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mnml

First run

Launch

Section titled “Launch”
Terminal window
mnml                       # open the current directory
mnml ~/code/project        # open a specific workspace
mnml --input vim           # start in vim mode (default is standard)
mnml --ascii               # no Nerd Font? plain-text icons
mnml --headless            # virtual screen + file-IPC channel (for scripts / .test)

First few keys

Section titled “First few keys”
KeyAction
Ctrl-Pfuzzy file finder
Ctrl-Shift-P / F1command palette
Ctrl-Btoggle the file tree
Ctrl-K / <space>which-key leader popup
`Ctrl-“scratch terminal
: (vim mode)ex-command line
:settingsopen the settings overlay
F1 while hoveringclick-discovery — see what every UI element does

Every key is remappable — see Configuration below.

Editing: vim or standard

Section titled “Editing: vim or standard”

mnml ships two input handlers and lets you pick per-session or per-workspace:

~/.config/mnml/config.toml
[editor]
input_style = "vim"        # or "standard"

Switch at runtime with :set input=vim / :set input=standard, or the editor.toggle_keymap command.

The vim handler covers modal editing in depth — operators and text objects (iw, ip, tree-sitter objects if/ic/ia), registers, macros, marks (buffer-local + global, persisted), the . repeat, jumplist + change-list, f/t, vim-surround, multi-cursor, flash-motion jumps, abbreviations, and a deep : ex-command surface (:%s///, ranges, :g/, :norm, :sort, :!cmd, user :commands).

The standard handler is a modeless VS Code-style keymap with multi-cursor (Ctrl-D add-next-occurrence, Ctrl-Alt-↑/↓ column cursors).

Both resolve through the same config-driven keymap, so [keys.global], [keys.vim], and [keys.standard] rebind either.

Pane types

Section titled “Pane types”

Editors aren’t the only thing mnml can open in a pane. Splits + tabs let you mix-and-match these in one session:

  • Editor — text buffer + LSP
  • Terminal (pty) — a shell, the claude CLI, Codex, or any command
  • Diff — git diff with per-hunk staging
  • Browser (CDP) — Chrome via DevTools Protocol with network/console/DOM inspectors
  • DAP — Debug Adapter Protocol client (breakpoints, stepping, watches, REPL)
  • HTTP request — editable form-style request pane
  • SCM dashboard — Bitbucket / GitHub / GitLab / Azure DevOps PRs + pipelines
  • AI — claude CLI, Codex CLI, or direct Anthropic Messages API with agentic tools
  • Test results — Playwright runner with trace viewer + flaky-test history

Open via the command palette (Ctrl-Shift-P) or the : ex-line.

Settings overlay

Section titled “Settings overlay”

:settings opens a keyboard-driven overlay for everyday config toggles — section headers, ▸ row focus, * modified marker. Keys: ←→ adjust, ↑↓ move, r reset row, R reset all, Enter save, Esc cancel. v1 is discrete-choice rows only — number/text/color row kinds are v2.

Configuration

Section titled “Configuration”

mnml reads TOML, merged lowest-to-highest precedence:

built-in defaults
  → ~/.config/mnml/config.toml
  → <workspace>/.mnml/config.toml
  → --config PATH
[editor]
input_style = "standard"   # "vim" | "standard"
tab_width   = 4


[ui]
theme       = "onedark"    # any of 94 themes — gruvbox, catppuccin, kanagawa, nord, …
ascii_icons = false
wrap        = false


[keys.global]
"ctrl+s" = "buffer.save"
"ctrl+p" = "picker.files"
"f5"     = "dap.run"


[lsp.rust]
cmd        = "rust-analyzer"
extensions = ["rs"]


# Bufferline launcher icons (right cluster). Drop in :term entries for any
# private Pty-pane binary you've built locally.
[[ui.launcher_icon]]
id       = "myapp"
glyph    = "\u{F0668}"
fallback = "MA"
command  = ":term myapp"
color    = "teal"
tooltip  = "My private Pty-pane app"

Headless

Section titled “Headless”
Terminal window
mnml --headless

Renders to a virtual screen driven over a file-IPC channel at <workspace>/.mnml/ipc/:

  • command (JSONL, host → mnml)
  • screen.txt / status.json / events.jsonl (mnml → host)

Same App and draw path as the GUI. Used by the .test e2e format (mnml test and under cargo test) and any out-of-process tooling that wants to drive mnml programmatically.

Next

Section titled “Next”