Chapter 1 — Introduction & Quick Start

1.1 What is wxeditor?

wxeditor is a standalone remote file editor extracted from wxterm-ai, built with Rust + Slint as a single fast executable. It is completely free software — there are no licenses, plans, or feature gates; every capability is unconditionally available.

Highlights:

• Remote/local file editing: browse and edit files on remote servers over SSH/SFTP/FTP/FTPS, or work on local files like any desktop editor.
• Syntax highlighting: 50+ languages via bundled Lua highlighter/ formatter scripts (Rust, Python, JavaScript, Go, Java, C/C++, Markdown, SQL, YAML, …), with code folding, word wrap, and a HEX mode.
• Readers: built-in PDF (vector rendering), EPUB, CHM, and Office document preview with continuous/single/double-page views, invert, and brightness controls.
• Image editor: view and edit PNG/JPEG/SVG with crop, brush, text, and twenty-plus one-click filters.
• Version control browsing: Git/SVN change lists, commit history, and AI-modified file tracking.
• AI assistant: a multi-model chat panel with model configuration, MCP servers, skills, and authorization management.
• Multi-language debugging: remote debug sessions with breakpoints, watches, call stack, and console.
• Internationalization: 21 UI languages, 40+ themes in both dark and light families, with automatic follow-system switching.

1.2 System Requirements

512 MB of RAM is plenty; on-disk footprint is about 60 MB.

1.3 Installation

Packages are named wxeditor_<distro>_<version>_<arch>.<ext>:

• deb: sudo dpkg -i wxeditor_*.deb
• rpm: sudo rpm -ivh wxeditor_*.rpm
• pacman: sudo pacman -U wxeditor_*.tar.zst
• apk (Alpine): sudo apk add --allow-untrusted wxeditor_*.apk
• tar.gz: unpack and run the bundled install.sh
• AppImage: chmod +x wxeditor_*.AppImage && ./wxeditor_*.AppImage
• macOS: drag from the DMG into Applications, or run the Pkg installer
• Windows: run the NSIS setup.exe or the MSI package

After installation, launch “wxeditor” from your application menu, or run wxeditor from a terminal (see the command-line arguments in Chapter 8).

1.4 First Launch

When launched by double-clicking (no arguments), wxeditor starts in local mode: remote features are disabled and the welcome screen is shown.

The center of the welcome screen holds two entry cards:

• New Project: specify a name and parent directory; the folder is created and opened as a project.
• Open Project: bind an existing directory as the project via the system folder picker.

Clicking the “Recent Projects” button expands the history list; click any entry to reopen it:

Tip: history entries show the project name, relative time, and full path. Entries whose directory no longer exists are dimmed and removed from history when clicked.

Once a project directory is bound, the menu bar, toolbar, file tree, and editor appear — you are ready to edit (see Chapter 2).

1.5 Relationship to wxterm

wxeditor shares code with the wxterm family but keeps its configuration fully separate:

• wxeditor uses ~/.wxeditor/ (wxterm uses ~/.wxterm/); they never interfere.
• After installation, wxeditor writes an ~/.wxeditor/execute.json pointer that wxterm uses to launch the standalone editor.
• wxeditor can consume wxterm sessions (-sid launch argument) and decrypt enc:-prefixed passwords from wxterm’s session store.