Vim emulation for Visual Studio Code

VSCodeVim is a Vim emulator for Visual Studio Code.

• 🚚 For a full list of supported Vim features, please refer to our roadmap.
• 📃 Our change log outlines the breaking/major/minor updates between releases.
• ❓ If you need to ask any questions, join us on Slack
• Report missing features/bugs on GitHub.

VSCodeVim is automatically enabled following installation and reloading of VS Code.

⚠️ Vimscript is not supported; therefore, we are not able to load your .vimrc or use .vim plugins. You have to replicate these using our Settings and Emulated plugins.

To enable key-repeating execute the following in your Terminal and restart VS Code:

$ defaults write com.microsoft.VSCode ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false         # For VS Code
$ defaults write com.microsoft.VSCodeInsiders ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false # For VS Code Insider
$ defaults delete -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled                                      # If necessary, reset global default

We also recommend increasing Key Repeat and Delay Until Repeat settings in System Preferences -> Keyboard.

Like real vim, VSCodeVim will take over your control keys. This behaviour can be adjusted with the useCtrlKeys and handleKeys settings.

The settings documented here are a subset of the supported settings; the full list is described in the Contributions tab in the extensions menu of VS Code.

Below is an example of a settings.json file with settings relevant to VSCodeVim:

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

These settings are specific to VSCodeVim.

⚠️ Experimental feature. Please leave feedback on neovim integration here.

To leverage neovim for Ex-commands,

1. Install neovim
2. Modify the following configurations:

Here's some ideas on what you can do with neovim integration:

• The power of g
• The :normal command
• Faster search and replace!

Custom remappings are defined on a per-mode basis.

• Keybinding overrides to use for insert, normal, and visual modes.
• Bind jj to <Esc> in insert mode:

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

• Bind £ to goto previous whole word under cursor

    "vim.normalModeKeyBindings": [
        {
            "before": ["£"],
            "after": ["#"]
        }
    ]

• Bind : to show the command palette:

    "vim.normalModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
        {
            "before": [":"],
            "commands": [
                "workbench.action.showCommands",
            ]
        }
    ]

• Bind <leader>m to add a bookmark and <leader>b to open the list of all bookmarks (using the Bookmarks extension):

    "vim.normalModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
        {
            "before": ["<leader>", "m"],
            "commands": [
                "bookmarks.toggle"
            ]
        },
        {
            "before": ["<leader>", "b"],
            "commands": [
                "bookmarks.list"
            ]
        }
    ]

• Bind ZZ to the vim command :wq (save and close the current file):

    "vim.normalModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
        {
            "before": ["Z", "Z"],
            "commands": [
                ":wq"
            ]
        }
    ]

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

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

• Bind p in visual mode to paste without overriding the current register

    "vim.visualModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
        {
            "before": [
                "p",
            ],
            "after": [
                "p",
                "g",
                "v",
                "y"
            ]
        }
    ],

• Bind > and < in visual mode to indent/outdent lines (repeatable)

    "vim.visualModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
        {
            "before": [
                ">"
            ],
            "commands": [
                "editor.action.indentLines"
            ]
        },
        {
            "before": [
                "<"
            ],
            "commands": [
                "editor.action.outdentLines"
            ]
        },
    ]

• Bind <leader>vim to clone this repository to the selected location.

    "vim.visualModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
        {
            "before": [
                "<leader>", "v", "i", "m"
            ],
            "commands": [
                {
                    "command": "git.clone",
                    "args": [ "https://github.com/VSCodeVim/Vim.git" ]
                }
            ]
        }
    ]

• Non-recursive keybinding overrides to use for insert, normal, and visual modes
• 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 normalModeKeyBindingNonRecursive.

    "vim.normalModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive": [
        {
            "before": ["j"],
            "after": ["g", "j"]
        }
    ]

1. Are your configurations correct?

   Adjust the extension's logging level to 'debug', restart VS Code. As each remapped configuration is loaded, it is outputted to console. In the Developer Tools console, do you see any errors?

   debug: Remapper: normalModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive. before=0. after=^.
   debug: Remapper: insertModeKeyBindings. before=j,j. after=<Esc>.
   error: Remapper: insertModeKeyBindings. Invalid configuration. Missing 'after' key or 'command'. before=j,k.

   Misconfigured configurations are ignored.

2. Does the extension handle the keys you are trying to remap?

   VSCodeVim explicitly instructs VS Code which key events we care about through the package.json. If the key you are trying to remap is a key in which vim/vscodevim generally does not handle, then it's most likely that this extension does not receive those key events from VS Code. With logging level adjusted to 'debug', as you press keys, you should see output similar to:

   debug: ModeHandler: handling key=A.
   debug: ModeHandler: handling key=l.
   debug: ModeHandler: handling key=<BS>.
   debug: ModeHandler: handling key=<C-a>.

   As you press the key that you are trying to remap, do you see it outputted here? If not, it means we don't subscribe to those key events.

Configuration settings that have been copied from vim. Vim settings are loaded in the following sequence:

1. :set {setting}
2. vim.{setting} from user/workspace settings.
3. VS Code settings
4. VSCodeVim default values

⚠️ Multi-Cursor mode is experimental. Please report issues in our feedback thread.

Enter multi-cursor mode by:

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

Once you have multiple cursors, you should be able to use Vim commands as you see fit. Most should work; some are unsupported (ref PR#587).

• 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.

⚠️ There are performance implications to using this plugin. In order to change the status bar, we override the configurations in your workspace settings.json which results in increased latency and a constant changing diff in your working directory (see issue#2124).

