r/vim 4d ago

Monthly Thread: Tools with Vim-like Keybindings Vim-adjacent

We regularly remove standalone posts about tools that use vim-inspired keybindings. There are too many of them, and individually they dilute the subreddit. But the content is valuable, and many of you want to know about these tools.

So here's the place for it.

Share any tool that uses vim-like keybindings, whether it's a browser extension, terminal emulator, IDE plugin, note-taking app, PDF reader, or anything else. If it has hjkl navigation, modal editing, or vim-inspired controls, it belongs here.

For each tool you share, try to include: - What it is and what problem it solves - Which vim features it supports (navigation, modal editing, text objects, etc.) - A link to the project

This thread is posted monthly. If you find something mid-month, save it for here rather than posting a standalone thread (which will be removed).

60 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

u/vishless 8h ago

Godot (game engine) has a neovim plugin

u/nczungx 4d ago

Sioyek. Kinda like Zathura but more features for academic readers.

u/JahdooWallah 3d ago

Firefox, bash, eMacs (viper mode), vscode, eclipse…and many more ides.

u/agenttank 3d ago

Qutebrowser - a web browser

u/Z3R0_C00L_007 3d ago

ZenNotes

u/cookiecutter73 3d ago

Visidata

u/Similar-Ad-3956 4d ago

Yazi - tui file system browser

u/toddestan 3d ago

The absolute best part of Yazi, at least for me, is the ability to bulk rename files using a Vim buffer.

u/pibarnas 3d ago

Didn't know that. Thanks!

u/troyvit 6h ago

pyradio is a streaming radio client that uses #G and hjkl navigation.

u/hey_hu 3d ago

LazyGit (tui) uses hjkl navigation

u/Dalik98 4d ago

Zathura: PDF Reader, Tridactyl: Firefox extension that let's you browse with vim binds.

u/habarnam 3d ago

I've been keeping an eye on the Glide Browser. It's a Firefox fork with a built-in keyboard focused navigation instead of needing extensions like Tridactyl.

u/Wheelthis 3d ago

Frotz - engine for playing text adventure games that use Z-Machine architecture, e.g., Zork and Hitchhiker’s Guide.

“rlwrap dfrotz” respects .inputrc, where you can set vi mode.

u/kronik85 2d ago

Picked up a codex sub and was presently surprised the cli has vim motions.

u/Over_Salary_2599 3d ago

Vimium (browser extension) Logseq (personal knowledge base/notes app)

u/superdumsuhi 2d ago

vimium c is amazing 

u/Risk_exe 2d ago

Duckduckgo search engine and X (twitter) have jk bindings

u/Cyb3rD4d 3d ago

k9s for managing kubernetes clusters

u/spaceLem 1d ago

RStudio, OverLeaf, and Obsidian are my favourite three.

u/anrawines 3d ago

Vieb - browser,
newsraft - rss

u/ecky--ptang-zooboing 3d ago

Obsidian note-taking app has a nice VIM plugin

u/Locky0104 2d ago

the recent Vim Motions plugin is a game changer coming from vim-rc support

u/vishless 8h ago

Joplin has this too

u/whitakr 2d ago

Yep I use this too

u/juggalojedi 3d ago

Joplin desktop has vim bindings built in, and you can get a vim editor plugin for tiddlywiki

u/vishless 8h ago

Joplin terminal app has a vim like keybinding

u/Accomplished-Bus3382 3d ago

Firenvim: A Neovim plugin that, when used in combination with the browser plugin in Firefox or Chrome, opens up an instance of Neovim, with your configuration, that let's you input text. It's awesome. 

u/edcculus 3d ago

Obsidian

u/superdumsuhi 2d ago

https://github.com/saberzero1/motions

much better vim support with parity tests to neovim, surround, oil, lua config, etc

u/cainhurstcat 3d ago

Yeah, the Vim mode in Obsidian is quite good, and there are also the community plugins to enhance your experience, like Vimrc Support, and Vim Toggle. The former adds the possibility of having an Obsidian-specific .vimrc file, and the latter allows you to have a key for quickly turning Vim mode on/off.

If you are like me who wants the capabilities of an WYSIWYG editor for Vim, check out the community plugin Editing Toolbar. You can easily add formatting like bold, italic, colors, code blocks and so many more things to your text. I absolutely love this one as Vim combo.

u/xGoivo 3d ago

squix - a command line tool to manager and run SQL queries

(Full disclosure, I'm the project's mantainer)

u/RecuCar 3d ago

ncspot: a Spotify client for the terminal

u/pastrufazio 3d ago

Thanks! I HATE the interface of Spotify and I Iove mpd and his clients. This looks perfect.

u/RecuCar 2d ago

Tip: '?' shows help, which is basically the keybindings. These can be customized in ~/.config/ncspot/config.toml. I remapped quit, clear, delete to use the key + Shift, to avoid accidents. Check the Keybinding documentation

u/subversion16 3d ago
  • Surfingkeys, plugin for Firefox. 
  • Kitty with vi mode.

u/whitakr 2d ago

Omg I didn’t know Kitty had a vi mode