novim

A friendly terminal editor for vibe coders. Not vim.

Target audience: Users who don't know Vim and want a VSCode-like editing experience in the terminal.

For Vim/Neovim users: This is just a Neovim config. See How it Works if you want to reference the config or cherry-pick ideas.

Install

curl -fsSL novim.dev/install | bash

Update

ow version

Press ? for help inside the editor.

Shortcuts

Key	Action
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Shift+Z	Redo
Ctrl+A	Select all
Ctrl+C	Copy (keeps selection)
Ctrl+V	Paste
Esc Esc	Quit (with save confirmation)
?	Help

Mac users: Cmd key also works (Cmd+S, Cmd+Z, etc.)

Git Shortcuts

Key	Action
Ctrl+G	Git status
Ctrl+L	Git log
Ctrl+D	Git diff

Features

• VSCode-like experience - Just type to edit, no modes to learn
• Mouse support - Click, drag, select, double-click to open, Ctrl+click to open externally
• Standard shortcuts - Ctrl+S, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+C/V work as expected
• File tree - Built-in file browser on the left (1/3 of screen)
• Dynamic hints - Status bar shows relevant shortcuts for current context
• Change highlighting - Modified lines are highlighted until saved
• Safe quit - Prompts to save unsaved changes on exit
• No vim knowledge required

Requirements

• Neovim 0.8+ (installed automatically if not found)
• macOS, Linux, or WSL

How it Works

novim is just a Neovim configuration file. Nothing more.

novim/
├── bin/novim              # Bash script (sets XDG vars, runs nvim)
├── config/nvim/init.lua   # THE config file (~670 lines of Lua)
└── config/nvim/pack/...   # gitsigns.nvim plugin

The wrapper script just tells Neovim to use novim's config instead of yours:

export XDG_CONFIG_HOME="$NOVIM_CONFIG"
exec nvim "$@"

That's literally it. No special binary, no fork.

For Neovim Users

If you already use Neovim:

# View the config
cat ~/.local/share/novim/config/nvim/init.lua

# Or on GitHub
# https://github.com/link2004/novim/blob/main/config/nvim/init.lua

Feel free to copy ideas or the entire config.

Read the full technical details →

Credits & Acknowledgments

novim is built on top of amazing open source projects:

Core

• Neovim - The hyperextensible Vim-based text editor License: Apache 2.0 / Vim License Copyright © Neovim contributors

Plugins

• gitsigns.nvim - Git integration for buffers License: MIT Copyright © 2020 Lewis Russell

Color Scheme

• Tokyo Night - Color palette inspiration License: MIT Copyright © enkia

Logo

• oh-my-logo - ASCII logo inspiration License: MIT / CC0-1.0

Similar Projects

• novim-mode - A Vim plugin with similar goals (make Vim behave like a normal editor). novim is a separate project with a different approach (standalone wrapper vs plugin).

License

MIT

See THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md for full license texts of dependencies.