Editor

Helix makes it a priority to have a solid out-of-the-box experience, with minimal configuration required to start using the editor.

However, there are many things one may wish to customize such as:

• Creating custom keybindings and macros
• Using custom theme
• Configure stuff like auto pairs, statusline, etc.

Introduction

Setting config options

In the editor, you can change various options without editing any config file. For example by using :set cursorline false. This will be reset when you leave the editor.

To permanently store config options, create a config.toml file located in your config directory:

• Linux and Mac: ~/.config/helix/config.toml
• Windows: %AppData%\helix\config.toml

Tip

You also can open the config file by typing :config-open within Helix in normal mode, and reload it with :config-reload.

Sample config

helix/config.toml

theme = "catppuccin-mocha"

[editor]
line-number = "relative"
mouse = false

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

For available themes, Helix comes with a lot of bundled themes, so they are on a separate page. See the full list of themes.

[editor] Section

scrolloff

Number of lines of padding around the edge of the screen when scrolling

Default

[editor]
scrolloff = 5

mouse

Enable mouse mode

Default

[editor]
mouse = true

Since master New

To use this feature, you need to build from source.

default-yank-register

Default register used for yank/paste

Default

[editor]
default-yank-register = "

middle-click-paste

Middle click paste support

Default

[editor]
middle-click-paste = true

scroll-lines

Number of lines to scroll per scroll wheel step

Default

[editor]
scroll-lines = 3

shell

Shell to use when running external commands

Default

Unix:

[editor]
shell = ["sh", "-c"]

Windows:

[editor]
shell = ["cmd", "/C"]

line-number

Line number display: absolute simply shows each line’s number, while relative shows the distance from the current line. When unfocused or in insert mode, relative will still show absolute line numbers

Default

[editor]
line-number = absolute

cursorline

Highlight all lines with a cursor

Default

[editor]
cursorline = false

cursorcolumn

Highlight all columns with a cursor

Default

[editor]
cursorcolumn = false

gutters

Gutters to display: Available are:

• diagnostics
• diff
• line-numbers
• spacer

Note that diagnostics also includes other features like breakpoints, 1-width padding will be inserted if gutters is non-empty

Default

[editor]
gutters = [
  "diagnostics",
  "spacer",
  "line-numbers",
  "spacer",
  "diff",
]

auto-completion

Enable automatic pop up of auto-completion

Default

[editor]
auto-completion = true

Since master New

To use this feature, you need to build from source.

path-completion

Enable filepath completion.

Show files and directories if an existing path at the cursor was recognized, either absolute or relative to the current opened document or current working directory (if the buffer is not yet saved).

Default

[editor]
path-completion = true

auto-format

Enable automatic formatting on save

Default

[editor]
auto-format = true

idle-timeout

Time in milliseconds since last keypress before idle timers trigger.

Default

[editor]
idle-timeout = 250

completion-timeout

Time in milliseconds after typing a word character before completions are shown, set to 5 for instant.

Default

[editor]
completion-timeout = 250

preview-completion-insert

Whether to apply completion item instantly when selected

Default

[editor]
preview-completion-insert = true

completion-trigger-len

The min-length of word under cursor to trigger autocompletion

Default

[editor]
completion-trigger-len = 2

completion-replace

Set to true to make completions always replace the entire word and not just the part before the cursor

Default

[editor]
completion-replace = false

auto-info

Whether to display info boxes

Default

[editor]
auto-info = true

true-color

Set to true to override automatic detection of terminal truecolor support in the event of a false negative

Default

[editor]
true-color = false

undercurl

Set to true to override automatic detection of terminal undercurl support in the event of a false negative

Default

[editor]
undercurl = false

rulers

List of column positions at which to display the rulers. Can be overridden by language specific rulers in languages.toml file

Default

[editor]
rulers = []

bufferline

Renders a line at the top of the editor displaying open buffers. Can be always, never or multiple (only shown if more than one buffer is in use)

Default

[editor]
bufferline = "never"

color-modes

Whether to color the mode indicator with different colors depending on the mode itself

Default

[editor]
color-modes = false

text-width

Maximum line length. Used for the :reflow command and soft-wrapping if soft-wrap.wrap-at-text-width is set

Default

[editor]
text-width = 80

workspace-lsp-roots

Directories relative to the workspace root that are treated as LSP roots. Should only be set in .helix/config.toml

Default

[editor]
workspace-lsp-roots = []

default-line-ending

The line ending to use for new documents. Can be native, lf, crlf, ff, cr or nel. native uses the platform’s native line ending (crlf on Windows, otherwise lf).

