zed/crates/vim
Jason Williams ae0f4462ae
Improve helix keymap (#59638)
# Objective

The objective is to improve Helix's default keymap within Zed as a few
are still missing.
These are all [default
keymaps](https://docs.helix-editor.com/keymap.html) i was using within
Helix but dissapointed they weren't working in Zed
There's more info in [Are we Helix
yet?](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/discussions/33580#top)

## Solution

- Add `] g` and `[ g` for hunk navigation in helix mode, in helix this
is go to next/previous change which maps nicely to Zed's go to
next/previous hunk. (it was set to `c` here but this is incorrect and
doesn't match Helix's keymap.
- Add `alt-b` and `alt-e` for larger syntax node navigation in helix
mode, i use this a few times to go to the top of a function within the
body and Zed doesn't have it mapped.
- Add `] space` and `[ space` for inserting empty lines in helix mode.
This one was incorrectly implemented previously, after the `space` Zed
is waiting for input. It needs to be a direct chord added rather than on
`helix_next` mode.
- This means the space binding from the helix_next operator context is
redundant, so ive removed it
- Add `*` to use selection for find in helix mode. Helix mode is
slightly different and doesn't "go to next" on `*`, instead that becomes
the `/` register. This is pretty fundamental to helix navigation so
should be ported to Zed also.
- Move `] d` and `[ d` diagnostics navigation into helix_normal context.
Vim was already using this one but it wasn't shared with Helix. I've
moved it to the shared Vim and Helix block.


## Testing

I've tested these changes with a local build and each one works as
expected


## Self-Review Checklist:

- [x] I've reviewed my own diff for quality, security, and reliability
- [x] Unsafe blocks (if any) have justifying comments
- [x] The content adheres to Zed's UI standards
([UX/UI](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#uiux-checklist)
and
[icon](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/crates/icons/README.md)
guidelines)
- [x] Tests cover the new/changed behavior
- [x] Performance impact has been considered and is acceptable

Release Notes:

- Added `alt-b`/`alt-e` in Helix mode to move to the start/end of the
larger syntax node.
- Added `*` in Helix mode to set the current selection for search.
- Fixed Helix `[`/`]` navigation so `c` goes to the previous/next
comment and `g` to the previous/next hunk, and single-key follow-ups
like `g` no longer hang.

---------

Co-authored-by: dino <dinojoaocosta@gmail.com>
2026-06-30 09:51:07 +00:00
..
src Improve helix keymap (#59638) 2026-06-30 09:51:07 +00:00
test_data vim: Fix cw with count greater than 1 not preserving whitespace correctly (#56585) 2026-06-18 14:50:31 +00:00
Cargo.toml theme: Split out theme_settings crate (#52569) 2026-03-27 14:41:25 +01:00
LICENSE-GPL
README.md

This contains the code for Zed's Vim emulation mode.

Vim mode in Zed is supposed to primarily "do what you expect": it mostly tries to copy vim exactly, but will use Zed-specific functionality when available to make things smoother. This means Zed will never be 100% vim compatible, but should be 100% vim familiar!

The backlog is maintained in the #vim channel notes.

Testing against Neovim

If you are making a change to make Zed's behavior more closely match vim/nvim, you can create a test using the NeovimBackedTestContext.

For example, the following test checks that Zed and Neovim have the same behavior when running * in visual mode:

#[gpui::test]
async fn test_visual_star_hash(cx: &mut gpui::TestAppContext) {
    let mut cx = NeovimBackedTestContext::new(cx).await;

    cx.set_shared_state("ˇa.c. abcd a.c. abcd").await;
    cx.simulate_shared_keystrokes(["v", "3", "l", "*"]).await;
    cx.assert_shared_state("a.c. abcd ˇa.c. abcd").await;
}

To keep CI runs fast, by default the neovim tests use a cached JSON file that records what neovim did (see crates/vim/test_data), but while developing this test you'll need to run it with the neovim flag enabled:

cargo test -p vim --features neovim test_visual_star_hash

This will run your keystrokes against a headless neovim and cache the results in the test_data directory. Note that neovim must be installed and reachable on your $PATH in order to run the feature.

Testing zed-only behavior

Zed does more than vim/neovim in their default modes. The VimTestContext can be used instead. This lets you test integration with the language server and other parts of zed's UI that don't have a NeoVim equivalent.