Coming from VS Code

mnml’s default input mode is standard — modeless, Ctrl-shortcut, typing inserts. If you came in from VS Code, almost every chord in your fingers does the thing you expect. Ctrl+S saves. Ctrl+P opens the file picker. Ctrl+Shift+P opens the command palette. Ctrl+/ toggles a line comment. Ctrl+D adds the next occurrence to a multi-cursor.

What’s different: there’s no Lua extension API, no settings JSON, and the file tree is one of several rails. mnml is a terminal app, so anything VS Code does via Electron-specific affordances (drag-from-system-drop, image preview tabs, side-by-side rich diff) either renders the terminal-native equivalent or doesn’t exist. The job of this page is to point out which chords translate, what the mouse can do, where the keyboard alternative lives, and what isn’t here.

You’re already in standard mode

Standard is the default — you don’t have to set anything. If you’ve inherited a ~/.config/mnml/config.toml that flipped you into vim mode, change it back:

~/.config/mnml/config.toml

[editor]
input_style = "standard"

Or runtime-toggle (works from either mode):

:set input=standard

That : ex command works in standard mode too — : is one of the few “vim-isms” that always pops the ex line, regardless of input handler. There’s also a palette command: Ctrl+Shift+P → editor: toggle keymap.

Standard mode has no mode chip. There’s nothing to leave; typing inserts; arrows move; Shift+arrow extends a selection.

The internals — why both modes coexist without scattering if vim {} through the editor — are documented on Editing. You don’t need them to be productive.

The chord translation

These tables cover the chords you reach for instinctively. Source of truth: src/command.rs (built-in defaults) and src/input/standard.rs (the standard handler).

File ops

VS Code	mnml	Notes
Ctrl+S save	Ctrl+S	App-level command; works from every pane
Ctrl+N new file	Ctrl+N
Ctrl+O open file	Ctrl+P	mnml uses VS-Code’s file picker chord (Cmd+P on macOS), not the OS file dialog
Ctrl+P quick-open	Ctrl+P	Fuzzy file picker
Ctrl+Shift+P command palette	Ctrl+Shift+P	Also F1
Ctrl+W close tab	Ctrl+W	Closes the active buffer
Ctrl+Shift+T reopen closed	Ctrl+Shift+T
Ctrl+Tab last buffer	Ctrl+Tab	Also Ctrl+6 (vim alias)
Ctrl+PageDown / PageUp next/prev tab	Ctrl+PageDown / PageUp
Alt+1 … Alt+9 jump to tab N	Alt+1 … Alt+9
Ctrl+B toggle sidebar	Ctrl+B	Toggles the file tree / activity rail
Ctrl+, settings	Ctrl+,	Opens the schema-driven settings overlay

Ctrl+R is mapped to picker.recent (recent files / workspaces), not to “reload window” — VS Code’s reload doesn’t have an analog here; mnml’s <leader>r (in vim mode) or the app: restart palette command does the same thing.

Editing

VS Code	mnml
Ctrl+A select all	Ctrl+A
Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X / Ctrl+V	Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X / Ctrl+V (system clipboard)
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z / Ctrl+Y undo / redo	All three present (Ctrl+Y is redo too)
Ctrl+/ toggle line comment	Ctrl+/
Ctrl+] / Ctrl+[ indent / dedent	Ctrl+] / Ctrl+[ (standard-mode override of bracket-match); Tab / Shift+Tab also indents a selection
Alt+↑ / Alt+↓ move line	Alt+↑ / Alt+↓ (also Alt+J / Alt+K)
Shift+Alt+↓ duplicate line	Ctrl+Shift+D (mnml’s chord); Shift+Alt+↓ doesn’t currently fire
Ctrl+Shift+K delete line	Ctrl+Shift+K
Ctrl+Enter open line below	Ctrl+Enter
Ctrl+Shift+Enter open line above	Ctrl+Shift+Enter
Ctrl+L select line	Ctrl+L
Ctrl+D add next occurrence	Ctrl+D
Ctrl+Shift+L select all occurrences	Ctrl+Shift+L
Ctrl+Alt+↓ / ↑ add cursor below / above	Ctrl+Alt+↓ / ↑ (also Ctrl+Alt+J / K)
Esc collapse selection / cursors	Esc
Home / End smart line nav	Home / End (smart-home: first non-whitespace, then col 0)
Ctrl+Home / End file start / end	Ctrl+Home / End
Ctrl+G go to line	Ctrl+G
Ctrl+← / Ctrl+→ word motion	Ctrl+← / Ctrl+→ (Shift extends)
Ctrl+Backspace / Delete word-delete	Both present

