VSCodeVim

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.

Table of Contents (click to expand)

• Installation
  • Vim Compatibility
  • Mac setup
  • Windows setup
  • Linux setup
• Settings
  • VSCodeVim settings
  • Neovim Integration
  • Key remapping
  • Vim settings
• Multi-Cursor mode
• Emulated plugins
  • vim-airline
  • vim-easymotion
  • vim-surround
  • vim-commentary
  • vim-indent-object
  • vim-sneak
  • Input Method
• VSCodeVim tricks
• F.A.Q / Troubleshooting
• Contributing

💾 Installation

VSCodeVim is automatically enabled following installation and reloading of VSCode.

Vim Compatibility

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.

Mac Setup

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.

Windows Setup

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

Linux Setup

If you have configured vim.useSystemClipboard: "true", we rely on clipboardy which is dependent on xsel:

apt install xsel

⚙️ 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 VSCode.

Quick Example

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
  }
}

VSCodeVim settings

These settings are specific to VSCodeVim.

Setting	Description	Type	Default Value
vim.cursorStylePerMode.{Mode}	Configure a specific cursor style for {Mode}. Omitted modes will use default cursor type Supported cursors: line, block, underline, line-thin, block-outline, and underline-thin.	String	None
vim.debug.loggingLevel	Maximum level of messages to log. Logs are visible in the developer tools. Supported values: 'error', 'warn', 'info', 'verbose', 'debug').	String	error
vim.disableExtension	Disable VSCodeVim extension. This setting can also be toggled using toggleVim command in the Command Palette	Boolean	false
vim.handleKeys	Delegate configured keys to be handled by VSCode instead of by the VSCodeVim extension. Any key in keybindings section of the package.json that has a vim.use<C-...> in the when argument can be delegated back to VSCode by setting "<C-...>": false. Example: to use ctrl+f for find (native VSCode behaviour): "vim.handleKeys": { "<C-f>": false }.	String	"<C-d>": true
vim.overrideCopy	Override VSCode's copy command with our own, which works correctly with VSCodeVim. If cmd-c/ctrl-c is giving you issues, set this to false and complain here.	Boolean	false
vim.searchHighlightColor	Set the color of search highlights	String	rgba(150, 150, 255, 0.3)
vim.startInInsertMode	Start in Insert mode instead of Normal Mode	Boolean	false
vim.substituteGlobalFlag	Similar to Vim's gdefault setting. /g flag in a substitute command replaces all occurrences in the line. Without this flag, replacement occurs only for the first occurrence in each line. With this setting enabled, the g is on by default.	Boolean	false
vim.useCtrlKeys	Enable Vim ctrl keys overriding common VSCode operations such as copy, paste, find, etc.	Boolean	true
vim.visualstar	In visual mode, start a search with * or # using the current selection	Boolean	false

Neovim Integration

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

To leverage neovim for Ex-commands,

1. Install neovim
2. Modify the following configurations:

Setting	Description	Type	Default Value
vim.enableNeovim	Enable Neovim	Boolean	false
vim.neovimPath	Full path to neovim executable	String

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

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

Key Remapping

Custom remappings are defined on a per-mode basis.

"vim.insertModeKeyBindings"/"vim.normalModeKeyBindings"/"vim.visualModeKeyBindings"

• 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 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" ]
                }
            ]
        }
    ]

"vim.insertModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive"/"normalModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive"/"visualModeKeyBindingsNonRecursive"

• 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"]
        }
    ]

Debugging Remappings

1. Are your configurations correct?

   Adjust the extension's logging level to 'debug', restart VSCode. 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.

   As each remapped configuration is loaded, it is outputted to console. Misconfigured configurations are ignored.

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

   VSCodeVim explicitly instructs VSCode 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.

Vim settings

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. VSCode settings
4. VSCodeVim default values

Setting	Description	Type	Default Value
vim.autoindent	Copy indent from current line when starting a new line	Boolean	true
vim.hlsearch	Highlights all text matching current search	Boolean	false
vim.ignorecase	Ignore case in search patterns	Boolean	true
vim.incsearch	Show the next match while entering a search	Boolean	true
vim.leader	Defines key for <leader> to be used in key remappings	String	\
vim.showcmd	Show (partial) command in status bar	Boolean	true
vim.showmodename	Show name of current mode in status bar	Boolean	true
vim.smartcase	Override the 'ignorecase' setting if search pattern contains uppercase characters	Boolean	true
vim.textwidth	Width to word-wrap when using gq	Number	80
vim.timeout	Timeout in milliseconds for remapped commands	Number	1000
vim.whichwrap	Controls wrapping at beginning and end of line. Comma-separated set of keys that should wrap to next/previous line. Arrow keys are represented by [ and ] in insert mode, < and > in normal and visual mode. To wrap "everything", set this to h,l,<,>,[,].	String	``

🖱️ Multi-Cursor Mode

⚠️ 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.