Change the color of the status bar based on the current mode. Once enabled, configure "vim.statusBarColors". Colors can be defined for each mode either as string (background only), or string[] (background, foreground).

    "vim.statusBarColorControl": true,
    "vim.statusBarColors.normal": ["#8FBCBB", "#434C5E"],
    "vim.statusBarColors.insert": "#BF616A",
    "vim.statusBarColors.visual": "#B48EAD",
    "vim.statusBarColors.visualline": "#B48EAD",
    "vim.statusBarColors.visualblock": "#A3BE8C",
    "vim.statusBarColors.replace": "#D08770"

Based on vim-easymotion and configured through the following settings:

Once easymotion is active, 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.

<leader><leader> (2s|2f|2F|2t|2T) <char><char> and <leader><leader><leader> bd2t <char>char> are also available. The difference is character count required for search. For example, <leader><leader> 2s <char><char> requires two characters, and search by two characters. This mapping is not a standard mapping, so it is recommended to use your custom mapping.

Based on surround.vim, the plugin is used to work with surrounding characters like parenthesis, brackets, quotes, and XML tags.

t or < as <desired char> or <existing char> will do tags and enter tag entry mode. Using <CR> instead of > to finish changing a tag will preserve any existing attributes.

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)

Similar to vim-commentary, but uses the VSCode native Toggle Line Comment and Toggle Block Comment features.

Usage examples:

• gc - toggles line comment. For example gcc to toggle line comment for current line and gc2j to toggle line comments for the current line and the next two lines.
• gC - toggles block comment. For example gCi) to comment out everything within parenthesis.

Based on vim-indent-object, it allows for treating blocks of code at the current indentation level as text objects. Useful in languages that don't use braces around statements (e.g. Python).

Provided there is a new line between the opening and closing braces / tag, it can be considered an agnostic cib/ci{/ci[/cit.

Based on vim-sneak, it allows for jumping to any location specified by two characters.

Once sneak is active, initiate motions using the following commands. For operators sneak uses z instead of s because s is already taken by the surround plugin.

Disable input method when exiting Insert Mode.

Any third-party program can be used to switch input methods. The following will walkthrough the configuration using im-select.

1. Install im-select (see installation guide)

2. Find your default input method key

   • Mac:

     Switch your input method to English, and run the following in your terminal: /<path-to-im-select-installation>/im-select to output your default input method. The table below lists the common English key layouts for MacOS.

     Key	Description
     com.apple.keylayout.US	U.S.
     com.apple.keylayout.ABC	ABC
     com.apple.keylayout.British	British
     com.apple.keylayout.Irish	Irish
     com.apple.keylayout.Australian	Australian
     com.apple.keylayout.Dvorak	Dvorak
     com.apple.keylayout.Colemak	Colemak

   • Windows:

     Refer to the im-select guide on how to discover your input method key. Generally, if your keyboard layout is en_US the input method key is 1033 (the locale ID of en_US). You can also find your locale ID from this page, where the LCID Decimal column is the locale ID.

3. Configure vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.

   • MacOS:

     Given the input method key of com.apple.keylayout.US and im-select located at /usr/local/bin. The configuration is:

     "vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.enable": true,
     "vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.defaultIM": "com.apple.keylayout.US",
     "vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.obtainIMCmd": "/usr/local/bin/im-select",
     "vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.switchIMCmd": "/usr/local/bin/im-select {im}"

   • Windows:

     Given the input method key of 1033 (en_US) and im-select.exe located at D:/bin. The configuration is:

     "vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.enable": true,
     "vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.defaultIM": "1033",
     "vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.obtainIMCmd": "D:\\bin\\im-select.exe",
     "vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.switchIMCmd": "D:\\bin\\im-select.exe {im}"

The {im} argument above is a command-line option that will be passed to im-select denoting the input method to switch to. If using an alternative program to switch input methods, you should add a similar option to the configuration. For example, if the program's usage is my-program -s imKey to switch input method, the vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.switchIMCmd should be /path/to/my-program -s {im}.

Vim has a lot of nifty tricks and we try to preserve some of them:

• gd - jump to definition.
• gq - on a visual selection reflow and wordwrap blocks of text, preserving commenting style. Great for formatting documentation comments.
• gb - adds another cursor on the next word it finds which is the same as the word under the cursor.
• af - visual mode command which selects increasingly large blocks of text. For example, 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 - equivalent to hovering your mouse over wherever the cursor is. Handy for seeing types and error messages without reaching for the mouse!

• None of the native Visual Studio Code ctrl (e.g. ctrl+f, ctrl+v) commands work

  Set the useCtrlKeys setting to false.

• Moving j/k over folds opens up the folds

  Try setting vim.foldfix to true. This is a hack; it works fine, but there are side effects (see issue#22276).

• Key repeat doesn't work

  Are you on a Mac? Did you go through our mac-setup instructions?

• There are annoying intellisense/notifications/popups that I can't close with <esc>! Or I'm in a snippet and I want to close intellisense

  Press shift+<esc> to close all of those boxes.

• How can I use the commandline when in Zen mode or when the status bar is disabled?

  This extension exposes a remappable command to show a vscode style quick-pick, limited functionality, version of the commandline. This can be remapped as follows in visual studio keybindings.json settings file.

  {
    "key": "shift+;",
    "command": "vim.showQuickpickCmdLine",
    "when": "editorTextFocus && vim.mode != 'Insert'"
  }

  Or for Zen mode only:

  {
    "key": "shift+;",
    "command": "vim.showQuickpickCmdLine",
    "when": "inZenMode && vim.mode != 'Insert'"
  }

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.

• 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!
• Shoutout to @chillee aka Horace He for his contributions and hard work.