Default

[editor]
default-line-ending = "native"

insert-final-newline

Whether to automatically insert a trailing line-ending on write if missing

Default

[editor]
insert-final-newline = true

popup-border

Draw border around popup, menu, all, or none

Default

[editor]
popup-border = "none"

indent-heuristic

How the indentation for a newly inserted line is computed:

• simple just copies the indentation level from the previous line,
• tree-sitter computes the indentation based on the syntax tree
• hybrid combines both approaches.

If the chosen heuristic is not available, a different one will be used as a fallback (the fallback order being hybrid -> tree-sitter -> simple).

Default

[editor]
indent-heuristic = "hybrid"

jump-label-alphabet

The characters that are used to generate two character jump labels. Characters at the start of the alphabet are used first.

Default

[editor]
jump-label-alphabet = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"

end-of-line-diagnostics

Minimum severity of diagnostics to render at the end of the line. Set to disable to disable entirely.

Refer to the setting about inline-diagnostics for more details

Default

[editor]
end-of-line-diagnostics = "disable"

Since master New

To use this feature, you need to build from source.

clipboard-provider

Which API to use for clipboard interaction. One of

• pasteboard (MacOS),
• wayland,
• x-clip,
• x-sel,
• win-32-yank,
• termux,
• tmux,
• windows,
• termcode,
• none, or a custom command set.

Default

Platform and environment specific.

[editor.clipboard-provider] Section

Helix can be configured wither to use a builtin clipboard configuration or to use a provided command.

For instance, setting it to use OSC 52 termcodes, the configuration would be:

[editor]
clipboard-provider = "termcode"

Alternatively, Helix can be configured to use arbitrary commands for clipboard integration:

[editor.clipboard-provider.custom]
yank = { command = "cat",  args = ["test.txt"] }
paste = { command = "tee",  args = ["test.txt"] }
primary-yank = { command = "cat",  args = ["test-primary.txt"] } # optional
primary-paste = { command = "tee",  args = ["test-primary.txt"] } # optional

For custom commands the contents of the yank/paste is communicated over stdin/stdout.

[editor.statusline] Section

Allows configuring the statusline at the bottom of the editor.

The configuration distinguishes between three areas of the status line:

[ ... ... LEFT ... ... | ... ... ... CENTER ... ... ... | ... ... RIGHT ... ... ]

Statusline elements can be defined as follows:

[editor.statusline]
left = ["mode", "spinner"]
center = ["file-name"]
right = ["diagnostics", "selections", "position", "file-encoding", "file-line-ending", "file-type"]
separator = "│"
mode.normal = "NORMAL"
mode.insert = "INSERT"
mode.select = "SELECT"

The [editor.statusline] key takes the following sub-keys:

left

A list of elements aligned to the left of the statusline

Default

[editor.statusline]
left = [
  "mode",
  "spinner",
  "file-name",
  "read-only-indicator",
  "file-modification-indicator"
]

center

A list of elements aligned to the middle of the statusline

Default

[editor.statusline]
center = []

right

A list of elements aligned to the right of the statusline

Default

[editor.statusline]
right = [
  "diagnostics",
  "selections",
  "register",
  "position",
  "file-encoding"
]

separator

The character used to separate elements in the statusline

Default

[editor.statusline]
separator = "│"

The text shown in the mode element for normal mode

Default

[editor.statusline]
mode.normal = "NOR"

The text shown in the mode element for insert mode

Default

[editor.statusline]
mode.insert = "INS"

The text shown in the mode element for select mode

Default

[editor.statusline]
mode.select = "SEL"

The following statusline elements can be configured:

• mode: The current editor mode (mode.normal/mode.insert/mode.select)
• spinner: A progress spinner indicating LSP activity
• file-name: The path/name of the opened file
• file-absolute-path: The absolute path/name of the opened file
• file-base-name: The basename of the opened file
• file-modification-indicator: | The indicator to show whether the file is modified (a [+] appears when there are unsaved changes) |
• file-encoding: The encoding of the opened file if it differs from UTF-8
• file-line-ending: The file line endings (CRLF or LF)
• read-only-indicator: An indicator that shows [readonly] when a file cannot be written
• total-line-numbers: The total line numbers of the opened file
• file-type: The type of the opened file
• diagnostics: The number of warnings and/or errors
• workspace-diagnostics: The number of warnings and/or errors on workspace
• selections: The number of active selections
• primary-selection-length: The number of characters currently in primary selection
• position: The cursor position
• position-percentage: The cursor position as a percentage of the total number of lines
• separator: The string defined in editor.statusline.separator (defaults to "│")
• spacer: Inserts a space between elements (multiple/contiguous spacers may be specified)
• version-control: The current branch name or detached commit hash of the opened workspace
• register: The current selected register

[editor.lsp] Section

enable

Enables LSP integration. Setting to false will completely disable language servers regardless of language settings.

Default

[editor.lsp]
enable = true

display-messages

Display LSP progress messages below statusline

By default, a progress spinner is shown in the statusline beside the file path.

Default

[editor.lsp]
display-messages = false

auto-signature-help

Enable automatic popup of signature help (parameter hints)

Default

[editor.lsp]
auto-signature-help = true

display-inlay-hints

Display inlay hints

Note

You may also have to activate them in the LSP config for them to appear, not just in Helix.

Inlay hints in Helix are still being improved on and may be a little bit laggy/janky under some circumstances.

Please report any bugs you see so we can fix them!

Default

[editor.lsp]
display-inlay-hints = false

display-signature-help-docs

Display docs under signature help popup

Default

[editor.lsp]
display-signature-help-docs = true

snippets

Enables snippet completions.

Requires a server restart (:lsp-restart) to take effect after :config-reload/:set.

Default

[editor.lsp]
snippets = true

goto-reference-include-declaration

Include declaration in the goto references popup.

Default

[editor.lsp]
goto-reference-include-declaration = true

[editor.cursor-shape] Section

Defines the shape of cursor in each mode. Valid values for these options are block, bar, underline, or hidden.

Note

Due to limitations of the terminal environment, only the primary cursor can change shape.

normal

Cursor shape in normal mode

Default

[editor.cursor-shape]
normal = "block"

insert

Cursor shape in insert mode

Default

[editor.cursor-shape]
insert = "block"

select

Cursor shape in select mode

Default

[editor.cursor-shape]
select = "block"

[editor.file-picker] Section

Set options for file picker and global search. Ignoring a file means it is not visible in the Helix file picker and global search.

All git related options are only enabled in a git repository.

Ignore files can be placed locally as .ignore or put in your home directory as ~/.ignore. They support the usual ignore and negative ignore (unignore) rules used in .gitignore files.

Additionally, you can use Helix-specific ignore files by creating a local .helix/ignore file in the current workspace or a global ignore file located in your Helix config directory:

• Linux and Mac: ~/.config/helix/ignore
• Windows: %AppData%\helix\ignore

Example:

# unignore in file picker and global search
!.github/
!.gitignore
!.gitattributes

hidden

Enables ignoring hidden files

Default

[editor.file-picker]
hidden = true

follow-symlinks

Follow symlinks instead of ignoring them

Default

[editor.file-picker]
follow-symlinks = true

deduplicate-links

Ignore symlinks that point at files already shown in the picker

Default

[editor.file-picker]
deduplicate-links = true

parents

Enables reading ignore files from parent directories

Default

[editor.file-picker]
parents = true

ignore

Enables reading .ignore files

Default

[editor.file-picker]
ignore = true

git-ignore

Enables reading .gitignore files

Default

[editor.file-picker]
git-ignore = true

git-global

Enables reading global .gitignore, whose path is specified in git’s config: core.excludesfile option

Default

[editor.file-picker]
git-global = true

git-exclude

Enables reading .git/info/exclude files

Default

[editor.file-picker]
git-exclude = true

max-depth

Set with an integer value for maximum depth to recurse

Default

Unset by default

[editor.auto-pairs] Section

auto-pairs

Enables automatic insertion of pairs to parentheses, brackets, etc.

Can be a simple boolean value, or a specific mapping of pairs of single characters.

Default

[editor]
auto-pairs = true

The default pairs are ()[]”""“, but these can be customized by setting auto-pairs to a TOML table:

[editor.auto-pairs]
'(' = ')'
'{' = '}'
'[' = ']'
'"' = '"'
'`' = '`'
'<' = '>'

Additionally, this setting can be used in a language config. Unless the editor setting is false, this will override the editor config in documents with this language.

Example languages.toml that adds <> and removes ''

[[language]]
name = "rust"

[language.auto-pairs]
'(' = ')'
'{' = '}'
'[' = ']'
'"' = '"'
'`' = '`'
'<' = '>'

[editor.auto-save] Section

Control auto save behavior.

focus-lost

Enable automatic saving on the focus moving away from Helix. Requires focus event support ↗ from your terminal

Default

[editor.auto-save]
focus-lost = false

Enable automatic saving after auto-save.after-delay.timeout milliseconds have passed since last edit.

Default

[editor.auto-save]
after-delay.enable = false

Time in milliseconds since last edit before auto save timer triggers.

Default

[editor.auto-save]
after-delay.timeout = 3000

[editor.search] Section

Search specific options.

smart-case

Enable smart case regex searching (case-insensitive unless pattern contains upper case characters)

Default

[editor.search]
smart-case = true

wrap-around

Whether the search should wrap after depleting the matches

Default

[editor.wrap-around]
wrap-around = true

[editor.whitespace] Section

Options for rendering whitespace with visible characters.

Use :set whitespace.render all to temporarily enable visible whitespace.

render

Whether to render whitespace.

May either be all or none, or a table with sub-keys space, nbsp, nnbsp, tab, and newline

Default

[editor.whitespace]
render = "none"

characters

Literal characters to use when rendering whitespace. Sub-keys may be any of tab, space, nbsp, nnbsp, newline or tabpad

Example

[editor.whitespace]
render = "all"
# or control each character
[editor.whitespace.render]
space = "all"
tab = "all"
nbsp = "none"
nnbsp = "none"
newline = "none"

[editor.whitespace.characters]
space = "·"
nbsp = "⍽"
nnbsp = "␣"
tab = "→"
newline = "⏎"
tabpad = "·" # Tabs will look like "→···" (depending on tab width)

Default

See example

[editor.indent-guides] Section

Options for rendering vertical indent guides.

render

Whether to render indent guides

Default

[editor.indent-guides]
render = false

character

Literal character to use for rendering the indent guide

Default

[editor.indent-guides]
character = "│"

skip-levels

Number of indent levels to skip

Default

[editor.indent-guides]
skip-levels = 0

Example:

[editor.indent-guides]
render = true
character = "╎" # Some characters that work well: "▏", "┆", "┊", "⸽"
skip-levels = 1

[editor.gutters] Section

For simplicity, editor.gutters accepts an array of gutter types, which will use default settings for all gutter components.

[editor]
gutters = ["diff", "diagnostics", "line-numbers", "spacer"]

To customize the behavior of gutters, the [editor.gutters] section must be used. This section contains top level settings, as well as settings for specific gutter components as subsections.

layout

A vector of gutters to display

Default

[editor.gutters]
layout = ["diagnostics", "spacer", "line-numbers", "spacer", "diff"]

Example:

[editor.gutters]
layout = ["diff", "diagnostics", "line-numbers", "spacer"]

[editor.gutters.line-numbers] Section

Options for the line number gutter

min-width

The minimum number of characters to use

Default

[editor.gutters.line-numbers]
min-width = 3

Example:

[editor.gutters.line-numbers]
min-width = 1

[editor.gutters.diagnostics] Section

Currently unused

[editor.gutters.diff] Section

The diff gutter option displays colored bars indicating whether a git diff represents that a line was added, removed or changed. These colors are controlled by the theme attributes diff.plus, diff.minus and diff.delta.

Other diff providers will eventually be supported by a future plugin system.

There are currently no options for this section.

[editor.gutters.spacer] Section

Currently unused

[editor.soft-wrap] Section

Options for soft wrapping lines that exceed the view width:

enable

Whether soft wrapping is enabled.