🔌 Emulated Plugins

vim-airline

⚠️ Experimental feature. Due to VSCode API limitations, this function modifies settings.json in the workspace resulting in 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"

vim-easymotion

Based on vim-easymotion. To activate easymotion, you need to make sure that easymotion is set to true in settings.json (default is false).

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.

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> b	Start of word backwards
<leader><leader> l	matches beginning & ending of word, camelCase, after _ and after # forwards
<leader><leader> h	matches beginning & ending of word, camelCase, after _ and after # backwards
<leader><leader> e	End of word forwards
<leader><leader> ge	End of word backwards
<leader><leader> j	Start of line forwards
<leader><leader> k	Start of line backwards
<leader><leader> / <char>... <CR>	Search n-character
<leader><leader><leader> bdt	Til character
<leader><leader><leader> bdw	Start of word
<leader><leader><leader> bde	End of word
<leader><leader><leader> bdjk	Start of line
<leader><leader><leader> j	JumpToAnywhere motion; default behavior matches beginning & ending of word, camelCase, after _ and after #

<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.

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

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).
vim.easymotionKeys	The characters used for jump marker name
vim.easymotionJumpToAnywhereRegex	Custom regex to match for JumpToAnywhere motion (analogous to Easymotion_re_anywhere). Example setting (which also matches start & end of line, as well as Javascript comments in addition to the regular behavior (note the double escaping required): ^\s*.

vim-surround

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.

Surround is enabled by default, but 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)

vim-commentary

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.

vim-indent-object

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.

Command	Description
<operator>ii	This indentation level
<operator>ai	This indentation level and the line above (think if statements in Python)
<operator>aI	This indentation level, the line above, and the line after (think if statements in C/C++/Java/etc)

vim-sneak

Based on vim-sneak. To activate sneak, you need to make sure that sneak is set to true in settings.json (default is false).

"vim.sneakUseIgnorecaseAndSmartcase": true can be set if desired to allow for respecting vim.ignorecase and vim.smartcase while sneaking (default is false)

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.

Motion Command	Description
s<char><char>	Move forward to the first occurence of <char><char>
S<char><char>	Move backward to the first occurence of <char><char>
<operator>z<char><char>	Perform <operator> forward to the first occurence of <char><char>
<operator>Z<char><char>	Perform <operator> backward to the first occurence of <char><char>

Input Method

Disable input method when exiting Insert Mode.

Setting	Description
vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.enable	Boolean denoting whether autoSwitchInputMethod is on/off.
vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.defaultIM	Default input method.
vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.obtainIMCmd	The full path to command to retrieve the current input method key.
vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.switchIMCmd	The full path to command to switch input method, with {im} a placeholder for input method key.

You can use any third-party program to switch input methods. We recommend im-select, and the following will walkthrough installation and configuration for im-select.

1. Install im-select

   Follow the installation guide to install im-select

2. Find your default input method key

   • MacOS:

     Switch your input method to English, and run the following in your terminal:

     $ /usr/local/bin/im-select

     the program will output your default input method (eg. com.apple.keyload.US). The table below is a list of 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:

     For most people, their default input method key is 1033, the locale ID of en_US. But if your default keyboard layout is not en_US, you can use im-select.exe to find out, the guide is here. You can also find your locale ID in this page, the LCID Decimal column is the locale ID.

3. Configure vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.

   • MacOS:

     Given default input method key of com.apple.keylayout.US and im-select saved to the default location. 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 default input method key of 1033(en_US) and your im-select.exe is 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}"

If using an alternative program to switch input methods and it requires a command-line options to switch or get the input method, you should add the options to the configuration. For example, if your program's usage is my-program -s imKey to switch input method, your vim.autoSwitchInputMethod.switchIMCmd should be /path/to/my-program -s {im}.

🎩 VSCodeVim tricks!

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!

📚 F.A.Q.

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'"
}

❤️ 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.

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