FAQ

Table of Contents

• How to…​
  • Collapse to single cursor after using multiple cursors / Keep only primary cursor
  • Change cursor shape on mode change (bar cursor on insert mode, block on normal mode, etc)
  • Map jk or jj to exit insert mode
  • Use my terminal’s 16 color palette as a theme
  • Perform find-and-replace
  • Strip whitespace or format the buffer
  • Access the Helix config directory
  • Access the log file
  • Adding a language
  • Changing grammars at project level
• General Questions
  • How to write plugins / Is there a plugin system in place yet ?
  • When will the next release be?
• Installation
  • Error when building tree-sitter language grammars in Fedora
• Common Issues
  • Alt-* key combinations do not work on MacOS iTerm2

How to…​

Collapse to single cursor after using multiple cursors / Keep only primary cursor

• Use the default keybind , bound to the keep_primary_selection command.

Change cursor shape on mode change (bar cursor on insert mode, block on normal mode, etc)

• Add this to your config.toml:

  [editor.cursor-shape]
  insert = "bar"
  normal = "block"
  select = "underline"

Map jk or jj to exit insert mode

• Add this to your config.toml:

  [keys.insert]
  j = { k = "normal_mode" }

Use my terminal’s 16 color palette as a theme

• You can use color names like red, light-blue, etc to refer to the terminal’s colors in a theme file; refer the theme color palette documentation.

Perform find-and-replace

• Type % to select the entire file, then s to bring up a select: prompt. Enter your search, and press enter. All matches in the file will be selected; you can now use c to change them all simultaneously.

To make search fully case sensitive add the following to config.toml:

[editor.search]
smart-case = false

Note: If you use LSP autocomplete, only the first match will be auto-completed. If you want to auto-complete all matches, you currently have to use this workaround.

Strip whitespace or format the buffer

If the LSP for the language is active and supports autoformat, and the auto-format option is on (check your and the repo’s languages.toml), then this will happen on save. If there is an alternative command you can run in the terminal to format, you can pipe the whole buffer to it manually with %|<formatter><enter>.

Access the Helix config directory

You can use :config-open to open the config in Helix.

Platform	Location
Mac OS/Linux	~/.config/helix
Windows	C:\Users\____\AppData\Roaming\helix

Access the log file

Enable logging via the -v flag, with each use (up to -vvv) increasing the verbosity.

You can use :log-open to open the log in Helix.

Platform	Location
Mac OS/Linux	~/.cache/helix/helix.log
Windows	C:\Users\____\AppData\Local\helix\helix.log

Adding a language

Check https://docs.helix-editor.com/guides/adding_languages.html

Changing grammars at project level

You can specify custom grammars per-project/per-directory by placing the languages.toml in .helix/languages.toml at the root of your project.

General Questions

How to write plugins / Is there a plugin system in place yet ?

• It’s currently under discussion, with the general plan of using WebAssembly to provide plugin support. Some links regarding ongoing discussions:

  • Initial discussion

  • Pre-RFC discussion

  • Plugin system MVP

When will the next release be?

We shoot to cut a release around every two months. The version is in CalVer format, so if the current latest release is 22.05, the next should be 22.07 (July, 2022).

Installation

Error when building tree-sitter language grammars in Fedora

Ensure that you have a C compiler installed:

sudo dnf group install "C Development Tools and Libraries"

Common Issues

Alt-* key combinations do not work on MacOS iTerm2

Ensure that you have mapped the Option key to ESC+ in the iTerm2 preferences via Preferences > Profiles > Keys

Previous issues: https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/issues/773, https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/issues/1223, https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/issues/1915.