hed

A small sized(<1MB), hackable terminal editor written in C.

Modal by default, but ships Emacs and VSCode keymaps you can swap to at runtime. Tree-sitter highlights, ripgrep / fzf integrations, window splits, tmux runner pane, OSC 52 clipboard, LSP. Every user-facing feature is a plugin you can rip out, fork, or replace.

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Install in 10 seconds

One line install:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/42dotmk/hed/releases/latest/download/install.sh | bash

The installer asks two things:

1. Source or binary? Binary is faster (one download, ready to run). Source clones the repo into ~/.local/share/hed, builds it, and symlinks hed and tsi into ~/.local/bin — pick this if you want to hack on plugins.
2. Optional tools? Offers to download portable static fzf and ripgrep binaries into the same ~/.local/bin, then lets you pick tree-sitter grammars to install for syntax highlighting.

No sudo. No package manager. Everything ends up under ~/.local/.

After install, make sure ~/.local/bin is on your PATH:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Then run hed and you're in.

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Build from source manually

If you want to skip the installer:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/42dotmk/hed.git
cd hed
make
./build/hed

If you forgot --recursive:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Targets:

make           # build build/hed and build/tsi
make install   # symlink build/hed and build/tsi into ~/.local/bin
make run       # build then run
make clean     # remove build/
make test      # Unity unit tests

make install symlinks rather than copies — rebuilds (make, :reload) update the installed binary automatically.

Build requirements

• gcc or clang, C11
• POSIX terminal, libdl

The vendored tree-sitter runtime is included as a submodule under vendor/tree-sitter and statically linked. No libtree-sitter system package required.

Optional runtime tools

Each integration degrades cleanly if its tool is missing:

Tool	Used by
ripgrep	:rg, :ssearch, :rgword
fzf	:fzf, :recent, :c, history pickers
tmux	runner pane (:tmux_toggle, :tmux_send_line)
lazygit	:git
bat	fzf previews
ctags	:tag
clang-format / rustfmt / prettier / black / gofmt / shfmt	:fmt
git, cc	tsi (tree-sitter grammar installer)

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Highlights

• Vim-like modal editing by default, with full operator + text-object composition (diw, ci(, ya", >i{, …) and the usual undo / redo, registers, macros, and search stack.
• Three swappable keymaps: Vim (default), Emacs (modeless, C-a/C-e/C-x cluster), VSCode (modeless, Ctrl+S/Z/F/D, shift-arrow selection). Toggle at runtime with :keymap.
• Tree-sitter highlighting for any language you install via tsi. Grammars load on demand with dlopen.
• Fuzzy pickers: :fzf files, :recent recent, :c commands, history fzf, jump-list fzf — all powered by fzf.
• ripgrep + quickfix: :rg, :rgword, :ssearch populate a quickfix buffer with live preview as the cursor moves.
• Splits & windows: vertical / horizontal splits, window focus navigation, modal floating windows.
• tmux runner pane: send the paragraph under your cursor to a shell pane next door.
• System clipboard over SSH via OSC 52 — no xclip, pbcopy, or wl-copy shelling out.
• :reload rebuilds the editor and execs the new binary in place, restoring all open buffers.
• No flicker on terminals that support DEC mode 2026 (kitty, alacritty, wezterm, foot, ghostty).

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Plugins

The core editor knows about buffers, windows, terminal I/O, the keybind dispatcher, the command registry, and the hook system. Every user-facing feature is a plugin in plugins/<name>/. Each has its own README; here's the catalogue:

Plugin	What it does
core	Default : command set (:q, :w, :e, :bn, :fzf, :rg, …)
vim_keybinds	Default modal Vim keymap
emacs_keybinds	Modeless Emacs keymap (C-a/C-e, M-x, C-x cluster)
vscode_keybinds	Modeless VSCode keymap (Ctrl+S, shift-arrow selection)
keymap	:keymap and :keymap-toggle for runtime swap
treesitter	Syntax highlighting; grammars via dlopen
clipboard	OSC 52 yank to system clipboard (works over SSH)
dired	oil.nvim-style directory browser
tmux	Runner pane integration
fmt	:fmt runs an external formatter on the buffer
auto_pair	Auto-insert matching brackets and quotes
smart_indent	Carry indent onto new lines
quickfix_preview	Live preview of the quickfix entry under the cursor
viewmd	Markdown live preview in the browser
scratch	:scratch ephemeral unnamed buffer
sed	:sed <expr> pipes the buffer through external sed
reload	:reload rebuilds and execs the new binary
session	Save / restore the open-buffer list per cwd
lsp	LSP client (work in progress)
example	Starter template — copy and rename for your own

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Configuration

All user-facing customization lives in src/config.c:

void config_init(void) {
    plugin_load(&plugin_core,             1);
    plugin_load(&plugin_vim_keybinds,     1);
    plugin_load(&plugin_emacs_keybinds,   0);  // registered, swappable
    plugin_load(&plugin_vscode_keybinds,  0);
    plugin_load(&plugin_treesitter,       1);
    plugin_load(&plugin_clipboard,        1);
    /* ... */

    /* Personal overrides — last-write-wins, beats plugin defaults. */
    cmapn(" ff", "fzf");
    cmapn(" rr", "reload");
    /* ... */
}

Edit, run make, and :reload from inside the editor to pick up the changes — no need to quit and relaunch.

Adding your own plugin

cp -r plugins/example plugins/myplugin
# rename example → myplugin in the source files
# add plugin_load(&plugin_myplugin, 1) to src/config.c
make

See plugins/example/README.md for the full recipe and the plugin contract.

Out-of-tree plugins

Keep your plugin set anywhere on disk and point the build at it:

make PLUGINS_DIR=$HOME/my-hed-plugins

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Project layout

src/                 # core editor (buffers, windows, terminal,
                     # commands, keybinds, hooks, undo, fold, …)
plugins/             # all user-facing functionality (see catalogue above)
vendor/tree-sitter/  # vendored runtime, statically linked
ts/                  # tsi (grammar installer) source
queries/             # tree-sitter highlight queries by language
test/                # Unity unit tests

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Troubleshooting

• Logs: ~/.cache/hed/<encoded-cwd>/log. Tail it while hed runs; clear with :logclear.
• :plugins lists everything currently loaded.
• :keybinds lists every binding registered for the active mode.
• If fzf, ripgrep, tmux, or lazygit are missing, related commands fail with a status-line message and the rest of the editor keeps working.
• If :reload fails to rebuild, the error goes to the status line — open ~/.cache/hed/<encoded-cwd>/log for the full output.