Multiple selections as a central way of interacting

Powerful selection manipulation primitives

Powerful text manipulation primitives

Client-Server architecture

Simple interaction with external programs

Automatic contextual help

Automatic as you type completion

Macros

Hooks

Syntax Highlighting

A C++20 compliant compiler (GCC >= 10.3 or clang >= 11) along with its associated C++ standard library (libstdc++ >= 10 or libc++)

<esc>: leave insert mode

<backspace>: delete characters before cursors

<del>: delete characters under cursors

<left>, <right>, <up>, <down>: move cursors in given direction

<home>: move cursors to line beginning

<end>: move cursors to line ending

<c-n>: select next completion candidate

<c-p>: select previous completion candidate

<c-x>: explicit insert completion query, followed by:

<c-o>: disable automatic completion for this insert session

<c-r>: insert contents of the register given by next key

<c-v>: insert next keystroke directly into the buffer, without interpreting it

<c-u>: commit changes up to now as a single undo group

<a-;>: escape to normal mode for a single command

h: select the character on the left of selection end

j: select the character below the selection end

k: select the character above the selection end

l: select the character on the right of selection end

w: select the word and following whitespaces on the right of selection end

b: select preceding whitespaces and the word on the left of selection end

e: select preceding whitespaces and the word on the right of selection end

<a-[wbe]>: same as [wbe], but select WORD instead of word

f: select to (including) the next occurrence of the given character

t: select until (excluding) the next occurrence of the given character

<a-[ft]>: same as [ft] but in the other direction

m: select to matching character

M: extend selection to matching character

x: expand selections to contain full lines (including end-of-lines)

<a-x>: trim selections to only contain full lines (not including last end-of-line)

%: select whole buffer

<a-h>: select to line begin

<a-l>: select to line end

/: search (select next match)

<a-/>: search (select previous match)

?: search (extend to next match)

<a-?>: search (extend to previous match)

n: select next match

N: add a new selection with next match

<a-n>: select previous match

<a-N>: add a new selection with previous match

pageup, <c-b>: scroll one page up

pagedown, <c-f>: scroll one page down

<c-u>: scroll half a page up

<c-d>: scroll half a page down

): rotate selections (the main selection becomes the next one)

(: rotate selections backwards

;: reduce selections to their cursor

<a-;>: flip the selections' direction

<a-:>: ensure selections are in forward direction (cursor after anchor)

<a-.>: repeat last object or f/t selection command.

_: trim selections

wWW selects 3 consecutive words: first w selects a word, then WW extends the selection two words further.

f/F/ selects up to and including the second / character forward.

i: enter insert mode before each selection

a: enter insert mode after each selection

d: yank and delete each selection

c: yank and delete each selection and enter insert mode

.: repeat last insert mode change (i, a, or c, including the inserted text)

<a-d>: delete each selection

<a-c>: delete each selection and enter insert mode

I: enter insert mode at each selection begin line start

A: enter insert mode at each selection end line end

o: enter insert mode in one (or given count) new lines below each selection end

O: enter insert mode in one (or given count) new lines above each selection begin

<a-o>: add an empty line below each cursor

<a-O>: add an empty line above each cursor

y: yank selections

p: paste after each selection end

P: paste before each selection begin

<a-p>: paste all after each selection end

<a-P>: paste all before each selection begin

R: replace each selection with yanked text

<a-R>: replace each selection with every yanked text

r: replace each character with the next entered one

<a-j>: join selected lines

<a-J>: join selected lines and select spaces inserted in place of line breaks

<a-_>: merge contiguous selections together (works across lines as well)

<gt> (>): indent selected lines

<a-gt>: indent selected lines, including empty lines

<lt> (<): deindent selected lines

<a-lt>: deindent selected lines, do not remove incomplete indent (3 leading spaces when indent is 4)

|: pipe each selection through the given external filter program and replace the selection with its output.

<a-|>: pipe each selection through the given external filter program and ignore its output

!: insert command output before each selection

<a-!>: append command output after each selection

u: undo last change

<c-k>: move backward in history

<a-u>: undo selection changes

U: redo last change

<c-j>: move forward in history

<a-U>: redo selection changes

&: align selections, align the cursor of selections by inserting spaces before the first character of the selection

<a-&>: copy indent, copy the indentation of the main selection (or the count one if a count is given) to all other ones

`: to lower case

~: to upper case

<a-`>: swap case

@: convert selected tabs to spaces, uses the buffer tabstop option or the count parameter for tabstop.

<a-@>: convert selected spaces to tabs, uses the buffer tabstop option or the count parameter for tabstop.

<a-)>: rotate selections content, if specified, the count groups selections, so 3<a-)> rotate (1, 2, 3) and (4, 5, 6) independently.

<a-(>: rotate selections content backwards

select the paragraph with x then enough J

press s and enter roger, then enter

now paragraph selection was replaced with multiselection of each roger in the paragraph

press c and marcel<esc> to replace rogers with marcels

cd [<directory>]: change the current directory to <directory>, or the home directory if unspecified

doc <topic>: display documentation about a topic. The completion list displays the available topics.

e[dit][!] <filename> [<line> [<column>]]: open buffer on file, go to given line and column. If file is already opened, just switch to this file. Use edit! to force reloading.

w[rite][!] [<filename>]: write buffer to <filename> or use its name if filename is not given. If the file is write-protected, its permissions are temporarily changed to allow saving the buffer and restored afterwards when the write! command is used.

w[rite]a[ll]: write all buffers that are associated to a file.

q[uit][!] [<exit status>]: exit Kakoune, use quit! to force quitting even if there is some unsaved buffers remaining. If specified, the client exit status will be set to <exit status>.

w[a]q[!] [<exit status>]: write the current buffer (or all buffers when waq is used) and quit. If specified, the client exit status will be set to <exit status>.

kill[!]: terminate the current session, all the clients as well as the server, use kill! to ignore unsaved buffers

b[uffer] <name>: switch to buffer <name>

b[uffer]n[ext]: switch to the next buffer

b[uffer]p[rev]: switch to the previous buffer

d[el]b[uf][!] [<name>]: delete the buffer <name>

source <filename>: execute commands in <filename>

colorscheme <name>: load named colorscheme.

rename-client <name>: set current client name

rename-buffer <name>: set current buffer name

rename-session <name>: set current session name

echo [options] <text>: show <text> in status line, with the following options:

nop: does nothing, but as with every other commands, arguments may be evaluated. So nop can be used for example to execute a shell command while being sure that its output will not be interpreted by kak. :%sh{ echo echo tchou } will echo tchou in Kakoune, whereas :nop %sh{ echo echo tchou } will not, but both will execute the shell command.

fail <text>: raise an error, uses <text> as its description

The selections are not modified: when leaving insert mode using <esc> the selections can change, for example when insert mode was entered with a the cursor will go back one char. Or if on an end of line the cursor will go back left (if possible).

The modes are nested: that means the normal mode can enter prompt (with :), or any other modes (using :on-key or :menu for example), and these modes will get back to the insert mode afterwards.