IdeaVim

IdeaVim is a Vim emulation plugin for IDEs based on the IntelliJ Platform. IdeaVim can be used with IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, CLion, PhpStorm, WebStorm, RubyMine, AppCode, DataGrip, GoLand, Rider, Cursive, and Android Studio.

Resources:

• Plugin homepage
• Changelog
• Bug tracker
• Continuous integration builds
• @IdeaVim in Twitter

Installation

Use the IDE's plugin manager to install the latest version of the plugin. Start the IDE normally and enable the Vim emulation using "Tools | Vim Emulator" menu item. At this point you must use Vim keystrokes in all editors.

If you wish to disable the plugin, select the "Tools | Vim Emulator" menu so it is unchecked. At this point your IDE will work with its regular keyboard shortcuts.

Keyboard shortcut conflicts between the Vim emulation and the IDE can be resolved via "File | Settings | Editor | Vim Emulation", "File | Settings | Keymap" on Linux & Windows, and via "Preferences | Editor | Vim Emulation", "Preferences | Keymap" on macOS. They can also be resolved by key-mapping commands in your ~/.ideavimrc file.

Get Early Access

Would you like to try new features and fixes? Join the Early Access Program and receive EAP builds as updates!

1. Open Settings | Plugins
2. Click the gear icon ⚙️, select Manage Plugin Repositories, and add the following url: https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugins/eap/ideavim

See the changelog for the list of hot unreleased features.

It is important to distinguish EAP builds from traditional pre-release software. Please note that the quality of EAP versions may at times be way below even usual beta standards.

You can always leave your feedback with:

• @IdeaVim in Twitter
• Bug tracker

Summary of Supported Vim Features

Supported:

• Motion keys
• Deletion/changing
• Insert mode commands
• Marks
• Registers
• Undo/redo
• Visual mode commands
• Some Ex commands
• Some :set options
• Full Vim regexps for search and search/replace
• Key mappings
• Macros
• Digraphs
• Command line and search history
• Window commands
• Vim web help
• Select mode

Emulated Vim plugins:

• vim-surround
• vim-multiple-cursors
• vim-commentary

Not supported (yet):

• Jump lists
• Various less-used commands

See also:

• The list of all supported commands
• Top features and bugs

Files

• ~/.ideavimrc
  • Your IdeaVim-specific Vim initialization commands

You can read your ~/.vimrc file from ~/.ideavimrc with this command:

source ~/.vimrc

Note, that IdeaVim currently parses ~/.ideavimrc file via simple pattern matching. See VIM-669 for proper parsing of VimL files.

Also note that if you have overridden the user.home JVM option, this will affect where IdeaVim looks for your .ideavimrc file. For example, if you have -Duser.home=/my/alternate/home then IdeaVim will source /my/alternate/home/.ideavimrc instead of ~/.ideavimrc.

Emulated Vim Plugins

IdeaVim extensions emulate some plugins of the original Vim. In order to use IdeaVim extensions, you have to enable them via this command in your ~/.ideavimrc:

set <extension-name>

Available extensions:

• surround

  • set surround
  • Emulates vim-surround
  • Commands: ys, cs, ds, S

• multiple-cursors

  • set multiple-cursors
  • Emulates vim-multiple-cursors
  • Commands: <A-n>, <A-x>, <A-p>, g<A-n>

• commentary

  • set commentary
  • Emulates commentary.vim
  • Commands: gcc, gc + motion, v_gc

Changes to the IDE

Undo/Redo

The IdeaVim plugin uses the undo/redo functionality of the IntelliJ Platform, so the behavior of the u and <C-R> commands may differ from the original Vim. Vim compatibility of undo/redo may be improved in future releases.

See also unresolved undo issues.

Escape

Using <Esc> in dialog windows remains problematic. For most dialog windows, the Vim emulator is put into insert mode with <Esc> not working. You should use <C-c> or <C-[> instead. In some dialog windows, the normal mode is switched by default. The usage of the Vim emulator in dialog windows is an area for improvement.

See also unresolved escape issues.

Executing IDE Actions

IdeaVim adds two commands for listing and executing arbitrary IDE actions as Ex commands or via :map command mappings:

• :actionlist [pattern]
  • Find IDE actions by name or keymap pattern (E.g. :actionlist extract, :actionlist <C-D)
• :action {name}
  • Execute an action named NAME

For example, here \r is mapped to the Reformat Code action:

:map \r :action ReformatCode<CR>

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md

Authors

See AUTHORS.md for a list of authors and contributors.

License

IdeaVim is licensed under the terms of the GNU Public License version 2.