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

Hint: 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

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`
`gutters`	Gutters to display: Available are `diagnostics` and `line-numbers`, note that `diagnostics` also includes other features like breakpoints	`["diagnostics", "line-numbers"]`
`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.lsp]` Section

Key	Description	Default
`display-messages`	Display LSP progress messages below statusline¹	`false`

A progress spinner is always shown in the statusline beside the file path.

`[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. Valid values for these options are block, bar, underline, or none.

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]
'(' = ')'
'{' = '}'
'[' = ']'
'"' = '"'
'`' = '`'
'<' = '>'

`[editor.search]` Section

Search specific options.

Key	Description	Default
`smart-case`	Enable smart case regex searching (case insensitive unless pattern contains upper case characters)	`true`
`wrap-around`	Whether the search should wrap after depleting the matches	`true`