Configuration

To override global configuration parameters, create a config.toml file located in your config directory:

  • Linux and Mac: ~/.config/helix/config.toml
  • Windows: %AppData%\helix\config.toml

πŸ’‘ You can easily open the config file by typing :config-open within Helix normal mode.

Example config:

theme = "onedark"

[editor]
line-number = "relative"
mouse = false

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

[editor.file-picker]
hidden = false

You can use a custom configuration file by specifying it with the -c or --config command line argument, for example hx -c path/to/custom-config.toml. Additionally, you can reload the configuration file by sending the USR1 signal to the Helix process on Unix operating systems, such as by using the command pkill -USR1 hx.

Editor

[editor] Section

KeyDescriptionDefault
scrolloffNumber of lines of padding around the edge of the screen when scrolling5
mouseEnable mouse modetrue
middle-click-pasteMiddle click paste supporttrue
scroll-linesNumber of lines to scroll per scroll wheel step3
shellShell to use when running external commandsUnix: ["sh", "-c"]
Windows: ["cmd", "/C"]
line-numberLine number display: absolute simply shows each line's number, while relative shows the distance from the current line. When unfocused or in insert mode, relative will still show absolute line numbersabsolute
cursorlineHighlight all lines with a cursorfalse
cursorcolumnHighlight all columns with a cursorfalse
guttersGutters to display: Available are diagnostics and diff and line-numbers and spacer, note that diagnostics also includes other features like breakpoints, 1-width padding will be inserted if gutters is non-empty["diagnostics", "spacer", "line-numbers", "spacer", "diff"]
auto-completionEnable automatic pop up of auto-completiontrue
auto-formatEnable automatic formatting on savetrue
auto-saveEnable automatic saving on the focus moving away from Helix. Requires focus event support from your terminalfalse
idle-timeoutTime in milliseconds since last keypress before idle timers trigger. Used for autocompletion, set to 0 for instant400
completion-trigger-lenThe min-length of word under cursor to trigger autocompletion2
completion-replaceSet to true to make completions always replace the entire word and not just the part before the cursorfalse
auto-infoWhether to display info boxestrue
true-colorSet to true to override automatic detection of terminal truecolor support in the event of a false negativefalse
rulersList of column positions at which to display the rulers. Can be overridden by language specific rulers in languages.toml file[]
bufferlineRenders a line at the top of the editor displaying open buffers. Can be always, never or multiple (only shown if more than one buffer is in use)never
color-modesWhether to color the mode indicator with different colors depending on the mode itselffalse
text-widthMaximum line length. Used for the :reflow command and soft-wrapping if soft-wrap.wrap_at_text_width is set80

[editor.statusline] Section

Allows configuring the statusline at the bottom of the editor.

The configuration distinguishes between three areas of the status line:

[ ... ... LEFT ... ... | ... ... ... ... CENTER ... ... ... ... | ... ... RIGHT ... ... ]

Statusline elements can be defined as follows:

[editor.statusline]
left = ["mode", "spinner"]
center = ["file-name"]
right = ["diagnostics", "selections", "position", "file-encoding", "file-line-ending", "file-type"]
separator = "β”‚"
mode.normal = "NORMAL"
mode.insert = "INSERT"
mode.select = "SELECT"

The [editor.statusline] key takes the following sub-keys:

KeyDescriptionDefault
leftA list of elements aligned to the left of the statusline["mode", "spinner", "file-name"]
centerA list of elements aligned to the middle of the statusline[]
rightA list of elements aligned to the right of the statusline["diagnostics", "selections", "position", "file-encoding"]
separatorThe character used to separate elements in the statusline"β”‚"
mode.normalThe text shown in the mode element for normal mode"NOR"
mode.insertThe text shown in the mode element for insert mode"INS"
mode.selectThe text shown in the mode element for select mode"SEL"

The following statusline elements can be configured:

KeyDescription
modeThe current editor mode (mode.normal/mode.insert/mode.select)
spinnerA progress spinner indicating LSP activity
file-nameThe path/name of the opened file
file-base-nameThe basename of the opened file
file-modification-indicatorThe indicator to show whether the file is modified (a [+] appears when there are unsaved changes)
file-encodingThe encoding of the opened file if it differs from UTF-8
file-line-endingThe file line endings (CRLF or LF)
total-line-numbersThe total line numbers of the opened file
file-typeThe type of the opened file
diagnosticsThe number of warnings and/or errors
workspace-diagnosticsThe number of warnings and/or errors on workspace
selectionsThe number of active selections
primary-selection-lengthThe number of characters currently in primary selection
positionThe cursor position
position-percentageThe cursor position as a percentage of the total number of lines
separatorThe string defined in editor.statusline.separator (defaults to "β”‚")
spacerInserts a space between elements (multiple/contiguous spacers may be specified)
version-controlThe current branch name or detached commit hash of the opened workspace

[editor.lsp] Section

KeyDescriptionDefault
enableEnables LSP integration. Setting to false will completely disable language servers regardless of language settings.true
display-messagesDisplay LSP progress messages below statusline1false
auto-signature-helpEnable automatic popup of signature help (parameter hints)true
display-signature-help-docsDisplay docs under signature help popuptrue
1

By default, a progress spinner is shown in the statusline beside the file path.

