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
Example config:
theme = "onedark"
[editor]
line-number = "relative"
mouse = false
[editor.cursor-shape]
insert = "bar"
normal = "block"
select = "underline"
[editor.file-picker]
hidden = false
Editor
[editor] Section
| Key | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
scrolloff | Number of lines of padding around the edge of the screen when scrolling. | 3 |
mouse | Enable mouse mode. | true |
middle-click-paste | Middle click paste support. | true |
scroll-lines | Number of lines to scroll per scroll wheel step. | 3 |
shell | Shell to use when running external commands. | Unix: ["sh", "-c"]Windows: ["cmd", "/C"] |
line-number | Line 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 numbers. | absolute |
smart-case | Enable smart case regex searching (case insensitive unless pattern contains upper case characters) | true |
auto-completion | Enable automatic pop up of auto-completion. | true |
idle-timeout | Time in milliseconds since last keypress before idle timers trigger. Used for autocompletion, set to 0 for instant. | 400 |
completion-trigger-len | The min-length of word under cursor to trigger autocompletion | 2 |
auto-info | Whether to display infoboxes | true |
true-color | Set to true to override automatic detection of terminal truecolor support in the event of a false negative. | false |
[editor.cursor-shape] Section
Defines the shape of cursor in each mode. Note that due to limitations of the terminal environment, only the primary cursor can change shape.
| Key | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
normal | Cursor shape in normal mode | block |
insert | Cursor shape in insert mode | block |
select | Cursor shape in select mode | block |
[editor.file-picker] Section
Sets options for file picker and global search. All but the last key listed in
the default file-picker configuration below are IgnoreOptions: whether hidden
files and files listed within ignore files are ignored by (not visible in) the
helix file picker and global search. There is also one other key, max-depth
available, which is not defined by default.
| Key | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
hidden | Enables ignoring hidden files. | true |
parents | Enables reading ignore files from parent directories. | true |
ignore | Enables reading .ignore files. | true |
git-ignore | Enables reading .gitignore files. | true |
git-global | Enables reading global .gitignore, whose path is specified in git's config: core.excludefile option. | true |
git-exclude | Enables reading .git/info/exclude files. | true |
max-depth | Set with an integer value for maximum depth to recurse. | Defaults to None. |
[editor.auto-pairs] Section
Enable automatic insertion of pairs to parentheses, brackets, etc. Can be a simple boolean value, or a specific mapping of pairs of single characters.
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
false | Completely disable auto pairing, regardless of language-specific settings |
true | Use the default pairs: (){}[]''""`` |
| Mapping of pairs | e.g. { "(" = ")", "{" = "}", ... } |
Example
[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]
'(' = ')'
'{' = '}'
'[' = ']'
'"' = '"'
'`' = '`'
'<' = '>'
LSP
To display all language server messages in the status line add the following to your config.toml:
[lsp]
display-messages = true