A fast, batteries-included editor with Vim keybindings, built in Rust. Use it
in the terminal or open the native Tauri/SolidJS interface with ovim gui.
ovim gives you what Neovim distros give you. LSP, tree-sitter highlighting, AI chat, sane defaults.
- 35+ languages with tree-sitter syntax highlighting, compiled in
- LSP auto-install — open a file, the language server downloads and starts
- AI chat and editing —
Space Spaceto chat or edit a visual selection - Vim keybindings — operators + motions, text objects, visual mode, macros, marks, registers
- File explorer — open a folder directly; filter, create, rename, copy, move, and delete safely
- Test runner —
Space t nruns the test under the cursor (cargo, vitest/jest/bun/node:test, pytest, go test), monorepo-aware, with live-streaming results panel - Lua config —
vim.opt.number = truejust works. Configure when you want to, not because you have to. - Headless mode — run without a terminal, control via REST API
- Native GUI — a GPU-composited desktop shell with DOM-native editor widgets
brew install ovim-editor/tap/ovimBuild from source instead
# Ubuntu/Debian only: native webview build dependencies
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libappindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf
npm ci --prefix ovim/gui
npm run build --prefix ovim/gui
cargo build --release -p ovim --bins
# binaries at ./target/release/ovim and ./target/release/ovim-gui
# Optional: build native installers for the current platform
npm run bundle --prefix ovim/gui# Open a file
ovim file.rs
# Open the native GUI
ovim gui file.rs
# Open a folder in the file explorer
ovim .
# Jump to a specific line and column
ovim src/main.rs:42:10LSP starts automatically. Syntax highlighting works. No setup needed.
The GUI uses the same editor core, keymaps, buffers, syntax engine, LSP, and
background tasks as the terminal frontend. ovim gui starts the Tauri shell
directly—there is no local server or companion-process lookup. Keyboard, IME,
clipboard, mouse, split-pane, picker, tree, diagnostics, test, debug, LSP
manager, and AI-chat interactions flow through Ovim's normal state machinery.
An event-driven, coalescing channel projects bounded visible state into SolidJS
so idle editors do no DOM work and large files or panels cannot create
unbounded webview payloads.
For GUI development, run npm test --prefix ovim/gui for the Solid DOM suite
and cargo test -p ovim gui:: --lib for bridge, Unicode geometry, wrapping,
split-layout, and projection tests.
This README uses
ovimassuming the binary is on yourPATH.
Open any directory with ovim some-folder, or press - while editing to open
the project tree. Use j/k to move, Enter or l to open, and h to
collapse or move to the parent. The explorer includes safe create, rename,
delete, copy, cut, and paste actions; live filtering; hidden and git-ignored
file toggles; and an in-panel ? key reference.
 |
 |
| Fuzzy finder — jump to any file, live preview | AI code walkthrough — step-through explanations inline |
23 languages with LSP auto-install, 2 more with manual LSP setup, plus syntax-only languages.
When you open a file and its language server isn't installed, ovim asks once:
- Enter — install now
- A — always auto-install
- Esc — skip
| Languages | LSP Server |
|---|---|
| Rust | rust-analyzer |
| TypeScript / JavaScript | typescript-language-server |
| Astro | astro-ls |
| Python | pyright |
| Go | gopls |
| Java, Kotlin, Scala, Groovy | hyperion-lsp |
| C# | csharp-ls |
| C / C++ | clangd (manual install) |
| Ruby | solargraph |
| Zig | zls |
| Lua | lua-language-server |
| Elixir | elixir-ls |
| Terraform | terraform-ls |
| Bash, SQL, JSON, YAML, HTML, XML, CSS, TOML | various |
| Markdown, HCL, WGSL | syntax highlighting only |
Run ovim lsp languages for the full list. See Language Support for details.
Configuration is optional. Create ~/.config/ovim/init.lua when you're ready to customize:
vim.opt.number = true
vim.opt.relativenumber = true
vim.opt.tabstop = 4
vim.opt.shiftwidth = 4
vim.opt.scrolloff = 10
-- AI: Codex supplies inference from your ChatGPT subscription. Ovim is the
-- agent harness: it owns context, tools, approvals, edits, and shell programs.
