hjkl

Vim-modal terminal editor. Standalone TUI built on the hjkl engine.

Native vim-modal editor. Single static binary, no plugins, no config files. Built on the hjkl-engine + rope buffer.

Install

cargo install hjkl

Or grab a pre-built binary from the releases page.

Usage

hjkl                  # empty buffer
hjkl file.txt         # open file
hjkl -R file.txt      # read-only
hjkl +42 file.txt     # jump to line 42
hjkl +/foo file.txt   # search for "foo" on open

What works (v0)

• Normal / Insert / Visual / Command modes with full mode-indicator cursor shape
• All standard motions, operators, and text objects (free from the engine FSM)
• Status line: filename, mode, cursor position, dirty marker
• :w save, :q quit, :wq / :x write-quit, :e open file
• :set options, :%s search-and-replace with confirmation prompt
• :!cmd shell exec, :r !cmd / :r file read-into-buffer
• / / ? incremental search with match highlighting
• Undo / redo, marks, registers
• Terminal resize handled mid-frame
• Read-only guard (-R flag + engine-level mutation block)
• Jump to line (+N) and search-on-open (+/pattern)

What's deferred

• Splits / tabs / multiple buffers
• Syntax highlighting
• Plugins / config files
• LSP

Related crates

• hjkl-buffer — rope-based buffer
• hjkl-engine — modal-editing FSM
• hjkl-editor — ex commands, search, shell exec
• hjkl-ratatui — ratatui rendering adapters

See SPEC.md for the frozen 0.1.0 trait surface.

Links

• Website: https://hjkl.kryptic.sh
• Repository: https://github.com/kryptic-sh/hjkl

License

MIT.