Helix

A post-modern modal text editor with built-in LSP support, multiple selections, and a tree-sitter powered syntax engine — no plugin system required.

tui editor

v24.03

⎔ Repository 📦 crates.io 🌐 Website

Helix is a modal text editor in the spirit of Vim and Kakoune, but with a modern foundation. Unlike Neovim or Vim, it ships with everything you need out of the box: LSP support, tree-sitter syntax highlighting and text objects, multiple cursors, and a fuzzy file picker — no plugin manager, no vimrc sprawl.

Its key innovation compared to Vim is the selection → action model (borrowed from Kakoune): you make a selection first, then act on it, rather than issuing a verb and waiting for a motion to complete. This makes operations more predictable and reversible.

Features

Built-in LSP — hover documentation, go-to-definition, code actions, diagnostics, and rename all work without any configuration
Tree-sitter everywhere — syntax highlighting, structural text objects (function, class, parameter), and indentation are all driven by tree-sitter grammars
Multiple selections — a first-class feature, not a plugin. Select multiple occurrences, split selections, align them
No configuration required — works well out of the box; when you do want to customise it, a single config.toml covers keybindings and themes
Discoverable — a built-in which-key style popup shows available commands at every step so you don't need to memorise everything up front
Space mode — Space opens a menu for common actions (file picker, buffer list, diagnostics) making it very approachable for Vim newcomers

Installation

cargo install helix-term --locked

After installing, fetch the tree-sitter grammars:

hx --grammar fetch
hx --grammar build

Or via your package manager:

# Debian / Ubuntu (23.04+ / Debian 13+)
apt install helix

# Fedora
dnf install helix

# Arch Linux
pacman -S helix

# macOS
brew install helix

# Flatpak
flatpak install flathub com.heliXEditor.Helix

Basic Usage

# Open a file
hx src/main.rs

# Open a directory (launches the file picker)
hx .

Essential keybindings

Key	Action
`h` `j` `k` `l`	Move left / down / up / right
`w` `b`	Move forward / backward by word
`i`	Enter insert mode before selection
`a`	Enter insert mode after selection
`v`	Enter select mode
`d`	Delete selection
`c`	Change selection (delete and enter insert)
`Space f`	Open file picker
`Space b`	Open buffer picker
`g d`	Go to definition
`K`	Show hover documentation
`Space a`	Code actions
`%`	Select entire file
`s`	Select (regex search within selection)
`C`	Duplicate cursor below (multiple cursors)
`:w`	Save
`:q`	Quit

Configuration

Helix looks for config at ~/.config/helix/config.toml:

theme = "catppuccin_mocha"

[editor]
line-number = "relative"
cursorline = true
color-modes = true

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

[editor.file-picker]
hidden = false

Languages

Helix has built-in support for a large number of languages. Check what's supported and configured on your system:

hx --health
hx --health rust