Key remapping
+Helix currently supports one-way key remapping through a simple TOML configuration +file. (More powerful solutions such as rebinding via commands will be +available in the future).
+To remap keys, create a config.toml
file in your helix
configuration
+directory (default ~/.config/helix
on Linux systems) with a structure like
+this:
# At most one section each of 'keys.normal', 'keys.insert' and 'keys.select'
+[keys.normal]
+C-s = ":w" # Maps Ctrl-s to the typable command :w which is an alias for :write (save file)
+C-o = ":open ~/.config/helix/config.toml" # Maps Ctrl-o to opening of the helix config file
+a = "move_char_left" # Maps the 'a' key to the move_char_left command
+w = "move_line_up" # Maps the 'w' key move_line_up
+"C-S-esc" = "extend_line" # Maps Ctrl-Shift-Escape to extend_line
+g = { a = "code_action" } # Maps `ga` to show possible code actions
+"ret" = ["open_below", "normal_mode"] # Maps the enter key to open_below then re-enter normal mode
+
+[keys.insert]
+"A-x" = "normal_mode" # Maps Alt-X to enter normal mode
+j = { k = "normal_mode" } # Maps `jk` to exit insert mode
+
+Minor modes
+Minor modes are accessed by pressing a key (usually from normal mode), giving access to dedicated bindings. Bindings +can be modified or added by nesting definitions.
+[keys.insert.j]
+k = "normal_mode" # Maps `jk` to exit insert mode
+
+[keys.normal.g]
+a = "code_action" # Maps `ga` to show possible code actions
+
+# invert `j` and `k` in view mode
+[keys.normal.z]
+j = "scroll_up"
+k = "scroll_down"
+
+# create a new minor mode bound to `+`
+[keys.normal."+"]
+m = ":run-shell-command make"
+c = ":run-shell-command cargo build"
+t = ":run-shell-command cargo test"
+
+Special keys and modifiers
+Ctrl, Shift and Alt modifiers are encoded respectively with the prefixes
+C-
, S-
and A-
. Special keys are encoded as follows:
Key name | Representation |
---|---|
Backspace | "backspace" |
Space | "space" |
Return/Enter | "ret" |
- | "minus" |
Left | "left" |
Right | "right" |
Up | "up" |
Down | "down" |
Home | "home" |
End | "end" |
Page Up | "pageup" |
Page Down | "pagedown" |
Tab | "tab" |
Delete | "del" |
Insert | "ins" |
Null | "null" |
Escape | "esc" |
Keys can be disabled by binding them to the no_op
command.
To remove all default bindings, unbind-default-keys = true
can be added to the top level configuration.
unbind-default-keys = true
+
+# Only these normal mode bindings will be used
+[keys.normal]
+n = "normal_mode"
+t = "goto_definition"
+
+# remember to add bindings to return to normal mode
+[keys.select]
+esc = "normal_mode"
+
+[keys.insert]
+esc = "normal_mode"
+
+A list of commands is available in the Keymap documentation
+and in the source code at helix-term/src/commands.rs
at the invocation of static_commands!
macro and the TypableCommandList
.