Quil vs Zellij.
Modern Rust terminal multiplexer with a friendly UX, WASM plugins, and sane defaults. Released in 2021.
Modern UX, clean WASM plugin model, excellent defaults, discoverable status bar.
Modern UX, clean WASM plugin model, excellent defaults, discoverable status bar. Zellij users rarely need to read a manual.
Reboot survival. AI continuity. Typed panes.
Zellij serializes a session to its cache folder by default, so a reboot gives you the shape back — tabs, panes, directories, and each pane's command waiting behind a “Press ENTER to run” prompt. It does not give you the work back: nothing is still running, scrollback is off unless you enabled it, and an AI session is just a command line to re-type. Quil restores the running workspace, and resumes the Claude Code or OpenCode conversation with its current session id.
Zellij is the closest competitor on UX — both tools prioritise gentle defaults and a modern feel. Where they diverge: Zellij is a multiplexer first, Quil is a workflow orchestrator first. Zellij is also the only classic multiplexer that gives you anything back after a reboot, so the honest question is not whether a session returns but what returns with it — Zellij rebuilds the layout and waits for you to re-run each command, while Quil restores the running workspace and the AI conversation attached to it.
Feature by feature.
| capability | quil | Zellij |
|---|---|---|
| Session persistence while the multiplexer server is running | ✓ | ✓ |
| Survives a full host reboot | ✓ | ~ |
| └── Quil's defining capability. Zellij is the one honest partial: session serialization is on by default, so after a reboot it brings back the layout, the tabs and the working directories, and offers each pane's command behind a “Press ENTER to run” prompt. What it does not bring back is the work — no running processes, no scrollback unless you turned that on, and no idea an AI session ever existed. tmux, WezTerm and Screen lose the session outright; tmux-resurrect gets tmux to roughly where Zellij already is. | ||
| AI session auto-resume (Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Remote attach: local client, sessions on another host | ✓ | ✕ |
| └── tmux, Zellij and Screen run their client ON the remote — you ssh in first, and a dropped link means re-attaching by hand. WezTerm's mux domains and Quil's `quil --remote <host>` both keep the client local and reconnect by themselves. Quil opens no port on the server (it is one `ssh -T` channel) and installs itself on a bare host. | ||
| Agent state per group, visible at a glance | ✓ | ✕ |
| └── Not "does it have a sidebar" — the claim is that the multiplexer knows an agent is mid-turn, versus waiting on a permission prompt, versus finished. That needs a feed from the agent itself; Quil reads Claude Code and OpenCode hook events. Every project row carries a roll-up of its agents and keeps updating while you are looking at a different project, which is the point: the one that got stuck is the one you are not watching. | ||
| Several hosts' sessions side by side in one client | ✓ | ✕ |
| └── WezTerm's mux domains genuinely do this — you can attach several and mix their tabs in one window. tmux, Zellij and Screen run the client on the remote, so a second host means a second terminal. Quil dials each host over its own `ssh -T` channel, gives each its own reconnect state, and groups their projects in the same sidebar; one daemon dying leaves the rest interactive. | ||
| Typed panes (Terminal / AI / SSH / Webhook) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Plugin system | ✓ | ✓ |
| └── Quil uses declarative TOML. Zellij uses WASM. WezTerm uses Lua. tmux uses shell scripts. | ||
| Mouse support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ghost buffers (last 500 lines instant on reconnect) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Command palette (fuzzy action + pane launcher) | ✓ | ~ |
| └── WezTerm's is built in (Ctrl+Shift+P, frecency-ranked). tmux has a command prompt but it is not fuzzy. Zellij's comes from community plugins (cmd-pal), not the core. | ||
| Search every pane's scrollback from one prompt | ✓ | ✕ |
| └── Every other tool searches one pane at a time in copy mode — including WezTerm, whose palette is command-only. Across panes, tmux needs the third-party tmux-grep plugin. In Quil it is the same box as the command palette: type, and matching panes appear under `Found in panes` with a preview and a match count. | ||
| MCP server for AI agents | ✓ | ✕ |
| Notification center + idle analysis | ✓ | ✕ |
| Pane notes editor (Alt+E) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Windows native (no WSL) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Declarative keybindings (config file) | ✓ | ✓ |
Coming from Zellij?
Zellij users will feel at home in Quil — both tools use Alt-based keys and avoid prefix chords by default. The main adjustment is Quil's typed panes (Terminal / AI / SSH / etc.), which Zellij doesn't have.
▸ Is Quil just Zellij with AI support?
It's more than that. Quil's core bet is that a workflow orchestrator is a different tool from a multiplexer. Typed panes, ghost buffers, the MCP server, and the pane notes editor all follow from that bet. Zellij has chosen a different scope.
▸ Can Quil use Zellij plugins?
No. Zellij plugins are WASM modules using Zellij's host API. Quil plugins are TOML declarations. The two models are intentionally different — Quil's is simpler but less dynamic, Zellij's is more powerful but harder to write.
▸ Both tools are in Rust, right?
Zellij is Rust. Quil is Go — specifically Go 1.25, with Bubble Tea v2 for the TUI. Different ecosystems, same aesthetic goals.
Other comparisons.
Try them both. Pick a side.
Quil installs side-by-side with Zellij. Nothing to uninstall first.