Helix, A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust (update)

By starting from scratch we were able to learn from our experience with Vim and make some breaking changes. The result is a much smaller codebase and a modern set of defaults. It’s easier to get started if you’ve never used a modal editor before, and there’s much less fiddling with config files.

https://helix-editor.com
https://docs.helix-editor.com

2023 ↓

The logic is select > action Everything is a selection, jumping word by word with w, also selects the word.

tutor ↓

:tutor

Change working directory and open file picker ↓

:cd ~/somedir
SPACE, F

Open command palette ↓

SPACE, ?

Buffer picker ↓

SPACE, b

Delete line ↓

xd

Delete 3 lines ↓

Either

xxxd

or

3xd    

Move line down/up one ↓

Xdp
Xdkp

There is go menu ↓

g

There is no soft-wrap ↓

:(

EDIT: 22. jun 2023: We have a softwrap now:
https://helix-editor.com/news/release-23-03-highlights/

Fresh build in Debian 12:

config.toml ↓

.config/helix/config.toml

theme = "rose_pine_moon"
[editor]
true-color = true

^ with urxvt in mind.

2025 ↓

Install ↓

There should be amd64.deb here https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/releases

There is softwrap now ↓

Example .config/helix/config.toml (helix 25.07.1 (a05c151b))

theme = "catppuccin_macchiato"
[editor]
true-color = true

[editor.soft-wrap]
enable = true

A slightly more complete config:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/brontosaurusrex/bucentaur/refs/heads/master/.config/helix/config.toml

keyboard shortcuts / keymap ↓

https://docs.helix-editor.com/keymap.html

copy (yank) / paste ↓

y, p

copy (yank) / paste to system clipboard ↓

SPACE + y, SPACE + p

Goto line 300 ↓

:300

Multiple cursors ↓

C and ; to delete last one