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Vi mode (READ: Allow selection keys to be rebound to different keys) #11868
Description
Description of the new feature/enhancement
This issue suggests implementing a "Vi mode" similar to the very convenient one implemented by Alacritty, where the user can
move the cursor around, select and copy text using the keyboard alone in a fashion familiar to most programmers and power users;
- The user presses a predefined keyboard shortcut to enter Vi mode
- Once in Vi mode, the cursor is movable in the current terminal buffer using Vi motions (h j k l)
- 'V' enters visual mode, where text can be selected and copied ('y')
- '/' and '?' enter search mode where text can be searched and then copied
Reacted by Matthew A Cargile, Dan Thompson, Nikita Govorov, dualface, Jackson Schuster, spdqbr, matsande, Christoph J. Scherr, Henrique do Val, Manuel Rodriguez and 17 more
Activity
zadjii-msft commentedon Dec 2, 2021
OH HEY LOOK GUYS, SOMEONE WHO WANTED TO REBIND THE MARK MODE KEYBINDINGS
Sorry, that's not directed at you, that's directed at the team. We've been having this discussion for a while now. Dustin L. Howett (@DHowett) Carlos Zamora (@carlos-zamora)
linking to #10824, #715, #2840, #5804
zadjii-msft commentedon Dec 8, 2021
Also linking this to #9301, #11084, #9301 and MOST IMPORTANTLY #5790.
We discussed today and had ideas for:
I'm gonna leave this open to track the third bullet point, because we agree we're open to the idea of rebinding the keys, so long as the SUI impact is relatively low (it's something like 12-30 actions in the SUI, which is a lot).
sisrfeng commentedon Feb 21, 2022
:termof neovim is easy to use, and I use neovim-remote and abduco, making the register easier to use (do not need to specify a register for most time)I do not use tmux anymore
[-]Vi mode[/-][+]Vi mode (READ: Allow selection keys to be rebound to different keys)[/+]xuejiaW commentedon Jan 10, 2024
+1
I have tried to use Poweroys keyboard manager + markmode to work around this feature, something like remapping "ctrl+h" to "arrow left"
but no luck, once i press "ctrl+h", the mark mode will exit, so it not works
brentksusco commentedon Sep 30, 2025
I know this is pretty old, but this ability would be highly appreciated. Especially options 3 or 4.
webavant commentedon Mar 31, 2026
keyboard-selectmode inrxvtbehaves like keyboard selection in mark-mode, only with the ability to change the keybindings for manipulating the range of selection as char-length start/stop, or row/col start/stop. It is the primary feature keeping me from switching towt.Insecure88 commentedon Oct 13, 2026
+1
Dying for this feature. I like windows terminal and don't want to switch to wezterm or live in a terminal multiplexer just to have an easier time navigating the buffer and selecting text. I'd like a proper vi mode or at least the ability to set keybinds scoped to mark mode.