Simple Vim Bindings

This Vim binding set serves as a starting place to learn Master Key. Note that the goal of Master Key is to create modern modal keybinding configurations, rather than achieving perfect Vim parity (VSCodeVim and vscode-neovim already do this quite well). These bindings can be expanded on using Master Key: New Keybinding Copy.

This binding set was generated from the MIT licensed bindings located at https://vim.rtorr.com/ using an LLM (Gemini CLI) and then cleaned and curated by hand.

Contributions to improve the keybindings are welcome and can be submitted via a PR

Normal Mode

Normal mode is the default mode in VIM. In this mode each key issues a command, even when there is no modifier, like control. To insert text you issue an insert command (like i), see Insert Mode for more ways to insert text.

key	name	description	mode
	exit	exit insert/visual mode	insert, normal, visual

Getting Help

key	name	description	mode
	suggest	show command suggestions within the context of the current mode and keybinding prefix (if any). E.g. `g, ^;` in `normal` mode will show all `normal` command suggestions that start with `g`.	insert, normal, visual
	text docs	Show text documentation for keybindings	normal
	visual doc	Show visual documentation for keybindings	normal

Cursor Movement (Normal, Visual, Operator)

key	name	description	mode
	←/→	move cursor left/right	normal
	↓/↑	move cursor down/up	normal
	↓/↑ wrap	move cursor down/up (multi-line text)	normal
	pg ↓/↑	move down/up, relative to page size	normal, visual, insert
	word →/←	jump forwards/backwards to the start of a word	normal
	WORD →/←	jump forwards/backwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)	normal
	word/WORD end	jump forwards to the end of a word	normal
	paragraph →/←	jump forwards/backwards to the start of a paragraph (contiguous lines)	normal
	line start/end	jump to the start/end of the line	normal
	first non-blank	jump to the first non-blank character of the line	normal
	line end	jump to the end of the line	normal
	doc start/end	go to the first/last line of the document	normal
	doc end	go to the last line of the document	normal
	find →/←	jump to next/previous occurrence of character x	normal
	to →/←	jump to just before the next/previous occurrence of character x	normal

Text Objects (aw, iw, etc.)

key	name	description	mode
	in word	operate on entire word	normal
	around word	operate on entire word and space	normal
	in WORD	operate on entire word (including punctuation)	normal
	ard WORD	operate around entire word (including punctuation)	normal
	in paragraph	operate on entire paragraph	normal
	around paragraph	operate on entire paragraph and spacing	normal

Counts (0-9)

Counts can be prefixed to commands to repeat them the given number of times. e.g. 9dj deletes 9 lines

key	name	description	mode
	count 0-9	Add digit 0-9 to count argument of a command	insert, normal, visual

Insert Mode

key	name	description	mode
	insert	insert before the cursor	normal
	insert start	insert at the beginning of the line	normal
	append	insert (append) after the cursor	normal
	append end	insert (append) at the end of the line	normal
	open below	append (open) a new line below the current line	normal
	open above	append (open) a new line above the current line	normal

Editing / Operators

key	name	description	mode
	delete	delete marked text	normal
	delete line	delete (cut) a line	normal
	yank	yank (copy) marked text	normal
	yank line	yank (copy) a line	normal
	change	change	normal
	change line	change (replace) entire line	normal
	del char	delete (cut) character	normal
	paste	put (paste) the clipboard after cursor	normal
	undo	undo	normal
	redo	redo	normal

Visual Mode

In visual mode there is an ongoing selection that is modified by motions. Commands (like d) operate on the selected text.

key	name	description	mode
	visual	start visual mode	normal

Search

key	name	description	mode
	search	search for pattern	normal, visual
	next	repeat search in same direction	normal, visual
	previous	repeat search in opposite direction	normal, visual

Window Commands (Ctrl+w)

key	name	description	mode
	hover	open hover for word under the cursor	normal
	split window	split window	normal
	split vertical	split window vertically	normal
	switch window	switch windows	normal
	quit window	quit a window	normal
	window left/right/down/up	move cursor to the window left/right/down/up	normal