Modifier-leak guard. Adding Alt to any Ctrl chord (so Ctrl+Alt+X, Ctrl+Alt+A, etc.) is silently ignored — it does NOT fire the bare-Ctrl variant. macOS keyboards emit Ctrl+Alt+* for OS-level shortcuts and the leak used to cut/select/save by accident. Fixed; explicit !alt guards on every Ctrl arm.

Find + replace

VS Code	mnml
Ctrl+F find in file	Ctrl+F
F3 / Shift+F3 next / prev match	F3 / Shift+F3
Alt+R toggle regex in find	Alt+R
Ctrl+H find + replace	Ctrl+H
Ctrl+Shift+F workspace search	Ctrl+Shift+F (graphical grep pane)

LSP / language intelligence

mnml’s LSP surface mirrors VS Code closely. See LSP for the full story.

VS Code	mnml
F12 goto definition	F12
Ctrl+Space trigger completion	Ctrl+Space
Ctrl+. quick-fix / code actions	Ctrl+.
Alt+Enter quick-fix (JetBrains alias)	Alt+Enter
Alt+Shift+O organize imports	Alt+Shift+O
Ctrl+Shift+I format document	Ctrl+Shift+I
Ctrl+Shift+O symbols in file	Ctrl+Shift+O
Hover popup (mouse)	Hover with mouse, or :Hover ex command
F2 rename symbol	F2

Ctrl+click for goto-definition works — mouse-over a symbol with Ctrl/Cmd held, click, mnml fires lsp.goto_definition on the symbol under the cursor. Alt+← / Alt+→ walk the jump history.

Tabs (mouse + keyboard)

The bufferline is the row of file tabs across the top of the editor. mnml supports both VS-Code-style click-and-drag and keyboard navigation.

Mouse action	Result
Left-click tab	Focus that buffer
Middle-click tab	Close that buffer
Drag tab	Reorder (drop slot is computed live during drag)
Right-click tab	Context menu — Close, Close others, Close all, etc.
Click the × on a tab	Close that tab
Click the + (right edge)	New empty buffer

Keyboard equivalents are all in the file-ops table above.

Splits

VS Code	mnml
Ctrl+\ split editor	Ctrl+\
Drag split divider	Click + drag the divider
Click in a pane to focus	Click in the pane
Close active editor group	Palette: view: close split

mnml’s split chord story is in vim’s Ctrl-W prefix — Ctrl-W v / Ctrl-W s, then Ctrl-W h/j/k/l to navigate. Even in standard mode, those work (the Ctrl-W prefix is global). The leader equivalents (<leader>sv / <leader>ss / <leader>sh/sj/sk/sl) need the leader chord (Ctrl+K in standard mode) — see the leader section below.

Tree + sidebar (mouse-friendly)

Mouse action	Result
Click file in tree	Open in preview (italic tab)
Double-click file in tree	Open + pin (regular tab)
Click folder	Expand / collapse
Right-click tree node	Context menu (rename, delete, new file, new folder, reveal in OS)
Click + chip on a section	Add — workspace, integration, etc.
Click integration icon	Launch that sibling pane
Hover any chip	Tooltip — what is this, what’s its state

Keyboard: Ctrl+B toggles the tree. Ctrl+Shift+E focuses the tree from anywhere. Once focused, arrow keys / j k navigate, Enter opens, Space previews, / filters, n creates a new file, Esc returns to the editor.

