Most terminals have default keybindings that conflict with common editor commands. I highly recommend rebinding them to keys that are not generally used anywhere else.
For Kitty rebinding kitty_mod by adding this line to your kitty.conf is usually enough:
kitty_mod ctrl+alt
For other terminals you will probably have to disable or rebind them each individually.
Press ctrl+f to search this help file. Type a search term and press ctrl+n/ctrl+p or f3/shift+f3 to jump through the matches. Press Enter to exit find mode at the current match or Escape to return to your starting point.
Normal text search and regular expression search are supported. While the find prompt is open:
The auto case mode is smart-case: a query with no uppercase letters searches case-folded, while a query containing uppercase letters searches exactly. Regex search has the same case modes: regex auto, regex exact and regex case-folded.
The selected find mode is persisted between sessions.
Messages of issues regarding tasks that are not accomplished, like trying to close flow with unsaved files, as well as other information are shown briefly in the bottom status bar; most recent messages can be seen in the log view too, to open it, use ctrl+shift+p > View log; it’s possible to make it taller dragging the toolbar with the mouse up or downwards.
Flow Control supports multiple input modes that may be changed interactively at runtime. The current input mode (and some other settings) is persisted in the configuration file automatically.
The current input mode is displayed at the left side of the statusbar.
The command palette allows you to fuzzy search and select commands to run. It also shows any available keybind that may be used to run the command without opening the palette.
This shows all currently available commands. Including commands that are normally only executed via a keybinding. Selecting a command in this view will insert the command name into the current document instead of executing it. This is very useful for editing keybinding definition files.
Run the Edit keybindings command to customize the current keybinding mode. It will write a customization file for the current mode into the keys directory, under the same name as the current mode, and open it for editing. This file inherits everything from the built-in mode of the same name. So keybindings that are added or changed by future updates of Flow Control are picked up automatically. Each sub-mode is an empty section you can fill in: add new keybindings or override one by binding the same key to another command. Delete the file from the keys directory to revert entirely to the built-in mode. Changes to keybinding files take effect on restart.
You can also create additional, independently named keybinding modes by saving a file under a new name in the same directory. You can select the new mode with f4.
Keybinding modes may inherit all non-conflicting keybindings from another mode by adding an inherit option to the settings section of the keybind file like this:
{
"settings": {
"inherit": "vim",
},
"normal": {
...
This allows you to make only minor additions/changes to an existing builtin mode without copying the whole mode and is easier to keep up-to-date.
Use the special value <<builtin>> to inherit from the built-in mode with the same name as your file. This lets a file customize a built-in mode while still inheriting from it, and is what Edit keybindings writes:
{
"settings": {
"inherit": "<<builtin>>",
},
...
A sub-mode that is left out of your file entirely is inherited whole from the mode you inherit from, so you only need to include the sub-modes you actually want to change.
Additionally, individual sub-modes may inherit all non-conflicting keybindings from another sub-mode of the same mode by adding an inherit option to the sub-mode section like this:
"normal": {
"inherit": "project",
...
Multiple inheritance is supported with the inherits options like this:
"normal": {
"inherits": ["project", "tasks"],
...
A sub-mode may inherit only the keybindings that begin with a particular prefix key by using the inherit_prefix option. Each entry is a prefix key followed by one or more parent sub-modes to copy the matching keybindings from. For example, this makes every keybinding that starts with ctrl+alt+a in the project mode also work in the terminal mode:
"terminal": {
"inherit_prefix": [["ctrl+alt+a", "project"]],
...
The inherit_breakout option copies every keybinding from a parent sub-mode and prepends a “breakout” prefix key to each, claiming that key in this sub-mode. It is used to implement vim’s insert-normal (CTRL-O) behaviour: pressing the breakout key in insert mode runs a single normal mode command and then returns to insert mode. For example:
"insert": {
"inherit_breakout": [["<C-o>", "normal"]],
...
A numeric count typed before the command (e.g. <C-o>3w) is not currently supported.
The default input mode, called just flow, is based on common GUI programming editors. It most closely resembles Visual Studio Code, but also takes some inspiration from Emacs and others. This mode focuses on powerful multi cursor support with a find -> select -> modify cycle style of editing.
See the ctrl+f2 palette when flow mode is selected to see the full list of keybindings for this mode.
The vim modes, shown as NORMAL, INSERT or VISUAL in the status bar, follow the basic modal editing style of vim. The basics follow vim closely, but more advanced vim functions (e.g. macros and registers) are not supported (yet). Keybindings from flow mode that do not conflict with vim keybindings also work in vim mode.
The helix modes, shown as NOR, INS or SEL in the status bar, follow the basic modal editing style of helix. The basics are being adapted closely, more advanced functions (e.g. surround, macros, selections, registers) are not supported (yet). Usual keybinding with LSPs are used for tasks like ‘go to definition’, ‘go to reference’ and ‘inline documentation’ featuring inline diagnostics. Keybindings from flow mode that do not conflict with helix keybindings also work in helix mode.
(work in progress)
Mouse commands are NOT rebindable and are not listed in the command palette.
Left Click => Clear all cursors and selections and the place cursor at the mouse pointer
Double Left Click => Select word at mouse pointer
Triple Left Click => Select line at mouse pointer
Drag Left Click => Extend selection to mouse pointer
Alt + Left Click => Add cursor at mouse click
Ctrl + Left Click => Goto definition of symbol at click
hold Alt => Enable jump/hover mouse mode
Right Click => Extend selection to mouse pointer
Middle Click => Close tab
Back Button, Forward Button => Jump to previous/next location in the location history
Scroll Wheel => Scroll
Alt + Scroll Wheel => Fast scroll
Ctrl + Scroll Wheel => Zoom (GUI only)
Configuration is stored in the standard location ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/flow/config. This is usually ~/.config/flow/config.
The default configuration will be written the first time Flow Control is started and looks similar to this:
frame_rate 60
theme "default"
input_mode "flow"
gutter_line_numbers true
gutter_line_numbers_relative false
enable_terminal_cursor false
highlight_current_line true
highlight_current_line_gutter true
show_whitespace false
animation_min_lag 0
animation_max_lag 150
Most of these options are fairly self explanatory.
theme, input_mode and show_whitespace are automatically persisted when changed interactively with keybindings.
frame_rate can be tuned to control the maximum number of frames rendered.
animation_max_lag controls the maximum amount of time allowed for rendering scrolling animations. Set to 0 to disable scrolling animation altogether.
File types may be configured with the Edit file type configuration command. You can also create a new file type by adding a new .conf file to the file_type directory. Have a look at an existing file type to see what options are available.
As every respectable terminal program, flow provide various invoking options that among others, will allow you to inspect various aspects of the running session. Feel free to run flow --help to explore them.