Installation
We provide pre-built binaries on the GitHub Releases page.
OSX
TODO: brew tap
$ brew tap helix-editor/helix
$ brew install helix
Linux
NixOS
A flake containing the package is available in the project root. The flake can also be used to spin up a reproducible development shell for working on Helix.
Arch Linux
A binary package is available on AUR as helix-bin.
Build from source
git clone --recurse-submodules --shallow-submodules -j8 https://github.com/helix-editor/helix
cd helix
cargo install --path helix-term
This will install the hx
binary to $HOME/.cargo/bin
.
Now copy the runtime/
directory somewhere. Helix will by default look for the
runtime inside the same folder as the executable, but that can be overriden via
the HELIX_RUNTIME
environment variable.
Usage
Configuration
Keymap
Normal mode
Movement
Key | Description |
---|---|
h | move left |
j | move down |
k | move up |
l | move right |
w | move next word start |
b | move previous word start |
e | move next word end |
t | find 'till next char |
f | find next char |
T | find 'till previous char |
F | find previous char |
^ | move to the start of the line |
$ | move to the end of the line |
m | Jump to matching bracket |
PageUp | Move page up |
PageDown | Move page down |
ctrl-u | Move half page up |
ctrl-d | Move half page down |
Tab | Switch to next view |
ctrl-i | Jump forward on the jumplist TODO: conflicts tab |
ctrl-o | Jump backward on the jumplist |
v | Enter select (extend) mode |
g | Enter goto mode |
: | Enter command mode |
z | Enter view mode |
space | Enter space mode |
K | Show documentation for the item under the cursor |
Changes
Key | Description |
---|---|
r | replace (single character change) |
i | Insert before selection |
a | Insert after selection (append) |
I | Insert at the start of the line |
A | Insert at the end of the line |
o | Open new line below selection |
o | Open new line above selection |
u | Undo change |
U | Redo change |
y | Yank selection |
p | Paste after selection |
P | Paste before selection |
> | Indent selection |
< | Unindent selection |
= | Format selection |
d | Delete selection |
c | Change selection (delete and enter insert mode) |
Selection manipulation
Key | Description |
---|---|
s | Select all regex matches inside selections |
S | Split selection into subselections on regex matches |
alt-s | Split selection on newlines |
; | Collapse selection onto a single cursor |
alt-; | Flip selection cursor and anchor |
% | Select entire file |
x | Select current line |
X | Extend to next line |
[ | Expand selection to parent syntax node TODO: pick a key |
J | join lines inside selection |
K | keep selections matching the regex TODO: overlapped by hover help |
space | keep only the primary selection TODO: overlapped by space mode |
ctrl-c | Comment/uncomment the selections |
Search
TODO: The search implementation isn't ideal yet -- we don't support searching in reverse, or searching via smartcase.
Key | Description |
---|---|
/ | Search for regex pattern |
n | Select next search match |
N | Add next search match to selection |
* | Use current selection as the search pattern |
Select / extend mode
I'm still pondering whether to keep this mode or not. It changes movement commands to extend the existing selection instead of replacing it.
NOTE: It's a bit confusing at the moment because extend hasn't been implemented for all movement commands yet.
View mode
View mode is intended for scrolling and manipulating the view without changing the selection.
Key | Description |
---|---|
z , c | Vertically center the line |
t | Align the line to the top of the screen |
b | Align the line to the bottom of the screen |
m | Align the line to the middle of the screen (horizontally) |
j | Scroll the view downwards |
k | Scroll the view upwards |
Goto mode
Jumps to various locations.
NOTE: Some of these features are only available with the LSP present.
Key | Description |
---|---|
g | Go to the start of the file |
e | Go to the end of the file |
d | Go to definition |
t | Go to type definition |
r | Go to references |
i | Go to implementation |
Object mode
TODO: Mappings for selecting syntax nodes (a superset of [
).
Space mode
This layer is a kludge of mappings I had under leader key in neovim.
Key | Description |
---|---|
f | Open file picker |
b | Open buffer picker |
v | Open a new vertical split into the current file |
w | Save changes to file |
c | Close the current split |
space | Keep primary selection TODO: it's here because space mode replaced it |