The command palette

Ctrl+Shift+P (or F1) opens the palette. Every command — every chord, every ex command, every plugin action — is searchable here by name. Type to filter, ↑ ↓ walk results, Enter runs, Esc closes.

The palette also reads:

• Recent commands — Ctrl+R lists recently-run commands
• Palette bar — there’s an optional always-visible search chip in the bufferline ([ui] palette_bar_visible = true); clicking it is the same as Ctrl+Shift+P

Multi-cursor

The Sublime / VS Code idiom is exactly the same:

Action	Chord
Add cursor at next occurrence	Ctrl+D
Skip current + add next	(palette: editor: skip occurrence)
Select all occurrences	Ctrl+Shift+L
Column cursors above / below	Ctrl+Alt+↑ / ↓ (also Ctrl+Alt+K / J)
Cursor at mouse click	Alt+click
Box selection (column)	Shift+Alt+drag
Collapse to single cursor	Esc

All cursors apply edits in parallel — type and every cursor inserts, Backspace and every cursor deletes.

Debugging

Standard VS Code keys all work; see LSP for the language-server side.

VS Code	mnml
F5 start / continue	F5 continue (run)
Shift+F5 stop / step-out-of-continue	Shift+F5 continue (no separate stop)
F9 toggle breakpoint	F9
Shift+F9 conditional breakpoint	Shift+F9
F10 step over	F10
F11 step into	F11
Shift+F11 step out	Shift+F11

Terminal

VS Code	mnml
Ctrl+backtick“ open terminal	Ctrl+backtick“ — scratch terminal toggle. (Ctrl+\ used to also fire this; today it’s view.split_right for VS Code parity.)
Ctrl+T (not bound by default)	Ctrl+T opens / focuses a shell pane

Ctrl+J expands a snippet at the cursor (the snippet-expand chord; VS Code uses Tab after typing a snippet trigger, mnml also accepts Tab from the completion popup but Ctrl+J is the explicit chord).

Window / navigation

VS Code	mnml
Ctrl+Shift+Z zen mode	Ctrl+Shift+Z zen mode (full-screen single buffer)
Alt+← / Alt+→ go-back / go-forward	Alt+← / Alt+→ (mnml navigation history)
Ctrl+L (terminal clear)	Ctrl+L is SelectLine in editor — for terminal-clear, use a shell pane (Ctrl+L is forwarded)
Ctrl+Q quit	Ctrl+Q

Hover tooltips (everywhere)

Hover any tree-rail integration chip, any statusline chip (workspace, branch, mixr now-playing, …), any tab badge, any gutter column — a tooltip explains what you’re looking at and its current state. Move the cursor off and the tooltip dismisses. Move to another chip and it swaps cleanly (no stale tooltip overlap).

The leader chord (optional but useful)

mnml’s vim mode has a leader trie under <space>. In standard mode the entry chord is Ctrl+K. The trie is the same — same continuations, same commands. Press Ctrl+K, then the next key paints a which-key popup. Try:

• Ctrl+K p → command palette (same as Ctrl+Shift+P)
• Ctrl+K g s → git status / staging pane
• Ctrl+K l d → goto definition (LSP)
• Ctrl+K a c → open Claude Code
• Ctrl+K ? → cheatsheet pane (every chord, searchable)

You can ignore the leader entirely if it doesn’t fit how you think — every leader action has a palette command and a chord. But it’s there as a discoverable “rich menu” that most VS Code users haven’t met.

The full leader map is documented on Coming from NvChad — same trie, same content.

Differences worth knowing

Honest list of places where VS Code muscle memory doesn’t translate cleanly.

