helix-mirror/book/src/remapping.md

Key remapping

Helix currently supports one-way key remapping through a simple TOML configuration file. (More powerful solutions such as rebinding via commands will be available in the future).

To remap keys, create a config.toml file in your helix configuration directory (default ~/.config/helix on Linux systems) with a structure like this:

# At most one section each of 'keys.normal', 'keys.insert' and 'keys.select'
[keys.normal]
C-s = ":w" # Maps Ctrl-s to the typable command :w which is an alias for :write (save file)
C-o = ":open ~/.config/helix/config.toml" # Maps Ctrl-o to opening of the helix config file
a = "move_char_left" # Maps the 'a' key to the move_char_left command
w = "move_line_up" # Maps the 'w' key move_line_up
"C-S-esc" = "extend_line" # Maps Ctrl-Shift-Escape to extend_line
g = { a = "code_action" } # Maps `ga` to show possible code actions
"ret" = ["open_below", "normal_mode"] # Maps the enter key to open_below then re-enter normal mode

[keys.insert]
"A-x" = "normal_mode"     # Maps Alt-X to enter normal mode
j = { k = "normal_mode" } # Maps `jk` to exit insert mode

Minor modes

Minor modes are accessed by pressing a key (usually from normal mode), giving access to dedicated bindings. Bindings can be modified or added by nesting definitions.

[keys.insert.j]
k = "normal_mode" # Maps `jk` to exit insert mode

[keys.normal.g]
a = "code_action" # Maps `ga` to show possible code actions

# invert `j` and `k` in view mode
[keys.normal.z]
j = "scroll_up"
k = "scroll_down"

# create a new minor mode bound to `+`
[keys.normal."+"]
m = ":run-shell-command make"
c = ":run-shell-command cargo build"
t = ":run-shell-command cargo test"

Special keys and modifiers

Ctrl, Shift and Alt modifiers are encoded respectively with the prefixes C-, S- and A-. Special keys are encoded as follows:

Key name	Representation
Backspace	"backspace"
Space	"space"
Return/Enter	"ret"
-	"minus"
Left	"left"
Right	"right"
Up	"up"
Down	"down"
Home	"home"
End	"end"
Page Up	"pageup"
Page Down	"pagedown"
Tab	"tab"
Delete	"del"
Insert	"ins"
Null	"null"
Escape	"esc"

Keys can be disabled by binding them to the no_op command.

A list of commands is available in the Keymap documentation and in the source code at helix-term/src/commands.rs at the invocation of static_commands! macro and the TypableCommandList.