Filter Staged/Unstaged files, currently only branches and commits can be filtered

[Zananok]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
When filtering while on the "files" tab, I expected to filter the files, not branches/commits.
I can search using '/', but not filter.
When working on mono repos, this is an essential feature.

Describe the solution you'd like
c-s is the default for filtering. If one is on the second tab (Files), when filtering with c-s, hide any other files/folders that don't fit the search. Regex support would also be nice, but a simple text search would go a long way.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Simple text filter

Additional context
A situation that one has to consider is to perhaps have a visual warning/q if one is committing while it has filtered files, but some other files are staged but not visible due to the filter to avoid committing unwanted files by accident.

[goyalyashpal]

update:
as per the #4743 (comment), there are two issues:

1. [BUG] even though <C-s> shows up as "View filter options..." in Global,
   it always operates on [4] Commits tab, no matter from where it is triggered from.
   so, it should NOT be shown in Global or maybe renamed to "View commits filter options..."

2. [FEAT] files tab should have "filter by path" option available too.

---

Filter Staged/Unstaged files, currently only branches and commits can be filtered
- title of the issue

• use <C-b> (ctrl-b in windows-like notation) in the [2] files tab to filter files

  Popups for these both filter commands

  ╭─Filtering──────────────────────────────╮
  │s ( ) Show only staged files            │
  │u ( ) Show only unstaged files          │
  │t ( ) Show only tracked files           │
  │T ( ) Show only untracked files         │
  │r (•) No filter                         │
  │      Cancel                            │
  ╰─────────────────────────────────1 of 6─╯
  ╭─Filtering──────────────────────────────╮
  │Enter path to filter by                 │
  │Enter author to filter by               │
  │Cancel                                  │
  ╰─────────────────────────────────1 of 3─╯
  

• use ? (question mark) i.e. <S-/> to show keybinds available for current tab, or even in global context. then narrow down the results in them via / (forward slash)
  this "filter files by status" is listed there.

  ╭─Keybindings────────────────────────────╮
  │      --- Local ---                     │
  │<c-b> Filter files by status            │
  │                                        │
  │      --- Global ---                    │
  │<c-s> View filter options...            │
  ╰─────────────────────────────────1 of 2─╯
  

$ # Version info
$ lazygit --version  | cut --fields=3-7 --delimiter=',' --output-delimiter=$'\n'  | column --table --separator '='
 build source  nix
 version       0.52.0
 os            linux
 arch          amd64
 git version   2.49.0

[Zananok]

• <c-b> does not work for me on, on the latest 0.53.0
• Thank you, I am a fan of ?, and there is no search filter for the files. The <c-s> filters commits instead of the actual files in the files tab, which is why I made this issue

I have been using this tool for 1+ year(s). To my understanding, there is no filter for files. Even though it seems like there is when pressing c-s

[goyalyashpal]

self hiding as resolved

---

• there is no search filter for the files

what does pressing 2?/filter shows for you in lazygit?

[Zananok]

It shows c-b as Filter files by status, but nothing pops up. I need to manually select it and press enter.

However, this is not the filter I am talking about. I am talking about text filter.

[goyalyashpal]

okay. so, just to ensure we are on the same page:

• you need <C-s> filter (filter by path) for files
• currently it works only for commits

is it correct?

---

if yes, then in the meantime, you can ` (toggle file tree view) to show files flat, then / (search by text) with the path. this will help you to accomplish the same.

though i agree that having <C-s> filter local to files-tab would be nice-to have too.

if not, then can you share what kind of file-filter you are thinking about?

[Zananok]

Correct ! I.e. If I have changed 100 files, I should be able to write in the filter: either part of the file name or part of the folder path to filter the files being displayed on the "Files" "window". Only files/folders containing the string should be showing on the"Files" "window"

…

________________________________ From: goyalyashpal ***@***.***> Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2025 12:31:39 PM To: jesseduffield/lazygit ***@***.***> Cc: Zananok ***@***.***>; Author ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [jesseduffield/lazygit] Filter Staged/Unstaged files, currently only branches and commits can be filtered (Issue #4743) [https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/19423063?s=20&v=4]goyalyashpal left a comment (jesseduffield/lazygit#4743)<#4743 (comment)> okay. so, just to ensure we are on the same page: * you need <C-s> filter (filter by path) for files * currently it works only for commits is it correct? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#4743 (comment)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB4JQZD2FCAHPXS6KAUZPML3ITKAXAVCNFSM6AAAAACBRAQS5CVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTANZTGA3TKMJZGY>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[goyalyashpal]

so glad to have the detail ironed out. as you have replied from the email, i suspect you have not opened the github website. i have shared a handy tip to help you accomplish this requirement in current version too,

[Zananok]

Indeed, i didn't see your nice tip about the back tick, which I was not aware of, thanks!

