Insert `nixpkgs-review` commands to your terminal using native app communication (brotab)

doronbehar · November 3, 2025, 8:43am

Very often I found it pretty hard to type on my ZSH command line the nixpkgs-review commands I want to run. These commands usually include all 4 --systems, and I always want to put a note for the command line history using a ZSH # comment. Using brotab, I realized I can write a ZSH widget that would take a PR open in my browser, and insert the nixpkgs-review command I want (including the # comment) without effort. Here’s the ZSH widget, also part of my dotfiles repository:

github.com/doronbehar/dotfiles

.zsh/zle/brotab-nixpkgs-review.zsh

4ede208b4

# Purpose of this widget is to insert a nixpkgs-review command to the terminal,
# with a ZSH `#` comment of the PR title - useful for history lookup. The
# widget is not binded here by default, only created. After the command is
# inserted, the cursor is placed right after the `--systems` argument. The
# default --systems argument used here includes all systems (see NOTE below).

brotab-nixpkgs-review(){
	if ! _command_exists brotab; then
		zle -M "brotab is not installed"
		return
	fi
	if ! _command_exists fzf; then
		zle -M "fzf is not installed"
		return
	fi
	if [[ -z "$(brotab windows)" ]]; then
		zle -M "brotab has detected no windows"
		return
	fi
	local full_path idx title url

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