Custom Features Added

Feature Summary

Feature	Description	Default Keybindings	Configuration
Toggle Diagnostics	Hide/show diagnostics in editor view	:toggle show-diagnostics	show-diagnostics = true
Picker Preview Scrolling	Scroll file previews in pickers	Alt+Up/Alt+Down, Ctrl+y/Ctrl+e, or mouse scroll	picker_preview_scroll = true
Quickfix List	Vim-like quickfix for navigating locations	Space x x (open), ]q/[q (next/prev)	[editor.quickfix] section
Send to Quickfix	Send picker results to quickfix list	Alt+q in any picker	[picker_keys] section
Hover Documentation Split	Open docs in a split instead of popup	Space h s (hsplit), Space h v (vsplit)	N/A
Symbol Tree	LSP symbol outline in a side panel	Space l o (vsplit), Space l O (hsplit)	N/A
Breadcrumbs	Show symbol hierarchy at cursor	Space l b	N/A
Lazygit Integration	Open lazygit with full terminal control	Space l g	lazygit = "lazygit"
Customizable Picker Keys	Fully customizable picker keybindings	See table below	[picker_keys] section
Ctrl+Click Goto Reference	Ctrl+Left click to jump to references	Ctrl+Left Click	N/A
Ctrl+Hover Underline	Underline clickable symbols when Ctrl is held	Ctrl+Hover	Requires LSP with goto_reference

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Toggle Diagnostics

Hide or show diagnostics in the editor view. When disabled, diagnostic highlights, inline diagnostics, and end-of-line diagnostics are all hidden. Diagnostics remain accessible via pickers (Space d for buffer diagnostics, Space D for workspace diagnostics).

Toggle via command:

:toggle show-diagnostics

Configuration:

[editor]
# Whether to show diagnostics in the editor view (default: true)
show-diagnostics = false

Custom keybinding example:

[keys.normal.space]
D = ":toggle show-diagnostics"

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Ctrl+Click Goto Reference

IDE-style Ctrl+Click to jump to references, similar to VS Code behavior.

Action	Description
Ctrl+Left Click	Move cursor to clicked position and open goto_reference picker
Ctrl+Hover	Underline the word under cursor (only if LSP supports goto_reference)

How it works:

• When you hold Ctrl and hover over a symbol, the word is underlined (using your theme's markup.link.url style) to indicate it's clickable
• The underline only appears if the document's language server supports goto_reference
• Clicking while holding Ctrl moves the cursor to that position and triggers the references picker

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Quickfix List

A vim-like quickfix list for storing and navigating file locations (e.g., search results, diagnostics).

Keybinding	Action	Description
Space x x	quickfix_picker	Open quickfix list picker
Space x s	quickfix_picker_hsplit	Open quickfix in horizontal split
Space x v	quickfix_picker_vsplit	Open quickfix in vertical split
]q	quickfix_next	Jump to next quickfix item
[q	quickfix_prev	Jump to previous quickfix item
]Q	quickfix_last	Jump to last quickfix item
[Q	quickfix_first	Jump to first quickfix item
Space x c	quickfix_clear	Clear quickfix list
Space x .	quickfix_first	Jump to first item
Space x ,	quickfix_last	Jump to last item
Enter	quickfix_jump_to_location	Jump to location (in quickfix buffer)

Sending to Quickfix: In any picker, press Alt+q to send all filtered results to the quickfix list.

Configuration:

[editor.quickfix]
# Whether to show line numbers in the quickfix buffer (default: false)
show-line-numbers = true

Features:

• When opening the quickfix buffer, the cursor automatically starts at the first item
• Line numbers column can be hidden via configuration for a cleaner look

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Hover Documentation Split

Open LSP hover documentation in a split window instead of a popup.

Keybinding	Action	Description
Space h s	hover_hsplit	Open documentation in horizontal split
Space h v	hover_vsplit	Open documentation in vertical split
Space h h	select_references_to_symbol_under_cursor	Select all references to symbol

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Symbol Tree & Breadcrumbs

Navigate code structure using LSP document symbols.

Keybinding	Action	Description
Space l o	symbol_tree	Open symbol tree in vertical split
Space l O	symbol_tree_hsplit	Open symbol tree in horizontal split
Space l B	breadcrumbs	Show breadcrumbs (symbol hierarchy) picker

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Picker Keybindings

Customize picker keybindings in your config.toml:

[picker_keys]
# Navigation
up = "move_prev"
down = "move_next"
"C-p" = "move_prev"
"C-n" = "move_next"
"C-u" = "page_up"
"C-d" = "page_down"
home = "move_to_start"
end = "move_to_end"

# Preview scrolling
"A-up" = "scroll_preview_up"
"A-down" = "scroll_preview_down"
"C-y" = "scroll_preview_up"
"C-e" = "scroll_preview_down"

# Actions
"C-t" = "toggle_preview"
esc = "close"
"C-c" = "close"
ret = "select"
"A-ret" = "select_alternate"
"C-s" = "select_horizontal_split"
"C-v" = "select_vertical_split"
"A-q" = "send_to_quickfix"

Available Picker Actions

Action	Description
move_prev	Move to previous entry
move_next	Move to next entry
page_up	Move one page up
page_down	Move one page down
move_to_start	Move to first entry
move_to_end	Move to last entry
scroll_preview_up	Scroll preview panel up
scroll_preview_down	Scroll preview panel down
toggle_preview	Toggle preview visibility
close	Close the picker
select	Select current entry
select_alternate	Select with alternate action
select_horizontal_split	Open in horizontal split
select_vertical_split	Open in vertical split
send_to_quickfix	Send filtered items to quickfix list

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Lazygit Integration

Open lazygit directly from helix with full terminal control. All lazygit keybindings work natively.

Keybinding	Action	Description
Space l g	lazygit	Open lazygit

Configuration:

[editor]
# Command to use for lazygit (default: "lazygit")
# Can be a full path or alternate command
lazygit = "lazygit"

When lazygit opens, helix gives up terminal control completely. All lazygit keybindings work as expected. When you exit lazygit (q), helix reclaims the terminal and restores its display.

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Editor Configuration

Add to [editor] section in config.toml:

[editor]
# Enable mouse scrolling in picker preview panels (default: true)
picker_preview_scroll = true

# Show/hide diagnostics in editor view (default: true)
# When false, diagnostics are still available via pickers (Space d, Space D)
show-diagnostics = true

A Kakoune / Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust.

The editing model is very heavily based on Kakoune; during development I found myself agreeing with most of Kakoune's design decisions.

For more information, see the website or documentation.

All shortcuts/keymaps can be found in the documentation on the website.

Troubleshooting

Features

• Vim-like modal editing
• Multiple selections
• Built-in language server support
• Smart, incremental syntax highlighting and code editing via tree-sitter

Although it's primarily a terminal-based editor, I am interested in exploring a custom renderer (similar to Emacs) using wgpu.

Note: Only certain languages have indentation definitions at the moment. Check runtime/queries/<lang>/ for indents.scm.

Installation

Installation documentation.

Contributing

Contributing guidelines can be found here.

Getting help

Your question might already be answered on the FAQ.

Discuss the project on the community Matrix Space (make sure to join #helix-editor:matrix.org if you're on a client that doesn't support Matrix Spaces yet).

Credits

Thanks to @jakenvac for designing the logo!