QMK Nexus: visual configuration for QMK keyboards
I’ve been working on a project called QMK Nexus, and I wanted to share the current state with the broader mechanical keyboard community.
The short version: it’s a visual frontend for QMK firmware.
QMK is incredibly powerful, but the learning curve can be rough if you are not already comfortable editing firmware files, reading docs, wiring matrices, and figuring out where each setting belongs. That is especially true for hand-wired boards, split keyboards, encoders, OLEDs, trackballs, and other custom features.
QMK Nexus is my attempt to make that workflow more approachable.
Right now it can help with:
Loading existing QMK-compatible keyboards
Importing QMK Configurator JSON files
Importing QMK download ZIPs
Viewing and editing keymaps visually
Working with layers
Reviewing wiring and matrix information
Configuring supported keyboard features
Generating firmware/source outputs
Supporting more advanced custom keyboard workflows over time
The goal is not to replace QMK. It is to make QMK easier to use for people who want more than a basic configurator, but do not want to manually piece together every firmware file from scratch.
I started building it while working on my own split keyboard project because I kept running into the same friction points:
“Where does this setting go?”
“How do I map the physical layout to the matrix?”
“How do I keep the keymap understandable?”
“How do I avoid rebuilding the same structure by hand every time?”
It is still very much a work in progress, but it has reached the point where I think feedback from more keyboard builders would be useful.
I’d especially like to hear from people who have:
built or considered building a hand-wired keyboard
customized QMK beyond basic keymap changes
used QMK Configurator but hit its limits
built split or ergonomic boards
wanted to add encoders, OLEDs, pointing devices, or other features
What part of custom keyboard firmware still feels the most confusing or annoying?
Project:
Repo:
