Vim

VSCodeVim is a Visual Studio Code extension that enables Vim keybindings, including:

Modes: normal, insert, command, visual, visual line, visual block (with useCtrlKeys, see below)
Command combinations (c3w, daw, 2dd, etc)
Highly versatile command remapping (jj to esc, : to command panel, etc.)
Incremental search with / and ?
Marks
Vim settings similar to those found in .vimrc
Multi-cursor support. Allows multiple simultaneous cursors to receive Vim commands (e.g. allows / search, each cursor has independent clipboards, etc.).
The EasyMotion plugin
The Surround.vim plugin
The Commentary plugin
The Vim-airline plugin
And much more! Refer to the roadmap or everything we support.

Please report missing features/bugs on GitHub, which will help us get to them faster.

Ask us questions, talk about contributing, or just say hi on Slack!

Donations

Donations help convince me to work on this project rather than my other (non-open-source) projects. I'd love to work on VSCodeVim full time, but I need money to live!

Configuring VSCodeVim

Below is an example of a settings.json file for VSCode settings applicable to this extension. The following section goes over some supported options in more detail.

{
    "vim.easymotion": true,
    "vim.incsearch": true,
    "vim.useSystemClipboard": true,
    "vim.useCtrlKeys": true,
    "vim.hlsearch": true,
    "vim.insertModeKeyBindings": [
        {
            "before": ["j","j"],
            "after": ["<Esc>"]
        }
    ],
    "vim.otherModesKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
        {
            "before": ["<leader>","d"],
            "after": ["d", "d"]
        },
        {
           "before":["<C-n>"],
           "after":[],
            "commands": [
                {
                    "command": ":nohl"
                }
            ]
       }
    ],
    "vim.leader": "<space>",
    "vim.handleKeys":{
        "<C-a>": false,
        "<C-f>": false
    }
}

Supported Options

The following is a subset of the supported configurations; the full list is described in the Contributions tab for this extension, or in our package.json.

useCtrlKeys

Enable Vim ctrl keys overriding common VS Code operations (eg. copy, paste, find, etc). Setting this option to true will enable:
- ctrl+c, ctrl+[ => <Esc>
- ctrl+f => Full Page Forward
- ctrl+d => Half Page Back
- ctrl+b => Half Page Forward
- ctrl+v => Visual Block Mode
- etc.
Type: Boolean (Default: true)
Example:
```
"vim.useCtrlKeys": true
```

handleKeys

Allows user to select certain modifier keybindings and delegate them back to VSCode so that VSCodeVim does not process them.
Complete list of keys that can be delegated back to VSCode can be found in our package.json. Each key that has a vim.use<C-...> in the when argument can be delegated back to vscode by doing "<C-...>":false.
An example would be if a user wanted to continue to use ctrl + f for find, but wants to have useCtrlKeys set to true so that other vim bindings work.
```
"vim.handleKeys":{
    "<C-a>": false,
    "<C-f>": false
}
```

insertModeKeyBindings/otherModesKeyBindings

Keybinding overrides to use for insert and other (non-insert) modes.

Bind jj to <Esc> in insert mode:

  "vim.insertModeKeyBindings": [
       {
           "before": ["j", "j"],
           "after": ["<Esc>"]
       }
  ]

Bind : to show the command palette:

"vim.otherModesKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
   {
       "before": [":"],
       "after": [],
       "commands": [
           {
               "command": "workbench.action.showCommands",
               "args": []
           }
       ]
   }
]

Bind ZZ to save and close the current file:

    "vim.otherModesKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
        {
            "before": ["Z", "Z"],
            "after": [],
            "commands": [
                {
                    "command": "workbench.action.files.save",
                    "args": []
                },
                {
                    "command": "workbench.action.closeActiveEditor",
                    "args": []
                }
            ]
        }
    ]

Or bind ctrl+n to turn off search highlighting and <leader>w to save the current file:

    "vim.otherModesKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
        {
           "before":["<C-n>"],
           "after":[],
            "commands": [
                {
                    "command": ":nohl",
                    "args": []
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "before": ["leader", "w"],
            "after": [],
            "commands": [
                {
                    "command": "workbench.action.files.save",
                    "args": []
                }
            ]
        }
    ]

insertModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive/otherModesKeyBindingsNonRecursive

Non-recursive keybinding overrides to use for insert and other (non-insert) modes (similar to :noremap)
Example: Bind j to gj. Notice that if you attempted this binding normally, the j in gj would be expanded into gj, on and on forever. Stop this recursive expansion using insertModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive and/or otherModesKeyBindingNonRecursive.
```
"vim.otherModesKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
{
    "before": ["j"],
    "after": ["g", "j"]
}]
```

startInInsertMode

Have VSCodeVim start in Insert Mode rather than Normal Mode.
We would be remiss in our duties as Vim users not to say that you should really be staying in Normal mode as much as you can, but hey, who are we to stop you?

overrideCopy

Override VSCode's copy command with our own, which works correctly with VSCodeVim.
If cmd-c or ctrl-c is giving you issues, set this to false and complain at microsoft/vscode#217.
Type: Boolean (Default: true)

useSystemClipboard

Enable yanking to the system clipboard by default
Type: Boolean (Default: false)

searchHighlightColor

Set the color of search highlights.
Type: Color String (Default: rgba(150, 150, 150, 0.3))

useSolidBlockCursor

Use a non-blinking block cursor
Type: Boolean (Default: false)

statusBarColorControl

Control status bar color based on current mode
Type: Boolean (Default: false)

Once this is set, you need to set statusBarColors as well with these exact strings for modenames. The colors can be adjusted to suit the user.

    "vim.statusBarColorControl": true,
    "vim.statusBarColors" : {
        "normal": "#005f5f",
        "insert": "#5f0000",
        "visual": "#5f00af",
        "visualline": "#005f87",
        "visualblock": "#86592d",
        "replace": "#000000"
    }

Vim settings we support

ignorecase

Ignore case in search patterns
Type: Boolean (Default: true)

smartcase

Override the 'ignorecase' option if the search pattern contains upper case characters
Type: Boolean (Default: true)

hlsearch

When there is a previous search pattern, highlight all its matches
Type: Boolean (Default: false)

incsearch

Show the next search match while you're searching.
Type: Boolean (Default: true)

autoindent

Copy indent from current line when starting a new line
Type: Boolean (Default: true)

timeout

Timeout in milliseconds for remapped commands
Type: Number (Default: 1000)

showcmd

Show the text of any command you are in the middle of writing.
Type: Boolean (Default: true)

textwidth

Width to word-wrap to when using gq.
Type: number (Default: 80)

leader

What key should <leader> map to in key remappings?
Type: string (Default: \)

Configure

Vim options are loaded in the following sequence:

:set {option}
vim.{option} from user/workspace settings.
VSCode configuration
VSCodeVim default values

Multi-Cursor Mode

Multi-Cursor mode is currently in beta. Please report things you expected to work but didn't to our feedback thread.

Getting into multi-cursor mode

You can enter multi-cursor mode by:

Pressing cmd-d on OSX.
Running "Add Cursor Above/Below" or the shortcut on any platform.
Pressing gc, a new shortcut we added which is equivalent to cmd-d on OSX or ctrl-d on Windows. (It adds another cursor at the next word that matches the word the cursor is currently on.)

Doing stuff

Now that you have multiple cursors, you should be able to use Vim commands as you see fit. Most of them should work. There is a list of things I know of which don't here. If you find yourself wanting one of these, please add it to our feedback thread.

Each cursor has its own clipboard.

Pressing Escape in Multi-Cursor Visual Mode will bring you to Multi-Cursor Normal mode. Pressing it again will return you to Normal mode.

F.A.Q.

`j`, `k` and others don't repeat when I hold them down.

On OS X, open Terminal and run the following command:

defaults write com.microsoft.VSCode ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false         # For VS Code
defaults write com.microsoft.VSCodeInsiders ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false # For VS Code Insider

Help! None of the vim `ctrl` (e.g. `ctrl+f`, `ctrl+v`) commands work

Configure the useCtrlKeys option (see configurations#useCtrlKeys) to true.

How to use easymotion

Easymotion is based on easymotion-vim. To activate easymotion, you need to make sure that easymotion is set to true in settings.json.

Once easymotion is active, you can initiate motions using the following commands. After you initiate the motion, text decorators/markers will be displayed and you can press the keys displayed to jump to that position. leader is configurable and is \ by default.

Motion Command	Description
`<leader> <leader> s <char>`	Search character
`<leader> <leader> f <char>`	Find character forwards
`<leader> <leader> F <char>`	Find character backwards
`<leader> <leader> t <char>`	Til character forwards
`<leader> <leader> T <char>`	Til character backwards
`<leader> <leader> w`	Start of word forwards
`<leader> <leader> e`	End of word forwards
`<leader> <leader> g e`	End of word backwards
`<leader> <leader> b`	Start of word backwards

You can customize the appearance of your easymotion markers (the boxes with letters) using the following options:

Setting	Description
`vim.easymotionMarkerBackgroundColor`	The background color of the marker box.
`vim.easymotionMarkerForegroundColorOneChar`	The font color for one-character markers.
`vim.easymotionMarkerForegroundColorTwoChar`	The font color for two-character markers, used to differentiate from one-character markers.
`vim.easymotionMarkerWidthPerChar`	The width in pixels allotted to each character.
`vim.easymotionMarkerHeight`	The height of the marker.
`vim.easymotionMarkerFontFamily`	The font family used for the marker text.
`vim.easymotionMarkerFontSize`	The font size used for the marker text.
`vim.easymotionMarkerFontWeight`	The font weight used for the marker text.
`vim.easymotionMarkerYOffset`	The distance between the top of the marker and the text (will typically need some adjusting if height or font size have been changed).

How to use surround

Surround plugin based on tpope's surround.vim plugin is used to work with surrounding characters like parenthesis, brackets, quotes, and XML tags.

t or < as or will do tags and enter tag entry mode.

Surround can be disabled by setting vim.surround : false

Surround Command	Description
`d s <existing char>`	Delete existing surround
`c s <existing char> <desired char>`	Change surround existing to desired
`y s <motion> <desired char>`	Surround something with something using motion (as in "you surround")
`S <desired char>`	Surround when in visual modes (surrounds full selection)

Some examples:

"test" with cursor inside quotes type cs"' to end up with 'test'
"test" with cursor inside quotes type ds" to end up with test
"test" with cursor inside quotes type cs"t and enter 123> to end up with <123>test</123>
test with cursor on word test type ysaw) to end up with (test)

How to use commentary

Commentary in VSCodeVim works similarly to tpope's vim-commentary but uses the VSCode native "Toggle Line Comment" and "Toggle Block Comment" features.

Because gc is already used in VSCodeVim the commentary operators are bound to gb for line comments and gB for block comments.

Usage examples:

gb - toggles line comment. For example gbb to toggle line comment for current line and gb2j to toggle line comments for the current line and the next line.
gB - toggles block comment. For example gBi) to comment out everything within parenthesis.

If you are use to using vim-commentary you are probably use to using gc instead of gb. This can be achieved by adding the following remapping to your VSCode settings:

"vim.otherModesKeyBindings": [
    {
        "before": ["g", "c"],
        "after": ["g", "b"]
    },
    {
        "before": ["g", "C"],
        "after": ["g", "B"]
    }
],

Contributing

This project is maintained by a group of awesome people and contributions are extremely welcome ❤️. For a quick tutorial on how you can help, see our contributing guide.

Awesome Features You Might Not Know About

Vim has a lot of nooks and crannies. VSCodeVim preserves some of the coolest nooks and crannies of Vim. And then we add some of our own! Some of our favorite include:

gd - jump to definition. Astoundingly useful in any language that VSCode provides definition support for. I use this one probably hundreds of times a day.
gq on a visual selection - Reflow and wordwrap blocks of text, preserving commenting style. Great for formatting documentation comments.
gc, which adds another cursor on the next word it finds which is the same as the word under the cursor.
af, a command that I added in visual mode, which selects increasingly large blocks of text. e.g. if you had "blah (foo [bar 'ba|z'])" then it would select 'baz' first. If you pressed af again, it'd then select [bar 'baz'], and if you did it a third time it would select "(foo [bar 'baz'])".
gh, another custom VSCodeVim command. This one is equivalent to hovering your mouse over wherever the cursor is. Handy for seeing types and error messages without reaching for the mouse!

(The mnemonic: selecting blocks is fast af! 😉)

Special Shoutouts to Cool Contributors

Thanks to @xconverge for making over 100 commits to the repo. If you're wondering why your least favorite bug packed up and left, it was probably him.
Thanks to @Metamist for implementing EasyMotion!
Thanks to @sectioneight for implementing text objects!
Special props to Kevin Coleman, who created our awesome logo!

Release Notes

Our recent releases and update notes are available here.

cobbweb/Vim

Vim