r/HelixEditor

 [keys.normal]
"I" = "append_mode"
a = "collapse_selection"
A = "keep_primary_selection"
S = "remove_primary_selection"
u = "page_cursor_half_up"
d = "page_cursor_half_down"
s = "delete_selection"
z = "undo"
Z = "redo"
F = "goto_word"
e = "select_regex"
E = "split_selection"
t = "copy_selection_on_next_line"
T = "copy_selection_on_prev_line"
f = { f = "goto_file", t = "goto_window_top", c = "goto_window_center", b = "goto_window_bottom", d = "goto_definition", y = "goto_type_definition", r = "goto_reference", i = "goto_implementation", l = "goto_last_modification", n = "goto_line" }
g = "goto_line_start"
";" = "goto_line_end"
U = "goto_file_start"
D = "goto_last_line"
G = "goto_first_nonwhitespace"
w = { h = "move_prev_word_start", H = "move_prev_long_word_start", l = "move_next_word_end", L = "move_next_long_word_end", ";" = "move_next_word_start", ":" = "move_next_long_word_start" }
b = "no_op"
W = "no_op"
B = "no_op"
H = { D = "goto_first_diag", d = "goto_prev_diag", F = "goto_prev_function", C = "goto_prev_class", a = "goto_prev_parameter", c = "goto_prev_comment", T = "goto_prev_test", p = "goto_prev_paragraph", g = "goto_prev_change", G = "goto_first_change", space = "open_above", k = "add_newline_above", j = "add_newline_below", J = "jump_backward", f = "find_prev_char", t = "till_prev_char", b = "goto_previous_buffer" }
L = { D = "goto_last_diag", d = "goto_next_diag", F = "goto_next_function", C = "goto_next_class", a = "goto_next_parameter", c = "goto_next_comment", T = "goto_next_test", p = "goto_next_paragraph", g = "goto_next_change", G = "goto_last_change", space = "open_below", j = "add_newline_below", k = "add_newline_above", J = "jump_forward", f = "find_next_char", t = "find_till_char", b = "goto_next_buffer" }
C = { s = "switch_case", j = "decrement", k = "increment", J = "switch_to_lowercase", K = "switch_to_uppercase", c = "toggle_comments" }
p = { h = "paste_before", l = "paste_after", H = "paste_clipboard_before", L = "paste_clipboard_after" }

Maybe a little slower than just having w/e/b and f/t but I think that mine does simplify a lot of things and make things a little more ergonomic. Also there is W,o/O, P, b/B, ",", and [/] which are now also available for remapping so I can add more useful binds there.

I've got the Stadium XL plugged into an FR-12. I've tried all the stock presets and built some of my own. While the variety and ability to switch between snapshots within presets is awesome, it just feels neutered compared to a Hot Rod Deluxe with a few cheap pedals.

Help! I wanna make it work!

*Mostly looking for rock/qotsa type stuff with occasional chorus + surf reverb

How does forge work? Can I easily backup plugins? Or can I install plugins with nix? What's the recommended way?

Title. I'm just curious about what people think, because I really don't want Helix to turn into nvim or emacs. I'm afraid development of the core editor will halt and I'll be left with a second job as a dot file engineer. Don't get my wrong, I'm all for a plugin system, but I saw talk of replacing TOML and such and i started to worry.

# theme = "cyan_light_mod"
# theme = "catppuccin_custom"
theme = "tokyonight_custom"

[editor]
scrolloff = 5
line-number = "relative"
bufferline = "always"
clipboard-provider = "pasteboard"
default-yank-register = "+"
jump-label-alphabet = "fjdkslarueiwoqpvncmxz"
trim-trailing-whitespace = true
color-modes = true

[editor.statusline]
left = ["mode"]
center = ["file-name", "file-modification-indicator"]
right = ["diagnostics", "selections", "position", "file-indent-style", "position-percentage", "total-line-numbers", "file-type"]
mode.normal = "NORMAL"
mode.select = "SELECT"
mode.insert = "INSERT"

[editor.cursor-shape]
insert = "block"
normal = "block"
select = "block"

[editor.soft-wrap]
enable = true

[editor.indent-guides]
render = true 

[editor.file-picker]
hidden = false
git-ignore = false

[keys.normal]
# "j" = ["move_visual_line_down", "align_view_center"]
# "k" = ["move_visual_line_up", "align_view_center"]
"e" = ["move_next_word_end", "trim_selections"]
"b" = ["move_prev_word_start", "trim_selections"]
"w" = "@lbe"
"A-j" = ["extend_to_line_bounds", "delete_selection", "paste_after"]
"A-k" = ["extend_to_line_bounds", "delete_selection", "move_line_up", "paste_before"]

"C-y" = [   ':sh rm -f /tmp/unique-file',   ':insert-output yazi --chooser-file=/tmp/unique-file',   ':sh printf "\x1b[?1049h\x1b[?2004h" > /dev/tty',   ':open %sh{cat /tmp/unique-file}',   ':redraw', ]

"{" = ["goto_prev_paragraph", "align_view_center", "trim_selections", "extend_visual_line_up"]
"}" = ["goto_next_paragraph", "align_view_center", "trim_selections", "extend_visual_line_down"]
"ret" = ["goto_word"]
"tab" = "flip_selections"
"C-u" = ["page_cursor_half_up", "align_view_center"]
"C-k" = ["page_cursor_half_up", "align_view_center"]
"C-d" = ["page_cursor_half_down", "align_view_center"]
"C-j" = ["page_cursor_half_down", "align_view_center"]

B = "move_prev_sub_word_start"
E = "move_next_sub_word_end"
W = "@lBE"
H = "@gh"
L = "goto_line_end"
G = "@ge"
V = ["extend_to_line_bounds", "select_mode"]