-- On first use, press Enter in Ovim's sign-in dialog to authenticate in your
-- browser. Ovim keeps and refreshes credentials independently from Codex CLI.
-- The first chat can optionally enable Exa web search; reopen setup with /exa.
vim.ai.setup({
default_profile = "codex_terra",
contexts = {
chat = "codex_sol",
selection = "codex_terra",
query = "codex_terra",
},
profiles = {
codex_sol = {
provider = "codex",
model = "gpt-5.6-sol",
reasoning_effort = "medium",
},
codex_luna = {
provider = "codex",
model = "gpt-5.6-luna",
reasoning_effort = "max",
},
codex_terra = {
provider = "codex",
model = "gpt-5.6-terra",
reasoning_effort = "low",
},
},
})All :set options mirror Vim — :set wrap, :set clipboard=unnamedplus, :set textwidth=80, etc.
To enable Exa for web searches in the AI chat, get an API key at https://exa.ai and set it up in ovim with :exa.
See Configuration and Options Reference for the full list.
ovim can run without a terminal — as a programmable text engine with an authenticated loopback REST API. Ordinary TUI sessions open no API listener.
# Start a headless session
ovim file.rs --headless --session dev
# Control it from another terminal
ovim send "iHello, world!<Esc>" -s dev
ovim buffer -s dev
ovim exec "set number" -s dev
ovim context -s dev # 21-line window around cursorEvery explicit headless session exposes an HTTP server. Ovim's CLI reads the
owner-private session descriptor and authenticates automatically. Custom HTTP
clients must send its capability value as Authorization: Bearer <capability>;
never log, commit, or share that value.
| Endpoint | Method | Description |
|---|---|---|
/v1/health |
GET | Health check with LSP readiness |
/v1/buffer |
GET / PUT | Buffer content |
/v1/keys |
POST | Send keystrokes |
/v1/command |
POST | Execute ex command |
/v1/snapshot |
GET | Complete editor state |
/v1/lsp/status |
GET | LSP server states |
/v1/mcp |
POST | MCP JSON-RPC 2.0 |
For AI-agent integration, ovim also speaks MCP over the same session — ovim install claude / ovim install cursor wires it up. See MCP docs if you want it.
ovim edit file.rs --old "foo" --new "bar"
ovim insert file.rs --after 42 --text "new line"
ovim delete-lines file.rs --from 42 --to 45
ovim read-lines file.rs --from 40 --to 60ovim send "ggK" -s dev # Send keystrokes
ovim exec "set number" -s dev # Execute ex command
ovim context -s dev # 21-line context window
ovim buffer -s dev # Buffer content
ovim search "pattern" -s dev # Find patternovim lsp status -s dev # Server states
ovim lsp hover -s dev # Hover info at cursor
ovim lsp check file.rs # Check language detection
ovim lsp languages # List all supported languagesovim session list # List active sessions
ovim session kill -s dev # Kill session
ovim session health -s dev # Health check
ovim session cleanup --dry-run # Preview stale session cleanupovim-core/ Shared library — buffer, syntax, LSP, session logic
ovim/ Binary — TUI, editor, CLI, REST API
Key modules:
- buffer/ — rope-based text buffer (ropey)
- syntax/ — tree-sitter grammars and highlight queries
- lsp/ — language server client with auto-install
- editor/ — operators, motions, input handling
- ui/ — terminal rendering (ratatui + crossterm)
- api/ — REST API and MCP server (Axum)
- Getting Started
- Configuration
- AI Setup
- Headless & Automation
- Terminal Sessions
- Language Support
- Options Reference
- MCP
- Troubleshooting
Contributions are welcome!
The repository's .editorconfig is the cross-editor whitespace baseline.
.gitattributes keeps committed text on LF line endings. rustfmt.toml and
cargo fmt remain authoritative for Rust layout, while Clippy covers semantic
linting. The pre-commit hooks enforce both formatter and lint checks before
changes land.
To run the same formatting and Clippy checks as CI before every commit, install pre-commit and enable the repository hooks:
pre-commit installRun the checks manually with pre-commit run --all-files. The full test suite
remains available through cargo test --workspace.