Default

[editor.soft-wrap]
enable = false

max-wrap

Maximum free space left at the end of the line.

Default

[editor.soft-wrap]
max-wrap = 20

max-indent-retain

Maximum indentation to carry over when soft wrapping a line.

Default

[editor.soft-wrap]
max-indent-retain = 40

wrap-indicator

Text inserted before soft wrapped lines, highlighted with ui.virtual.wrap

Default

[editor.soft-wrap]
wrap-indicator = "↪"

wrap-at-text-width

Soft wrap at text-width instead of using the full viewport size.

Default

[editor.soft-wrap]
wrap-at-text-width = false

Example:

[editor.soft-wrap]
enable = true
max-wrap = 25 # increase value to reduce forced mid-word wrapping
max-indent-retain = 0
wrap-indicator = ""  # set wrap-indicator to "" to hide it

[editor.smart-tab] Section

Options for navigating and editing using tab key.

enable

If set to true, then when the cursor is in a position with non-whitespace to its left, instead of inserting a tab, it will run move_parent_node_end. If there is only whitespace to the left, then it inserts a tab as normal. With the default bindings, to explicitly insert a tab character, press Shift-tab.

Default

[editor.smart-tab]
enable = true

supersede-menu

Normally, when a menu is on screen, such as when auto complete is triggered, the tab key is bound to cycling through the items. This means when menus are on screen, one cannot use the tab key to trigger the smart-tab command. If this option is set to true, the smart-tab command always takes precedence, which means one cannot use the tab key to cycle through menu items. One of the other bindings must be used instead, such as arrow keys or C-n/C-p.

Default

[editor.smart-tab]
supersede-menu = false

Due to lack of support for S-tab in some terminals, the default keybindings don’t fully embrace smart-tab editing experience. If you enjoy smart-tab navigation and a terminal that supports the Enhanced Keyboard protocol ↗, consider setting extra keybindings:

[keys.normal]
tab = "move_parent_node_end"
S-tab = "move_parent_node_start"

[keys.insert]
S-tab = "move_parent_node_start"

[keys.select]
tab = "extend_parent_node_end"
S-tab = "extend_parent_node_start"

Since master New

To use this feature, you need to build from source.

[editor.inline-diagnostics] Section

Options for rendering diagnostics inside the text like shown below

fn main() {
  let foo = bar;
            └─ no such value in this scope
}

cursor-line

The minimum severity that a diagnostic must have to be shown inline on the line that contains the primary cursor. Set to disable to not show any diagnostics inline. This option does not have any effect when in insert-mode and will only take effect 350ms after moving the cursor to a different line.

Default

[editor.inline-diagnostics]
cursor-line = "disable"

other-lines

The minimum severity that a diagnostic must have to be shown inline on a line that does not contain the cursor-line. Set to disable to not show any diagnostics inline.

Default

[editor.inline-diagnostics]
other-lines = "disable"

prefix-len

How many horizontal bars ─ are rendered before the diagnostic text.

Default

[editor.inline-diagnostics]
prefix-len = 1

max-wrap

Equivalent of the editor.soft-wrap.max-wrap option for diagnostics.

Default

[editor.inline-diagnostics]
max-wrap = 20

max-diagnostics

Maximum number of diagnostics to render inline for a given line

Default

[editor.inline-diagnostics]
max-diagnostics = 10

The (first) diagnostic with the highest severity that is not shown inline is rendered at the end of the line (as long as its severity is higher than the end-of-line-diagnostics config option):

fn main() {
  let baz = 1;
  let foo = bar; a local variable with a similar name exists: baz
            └─ no such value in this scope
}

The new diagnostic rendering is not yet enabled by default. As soon as end of line or inline diagnostics are enabled the old diagnostics rendering is automatically disabled. The recommended default setting are:

[editor]
end-of-line-diagnostics = "hint"
[editor.inline-diagnostics]
cursor-line = "warning" # show warnings and errors on the cursorline inline

Overriding the Config File

You can override the default config file by:

• Specifying it with the -c or --config command line argument, for example hx -c path/to/custom-config.toml
• Having a config.toml local to a project by putting it under a .helix directory in your repository. Its settings will be merged with the configuration directory config.toml and the built-in configuration.