However, that still doesn't filter, we are only able to text search, not text filter.

As for my suggestion on how the feature should be, it can be very similar, if not the same, as the current filter for commits:

Except, that it acts on the Files and not the commit history. If one wants to filter the commit history, go to Commits, then c-s. If one wants to filter the files, go to Files and c-s. The current filter menu looks nice, just needs to affect the Files, not only the Commit history.

---

Regex support would be a very nice plus, but just a basic text filter will go a very long way.

Another example of usage is: not only filter the folder name (your back tick tip could be considered sufficient, but still unideal solution), but also on files that have some prefix or sufix, as for example CQRS files, where some are appended with the word 'Command' or any set of files that have similar names that could be in different folders.

---

To remove/reset the filter, a simple ESC on the Files "window" would mimic how lazygit does for its other features.

[goyalyashpal]

.oh i get it.

• the <C-s> "View filter options..." is like a type of commandMenu (from customCommands perspective)
• evident from the fact that:
  it has multiple sub-commands (filter-by-path, filter-by-author), each of where you can enter custom input
• that's why the <C-s> is available under "Global" in Keybinds, as commandMenu as a whole can't specify the context.
• though, i couldn't confirm it in source-code search.

.notice that:

• none of the options in "Local" allow you to do this. (i verified in the Local keybinds of 2-files tab)
• there, you can:
  • either: only enter your input directly,
  • or     : only pick from the predefined options,
  • never both

.implications:

• this is kinda bad though, as the current <C-s> is really only limited to the 4-commits local context and not to global.
• but being similar to commandMenu, it might be hard to limit it to that context. so, the keybind will <C-s> will likely stay reserved to it in all contexts too.
• the good news is that the requested feature of file filter-by-path needs only to enter the input directly, it has no other variations. so it can be easily put in the local context: 'files', albeit with some different keybind it seems.

---

p.s.:

• i noticed this detail while trying to implement my own such commandMenu for *Branches(main-Log): Allow specifying custom flags for main / "Log" view #4737 (comment)

[goyalyashpal]

• lazygit uses git status ... to parse information for files tab, as shown by lazygit --debug, lazygit --logs
• so, in ideal case, one would have been able to apply custom filters on that command itself, and hence be able to implement this feature ad-hoc if something like multiple preset values for configs & hooks, via custom commands #4744 were available

---

• keybinds documentation
  

  lazygit/docs/Config.md

  Lines 346 to 347 in 1210a64

  	# If true, periodically refresh files and submodules
  	autoRefresh: true

  
  

  lazygit/docs/Config.md

  Lines 439 to 441 in 1210a64

  	# File/submodule refresh interval in seconds.
  	# Auto-refresh can be disabled via option 'git.autoRefresh'.
  	refreshInterval: 10

|INFO| Heap memory in use: 6.5 MB 
|INFO| refreshing the following scopes in sync mode: files 
|DEBU| using cache for key status.showUntrackedFiles 
|INFO| refreshed merge conflicts in 42.362µs 
|DEBU| RunCommand command="git status --untracked-files=all --porcelain -z --find-renames=50%"
|INFO| git status --untracked-files=all --porcelain -z --find-renames=50% (6.896732ms) 
|INFO| refreshed files in 7.48918ms 
|INFO| Refresh took 7.727103ms 
|INFO| postRefreshUpdate for submodules took 11.581µs 
|DEBU| RunCommand command="git -C /... diff --no-ext-diff --submodule --unified=2 --color=always --find-renames=50% -- modules"
|INFO| postRefreshUpdate for files took 188.913µs 

[stefanhaller]

@Zananok It is unclear to me whether you want the c-s functionality (i.e. restrict to a given subfolder of the repo), or / filtering as in the branches panel (show all items that match the filter, no matter where in the tree they are).

When we introduced / filtering in lazygit (see #2680), some views were excluded and still do normal searching. One example is Commits, where we decided intentionally not to filter, because it's often useful to look at the context of commits found by searching.

For the files panel, the PR originally filtered it by full path, but eventually we went back to excluding this view, too. I don't see much discussion about this in #2680, but I suppose it was too unclear whether the filter should only apply to file names or to the full path. It would be nice to enable / filtering in the Files panel, I think it would be better than searching, if we can sort out how exactly it should behave. Would this address your need?

As for c-s filtering the files panel: I'm against that, because the current functionality of using c-s to jump to a filtered commit log from the files panel is useful and shouldn't change. If anything, it would have to be a separate command, but I'm reluctant to suggest adding it because I'm not convinced of its usefulness.

BTW, a somehow related request is #4672.