Neovim in the Terminal

You live in the terminal. Neovim is your editor. But when you switch to other macOS apps, your muscle memory goes silent — no hjkl, no w/b, no gd. KeyPath bridges the gap: hold the Leader key and your vim instincts work everywhere, while the HUD shows a quick-reference card for the Neovim commands you use most.

What You Get

Enable the Neovim Terminal collection in the Rules tab and you get two things:

  1. Leader-layer shortcuts — hold the Leader key and use h j k l, w b e, 0 $, /, y, p, and more in any macOS app. These translate vim motions into native macOS cursor movements and editing commands.

  2. Quick-reference HUD — the same Leader hold pops up a categorized reference card covering core vim and Neovim-specific features (LSP, Telescope, buffers, terminal mode). Glance at it when you forget a binding; dismiss by releasing Leader.

Enabling It

  1. Open KeyPath → Rules tab
  2. Find Neovim Terminal in the Navigation section
  3. Toggle it on

The collection shares the navigation layer with Vim and KindaVim — only one of the three should be active at a time. KeyPath handles conflict detection automatically.

The HUD Reference Card

When you hold the Leader key, the HUD appears with two columns:

Left column — Core Vim:

  • Movement — h j k l, w b e, 0 $, gg G, f t, { }
  • Operators — d, c, y, > <, =
  • Text Objects — iw aw, ip ap, i" a"
  • Search — / ?, n N, * #

Right column — Neovim-specific:

  • Buffers & Tabs — :bn :bp :bd, gt gT, Ctrl-^
  • LSP — gd, gr, K, <leader>rn, <leader>ca
  • Telescope — <leader>ff fg fb fh
  • Terminal Mode — :terminal, Ctrl-\ Ctrl-n, i

The reference content is static — no mode tracking or app detection needed. It shows the same card every time, designed to be scanned in under a second.

Leader-Layer Shortcuts

These shortcuts work in any macOS app while holding the Leader key:

Key Action
h j k l Arrow keys (left/down/up/right)
w Word forward (Option-Right)
b Word back (Option-Left)
e End of word (Option-Right)
0 Line start (Cmd-Left)
$ Line end (Cmd-Right)
gg / G Document top/bottom
/ Find (Cmd-F)
n / N Next/previous match
y Yank / copy (Cmd-C)
p Put / paste (Cmd-V)
u Undo (Cmd-Z)
r Redo (Cmd-Shift-Z)
d Delete word (Option-Backspace)
x Forward delete
o / O Open line below/above

Tips

  • The Neovim-specific categories (LSP, Telescope, etc.) on the right column are reference-only — they describe commands that work inside Neovim, not shortcuts that KeyPath sends. They’re there so you have one place to look.
  • If you use both Neovim and regular macOS apps, this collection is for you. For deeper KindaVim modal editing integration, see Full Vim Modes.
  • The Leader key defaults to Space. Change it in the Leader Key collection in the Rules tab.

Resources