Migrating from Vim

Helix's editing model is strongly inspired from Vim and Kakoune, and a notable difference from Vim (and the most striking similarity to Kakoune) is that Helix follows the selection → action model. This means that whatever you are going to act on (a word, a paragraph, a line, etc.) is selected first and the action itself (delete, change, yank, etc.) comes second. A cursor is simply a single width selection.

Note: As Helix is inspired by Vim and Kakoune, the keybindings are similar but also have some differences. The content of this page is inspired by Kakoune Wiki.

NOTE: Unlike vim, f, F, t and T are not confined to the current line.

Delete/Change Commands

delete a word:

  • vim: dw
  • helix: wd

change a word:

  • vim: cw
  • helix: ec or wc (includes the whitespace after the word)

delete a character:

  • vim: x
  • helix: d or ;d (; reduces the selection to a single char)

copy a line:

  • vim: yy
  • helix: Xy (X extends all selections to whole lines)

global replace:

  • vim: :%s/word/replacement/g<ret>
  • helix: %sword<ret>creplacement<esc>

Explanation: % selects the entire buffer, s opens a prompt for a regex, <ret> validates the regex and reduces the selection to each match (hence, all occurrences of word are selected). c deletes the selection contents and enter insert mode, replacement is typed and then <esc> goes back to normal mode.

go to first line:

  • vim: gg
  • helix: gg

go to last line:

  • vim: G
  • helix: ge

go to line start:

  • vim: 0
  • helix: gh

go to line first non-blank character:

  • vim: ^
  • helix: gs

go to line end:

  • vim: $
  • helix: gl

jump to matching bracket:

  • vim: %
  • helix: mm

Line Deletes

delete to line end:

  • vim: D
  • helix: vgld or t<ret>d

Note: v is used along with gl (go to line end), because gl does not select text. t<ret> selects "'til" the newline represented by <ret>.

delete entire line:

  • vim: dd
  • helix: xd

Note: x selects the entire line under the cursor

auto complete:

  • vim: C-p
  • helix: C-x

comment lines:

  • vim: gc
  • helix: Space-c

search for the word under the cursor:

  • vim: *
  • helix: A-o*n (if there's a tree-sitter grammar or LSP) or be*n

Explanation: if there's a grammar or LSP, A-o expands selection to the parent syntax node (which would be the word in our case). Then * uses the current selection as the search pattern, and n goes to the next occurrence. b selects to the beginning of the word, and e selects to the end of the word, effectively selecting the whole word.

block selection:

  • vim: C-v, then expand your selection vertically and horizontally
  • helix: There's no "block selection" mode, so instead you'd use multiple cursors. Expand your block selection vertically by adding new cursors on the line below with C, and horizontally using standard movements

search "foo" and replace with "bar" in the current selection:

  • vim: :s/foo/bar/g<ret>
  • helix: sfoo<ret>cbar<esc>,

Explanation: s will open a prompt in the command line for a regex, and select all matches inside the selection (effectively adding a new cursor on each match). Pressing enter will then finalise this step, and allow the c to change the selections to "bar". When done, go back to normal mode with <esc>, and keep only the primary selection with , (remove all the additional cursors).

File actions

select the whole file:

  • vim: ggVG
  • helix: %

reload a file from disk:

  • vim: :e<ret>
  • helix: :reload<ret> (or :reload-all<ret> to reload all the buffers)

run shell command:

  • vim: :!command
  • helix: :sh command (or !command to insert its output into the buffer)

setting a bookmark (bookmarking a location):

  • vim: ma to set bookmark with name a. Use `a to go back to this bookmarked location.
  • helix: there are no named bookmarks, but you can save a location in the jumplist with C-s, then jump back to that location by opening the jumplist picker with <space>-j, or back in the jumplist with C-o and forward with C-i

Helix allows some limited movement in insert mode without switching to normal mode.

Unlike Vim, under Helix, the cursor shape is the same (block) in insert mode and normal mode by default. This can be adjusted in configuration:

[editor.cursor-shape]
insert = "bar"

TODO: Mention textobjects, surround, registers