helix/book/src/textobjects.md

Selecting and manipulating text with textobjects

In Helix, textobjects are a way to select, manipulate and operate on a piece of text in a structured way. They allow you to refer to blocks of text based on their structure or purpose, such as a word, sentence, paragraph, or even a function or block of code.

• ma - Select around the object (va in Vim, <alt-a> in Kakoune)
• mi - Select inside the object (vi in Vim, <alt-i> in Kakoune)

Key after mi or ma	Textobject selected
w	Word
W	WORD
p	Paragraph
(, [, ', etc.	Specified surround pairs
m	The closest surround pair
f	Function
t	Type (or Class)
a	Argument/parameter
c	Comment
T	Test
g	Change

💡 f, t, etc. need a tree-sitter grammar active for the current document and a special tree-sitter query file to work properly. Only some grammars currently have the query file implemented. Contributions are welcome!

Navigating using tree-sitter textobjects

Navigating between functions, classes, parameters, and other elements is possible using tree-sitter and textobject queries. For example to move to the next function use ]f, to move to previous type use [t, and so on.

For the full reference see the unimpaired section of the key bind documentation.

💡 This feature relies on tree-sitter textobjects and requires the corresponding query file to work properly.