helix-editor/helix

---

helix-editor/helix.json

{
  "createdAt": "2020-06-01T04:26:56Z",
  "defaultBranch": "master",
  "description": "A post-modern modal text editor.",
  "fullName": "helix-editor/helix",
  "homepage": "https://helix-editor.com",
  "language": "Rust",
  "name": "helix",
  "pushedAt": "2025-11-26T02:21:03Z",
  "stargazersCount": 41517,
  "topics": [
    "kakoune",
    "rust",
    "text-editor",
    "vim"
  ],
  "updatedAt": "2025-11-27T05:04:45Z",
  "url": "https://github.com/helix-editor/helix"
}

![Screenshot]!(./screenshot.png)

A Kakoune / Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust.

The editing model is very heavily based on Kakoune; during development I found myself agreeing with most of Kakoune’s design decisions.

For more information, see the website or documentation.

All shortcuts/keymaps can be found in the documentation on the website.

Troubleshooting

Features

• Vim-like modal editing
• Multiple selections
• Built-in language server support
• Smart, incremental syntax highlighting and code editing via tree-sitter

Although it’s primarily a terminal-based editor, I am interested in exploring a custom renderer (similar to Emacs) using wgpu or skulpin.

Note: Only certain languages have indentation definitions at the moment. Check runtime/queries/<lang>/ for indents.scm.

Installation

Installation documentation.

Contributing

Contributing guidelines can be found [here]!(./docs/CONTRIBUTING.md).

Getting help

Your question might already be answered on the FAQ.

Discuss the project on the community Matrix Space (make sure to join #helix-editor:matrix.org if you’re on a client that doesn’t support Matrix Spaces yet).

Credits

Thanks to @jakenvac for designing the logo!