---
# System prepended metadata

title: '`explore` command changes'

---

# `explore` command changes

Let's collect some input. I (darren) can clean it up and make an issue and tag zhiburt in it.

- record mode, table mode, text mode (which is called preview now), try mode - darren to provide pictures of each mode in order to communicate clearly
- esc to exit any screen/mode including exit to the command line. so, no matter how deeply you are into exploration, you can hit esc, esc, esc, esc and eventually it will quit to the command line. we can leave the shortcut of :q as well
- on launch, in any mode, can we put "Type :help" in the status bar in order to make it more discoverable?
- on the help screen, it would probably be more useful to not have [table 5 rows] and just list all 5 of `:commands` separately
- `open cargo.toml | explore`, now type `:preview`. how do i get back to table mode? Was thinking `:table`.
- `open -r cargo.toml | explore`, we're in preview mode here. how do I get into "table -e" mode from here?

General thoughts:
The vim-like functionality is intuitive to some people but other non-vim users will easily get lost. We're wondering how we can change this to make it easier to use. We're specifically talking about the `i` for inspect mode. The `:command` syntax is fine. I'm wondering how we an automatically switch into `i` mode and navigate with the arrow keys and then hit `enter` on whichever field we want to inspect.

We like the separate modes/views of data. It's powerful to visualize the data differently. We have these modes below. We'd like to be able to switch between any of them to change the view of the data.

Here's one crazy thought. If you've ever used `hx`/`helix` you can hit `spacebar` from any screen and it pops up a menu (show screenshot here). Within that popup, you can up/down arrow and choose an option.

- record mode
- table mode
- try mode
- preview mode (maybe rename to text mode)
- table-e mode (need another name for this 'expanded mode?')
- help mode
- nu mode
- search mode is kind of a sub-mode of all/most modes

Sometimes, in `:try` mode, it's too hard to understand which pane your cursor is in. Is it in the top pane or the bottom pane. The double lined borders address this, thanks for that. I'm wondering if there is a keybinding we could add to toggle pane focus, perhaps the `tab` key? For the record, the only way I know how to switch panes right now is to use the up and down arrow keys. I'm not sure if there is another way.

There's a panic in `:try`, https://github.com/nushell/nushell/issues/7323

Webbedspace has started cleaning things up already :) https://github.com/nushell/nushell/issues/7324


We'd like some documentation on what these configuration settings actually do. Some seem intuitive while others are harder to understand.
```
    explore: {
        highlight: { bg: 'yellow', fg: 'black' }
        status_bar: { bg: '#C4C9C6', fg: '#1D1F21' }
        command_bar: { fg: '#C4C9C6' }
        split_line: '#404040'
        cursor: true
        # selected_column: 'blue'
        # selected_row: { fg: 'yellow', bg: '#C1C2A3' }
        # selected_cell: { fg: 'white', bg: '#777777' }
        # line_shift: false,
        # line_index: false,
        # line_head_top: false,
        # line_head_bottom: false,
      }
```
I've tried the `line_*` items with true and false and i'm not sure what they do. Maybe they only work in certain modes?

Can't get this to work right. `open -r cargo.lock` then search for adler like `/adler` and hit enter. Now you can go next with `n`. That all works. Now, within this current view I type `:preview`, it doesn't go into preview/expanded mode. It's like it's stuck in search mode. Not sure how to turn off search mode - i tried typing `/` and then deleting the search term and the slash and it kind of works, but still seems stuck.

`explore` in `explore` = bad - maybe should be ignored like `clear` https://github.com/nushell/nushell/issues/7328

All this crap went in https://github.com/nushell/nushell/issues/7332