[editor.cursor-shape] Section

Defines the shape of cursor in each mode. Valid values for these options are block, bar, underline, or hidden.

πŸ’‘ Due to limitations of the terminal environment, only the primary cursor can change shape.

KeyDescriptionDefault
normalCursor shape in normal modeblock
insertCursor shape in insert modeblock
selectCursor shape in select modeblock

[editor.file-picker] Section

Set options for file picker and global search. Ignoring a file means it is not visible in the Helix file picker and global search.

All git related options are only enabled in a git repository.

KeyDescriptionDefault
hiddenEnables ignoring hidden filestrue
follow-linksFollow symlinks instead of ignoring themtrue
deduplicate-linksIgnore symlinks that point at files already shown in the pickertrue
parentsEnables reading ignore files from parent directoriestrue
ignoreEnables reading .ignore filestrue
git-ignoreEnables reading .gitignore filestrue
git-globalEnables reading global .gitignore, whose path is specified in git's config: core.excludefile optiontrue
git-excludeEnables reading .git/info/exclude filestrue
max-depthSet with an integer value for maximum depth to recurseDefaults to None.

[editor.auto-pairs] Section

Enables automatic insertion of pairs to parentheses, brackets, etc. Can be a simple boolean value, or a specific mapping of pairs of single characters.

To disable auto-pairs altogether, set auto-pairs to false:

[editor]
auto-pairs = false # defaults to `true`

The default pairs are (){}[]''""``, but these can be customized by setting auto-pairs to a TOML table:

[editor.auto-pairs]
'(' = ')'
'{' = '}'
'[' = ']'
'"' = '"'
'`' = '`'
'<' = '>'

Additionally, this setting can be used in a language config. Unless the editor setting is false, this will override the editor config in documents with this language.

Example languages.toml that adds <> and removes ''

[[language]]
name = "rust"

[language.auto-pairs]
'(' = ')'
'{' = '}'
'[' = ']'
'"' = '"'
'`' = '`'
'<' = '>'

[editor.search] Section

Search specific options.

KeyDescriptionDefault
smart-caseEnable smart case regex searching (case-insensitive unless pattern contains upper case characters)true
wrap-aroundWhether the search should wrap after depleting the matchestrue

[editor.whitespace] Section

Options for rendering whitespace with visible characters. Use :set whitespace.render all to temporarily enable visible whitespace.

KeyDescriptionDefault
renderWhether to render whitespace. May either be "all" or "none", or a table with sub-keys space, nbsp, tab, and newline"none"
charactersLiteral characters to use when rendering whitespace. Sub-keys may be any of tab, space, nbsp, newline or tabpadSee example below

Example

[editor.whitespace]
render = "all"
# or control each character
[editor.whitespace.render]
space = "all"
tab = "all"
newline = "none"

[editor.whitespace.characters]
space = "Β·"
nbsp = "⍽"
tab = "β†’"
newline = "⏎"
tabpad = "Β·" # Tabs will look like "β†’Β·Β·Β·" (depending on tab width)

[editor.indent-guides] Section

Options for rendering vertical indent guides.

KeyDescriptionDefault
renderWhether to render indent guidesfalse
characterLiteral character to use for rendering the indent guideβ”‚
skip-levelsNumber of indent levels to skip0

Example:

[editor.indent-guides]
render = true
character = "β•Ž" # Some characters that work well: "▏", "┆", "β”Š", "βΈ½"
skip-levels = 1

[editor.gutters] Section

For simplicity, editor.gutters accepts an array of gutter types, which will use default settings for all gutter components.

[editor]
gutters = ["diff", "diagnostics", "line-numbers", "spacer"]

To customize the behavior of gutters, the [editor.gutters] section must be used. This section contains top level settings, as well as settings for specific gutter components as subsections.

KeyDescriptionDefault
layoutA vector of gutters to display["diagnostics", "spacer", "line-numbers", "spacer", "diff"]

Example:

[editor.gutters]
layout = ["diff", "diagnostics", "line-numbers", "spacer"]

[editor.gutters.line-numbers] Section

Options for the line number gutter

KeyDescriptionDefault
min-widthThe minimum number of characters to use3

Example:

[editor.gutters.line-numbers]
min-width = 1

[editor.gutters.diagnotics] Section

Currently unused

[editor.gutters.diff] Section

Currently unused

[editor.gutters.spacer] Section

Currently unused

[editor.soft-wrap] Section

Options for soft wrapping lines that exceed the view width:

KeyDescriptionDefault
enableWhether soft wrapping is enabled.false
max-wrapMaximum free space left at the end of the line.20
max-indent-retainMaximum indentation to carry over when soft wrapping a line.40
wrap-indicatorText inserted before soft wrapped lines, highlighted with ui.virtual.wrapβ†ͺ
wrap-at-text-widthSoft wrap at text-width instead of using the full viewport size.false

Example:

[editor.soft-wrap]
enable = true
max-wrap = 25 # increase value to reduce forced mid-word wrapping
max-indent-retain = 0
wrap-indicator = ""  # set wrap-indicator to "" to hide it