025

Uh oh!

baggiiiie left a comment

Uh oh!

idursun commented Dec 16, 2025

Uh oh!

baggiiiie commented Dec 16, 2025

Uh oh!

idursun commented Dec 16, 2025

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

2 participants

Conversation

idursun commented Dec 15, 2025

Uh oh!

baggiiiie left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

idursun commented Dec 16, 2025

Uh oh!

baggiiiie commented Dec 16, 2025

Uh oh!

idursun commented Dec 16, 2025

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

2 participants