"C-e" = ["extend_to_line_bounds", ":pipe-to hx-repl"]

[keys.normal."]"]
"f" = ["goto_next_function", "flip_selections", "align_view_top"]
"]" = "goto_next_buffer"

[keys.normal."["]
"[" = "goto_previous_buffer" 

[keys.select]
"A-j" = ["extend_to_line_bounds", "delete_selection", "paste_after"]
"A-k" = ["extend_to_line_bounds", "delete_selection", "move_line_up", "paste_before"]
"ret" = "extend_to_word"
"tab" = "flip_selections"
"{" = ["goto_prev_paragraph", "extend_to_line_bounds"]
"}" = ["goto_next_paragraph", "extend_to_line_bounds"]
"w" = "@<A-:><A-;>lb<A-;>he"
B = "extend_prev_sub_word_start"
E = "extend_next_sub_word_end"
W = "@<A-:><A-;>lB<A-;>hE"
H = "@gh"
L = "goto_line_end"
G = "@ge"
V = ["extend_to_line_bounds", "select_mode"]
"C-e" = ["extend_to_line_bounds", ":pipe-to hx-repl"]

[keys.insert]
"C-t" = ["indent"]
"C-d" = ["unindent"]
"C-c" = ["toggle_comments"]
"C-o" = ["normal_mode", "open_below"]

I kind of change some behavior that I use often.

- I stop using w for navigating forward, I use it to select the current word under the cursor and only use b and e for navigating. And I always trim my selection

- tab I changed it so that I can flip my selection head with ease (I find that I use that more often than I thought)

- V I use mainly so that I can select kind of like line mode with ease

- G because I find it more efficient than ge

- H and L to go to the beginning and end of line

- I can select subword using B , E and W also kind of mimic the w behavior that I altered

- For the goto_next_function , I always flip selection and align view top for so that I can see the function in the viewport

- A bunch of \align_view_center` for moving around

- Add functionalities in the insert mode, so that I can indent, unindent and comment while in insert mode

If you guys have more tricks that might make editing in helix more efficient, please do share. I'm ready to copy lol.

PS. I tried moving back to neovim, and I setup from kickstart and make it mine. But I still miss a lot of functionalities and features from helix. It's just easier for me, so I moved back. Although, I kinda miss some things from neovim, and I always find ways to improve how I work in helix.

I started using helix and fell in love with it. Multiple cursors, built in LSP, tree sitter, the which key (chef's kiss) everything i want in one place. Just one ick no file manager no git UI no project wide search and replace. There are wacky workarounds to use all these using just keyboard shortcuts in the config file or using some weird mental gymnastics spaghetti of multiplexers and scripts but it left behind some weird artifacts that I didn't like. I tried Yazi which is the most compatible among all TUI file managers but it's not really my type of file manager I just need a simple tree man. Anyhow yazelix was too much for me I ain't getting into nix man.

I kept editor hopping for like a whole year waiting patiently for a file manager or the plugin system which I heard is still a year or so away. Recently I started learning rust and I wanted a clean minimal editor to code in. But I really dislike GUI editors now after getting a taste of neovim/helix they feel clunky yes even zed even with all the keybind supports. And something about helix keybinds the batteries included approach I just cant go back even to neovim. And I tried to compile mattwparas's steel repo but for some reason even inside toolbox it fails to compile (I use silverblue) if I was successful in doing that the story would have ended there but here we are. Anyways jokes aside I could have just forked it and created an github workflow to get the binary but meh.

I don't know rust. Like at all. But I had opencode go wired up to deepseek v4 pro so I spent about $15 in api credits arguing with a LLM for like 6 hours until it spat out something that works.

abaran a TUI file manager wrapper for helix. You browse a file tree, hit enter, and it opens the file in helix running in the background. Ctrl + g drops you into gitui. Ctrl + s into scooter for find and replace. Technically you don't need any of these three tools to be installed to use the file manager. Its all pty forwarding under the hood (or at least that's what I have been told I have no idea what any of these means) so the tools feel native. Basically I just asked it to create a multiplexer + file manager with persistent tabs and when ever you press enter on a file it pipes it into helix using :open and :redraw to fix the weird issues all the three apps are their own tabs so they are persistent unless you close them using their own keybind/command if you use the toggle keybinds in abaran they are persistent. No tmux/zellij I just didn't want this overhead am happy with just ghostty.

Will upload screenshot/vhs sometime tomorrow. If you like the idea and or get why I did what I did give it a try. It's like 2AM here right now am logging off.

Disclosure every line of code in this repo was written by AI. I was just the guy saying that's still broken over and over. I can't review PRs because I literally cannot read rust. If something breaks sorry open an issue and I'll ask the clanker to fix it same if you have any feature request.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1iJ05Y5YRg

i see a lot of people talking about helix plugins but the most recent release in gh is dated a year ago, are people using a fork for that? or it's already in main to build but they have really slow releases?

does anyone know the plugin roadmap for helix? someone mentioned it in the pr, but I can't find it

Hey guys, I am starting webdev, I have used it for graphics programming using C++ developement and it was a great experience. I am new to this field, currently I am planning to use it for webgl, webgpu, threejs and svelte js. How to set it up for that? Also how can I set boilerplate for html? (ex. ! and !!! in vscode)

I would like to start with mine so it will be an example also:

I have use zellij + lazygit + helix.

Recently I learn I can edit my buffer in zellij where I can literally open my buffer in editor and move around, that was a good day for me when I found that, now my debugging is smooth and I am in my happy environment when looking for anything in my buffer.