Shift+Alt+↓ / ↑ duplicate line

Wired today — both chords land. Ctrl+Shift+D still works and keeps the cursor on the original line; the Shift+Alt variant matches VS Code by landing the cursor on the new copy.

No JSON settings — TOML instead

Ctrl+, opens a settings overlay (a sectioned keyboard-driven list, not a JSON file). The on-disk source of truth is TOML at ~/.config/mnml/config.toml. You can edit either; both ends up at the same state.

A per-workspace overlay at <workspace>/.mnml/config.toml is the equivalent of VS Code’s workspace settings.

No extensions marketplace

mnml’s plugin model is two parts: registered commands (built-in, in src/command.rs) and out-of-process sibling binaries launched as Pty panes via :term <binary>. The > INTEGRATIONS section of the file tree shows installed siblings; click + to browse + install more. No marketplace, no signing, no auto-updates pushed at you. See Installing integrations.

Built-in things VS Code does via extensions

• Git — built-in. Status pane, diff pane, blame, commit graph, AI-generated commit messages. See Git.
• HTTP client — built-in .http / .curl / .rest files with Send chord. See HTTP client.
• Test runner — built-in via the test pane (palette: test: run all etc.).
• AI — built-in Claude Code + Claude chat + Codex panes. See AI panes.
• Debugger (DAP) — built-in, F5 / F9 / F10 / F11 work.
• Browser via CDP — <leader>B opens Chrome via the DevTools Protocol with a coupled live-preview pane.

You don’t install REST Client, GitLens, GitHub Copilot, Thunder Client. They’re all in the box.

No tab pinning state via right-click

The right-click context menu on a tab covers Close, Close others, Close all. “Pin tab” isn’t a state today — preview tabs (italic) become pinned (regular) on first edit, automatically. If you want to keep a file open without pinning, just don’t edit it.

Tree drag-and-drop reorders files? No

The tree is read-only-for-position. Right-click → rename to move a file. Drag-and-drop reorder for files isn’t a feature.

Ctrl+K Ctrl+S keyboard shortcuts UI? No

VS Code’s keyboard-shortcuts editor doesn’t exist. To see every chord, open the cheatsheet pane:

:cheatsheet

…or Ctrl+K ? (leader → ?), or palette → view: cheatsheet (all chords).

To rebind, edit [keys.global] in ~/.config/mnml/config.toml. The remapping surface is still under construction — built-in defaults cover the common chords, but a full [keys.standard] overlay isn’t there yet.

Ctrl+S on every pane

In VS Code, Ctrl+S saves the focused editor — and does nothing on most other surfaces. In mnml, Ctrl+S is an App command (not handler-level), so it fires from any pane that supports saving. From a non-saveable pane (git status, terminal, integration sibling) it no-ops silently.

First-launch checklist

A 60-second path from “fresh install” to “I can work like I did in VS Code.”

1. Launch in your workspace — no config needed; standard is the default:

   mnml ~/some/project

2. Try Ctrl+P — file picker opens. Type, Enter, file opens.

3. Try Ctrl+Shift+P — command palette. Type “settings”, Enter, the settings overlay opens. (Or just hit Ctrl+,.)

4. Try Ctrl+B — toggle the file tree. Click around. Right-click for context menus.

5. Hit Ctrl+S to save anything you touched. The dirty dot on the tab clears.

You’re in. Treat the leader chord (Ctrl+K) as a nice-to-have — your existing chord vocabulary covers the day-to-day.

Next

• Editing — the architectural framing, the EditOp model, multi-cursor specifics
• Settings & configuration — TOML schema, the settings overlay, every config knob
• LSP — language servers, completion, code actions, refactors
• Git — built-in git surface (status, diff, blame, AI commits)
• Coming from NvChad — the other half of the migration story, for vim teammates
• Installing integrations — adding sibling viewers (forge, AWS, observability)