240 lines
7.2 KiB
Markdown
240 lines
7.2 KiB
Markdown
# Flow Control: a programmer's text editor
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This is my Zig text editor. It is under active development, but very stable
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and is my daily driver for almost everything.
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[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwPg3sIxMGw)
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# Features
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- **Lightning Fast** TUI with ≤6ms frame times, **low latency** input handling
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and smooth **animated scrolling**
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- Intuitive UI with **tabs**, **scrollbars** and **palettes** with full
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**mouse** support for all UI elements
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- Support for more than **70 programming languages**, **zero
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configuration** needed, via **tree-sitter** powered syntax highlighting
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- **Language Server Protocol** pre configured support for most language servers
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- Powerful **multi-cursor** editing and integrated **clipboard history**
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- Powerful configurable keybinding system that supports **modal** and
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**non-modal** editing styles
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- Multiple pre-configured **keybinding modes**
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- Flow Control - GUI IDE style bindings (similar to vscode)
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- Emacs
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- Vim
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- Helix
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- User created
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- Hybrid rope/piece-table buffer system, edit **very large files** with
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**thousands of cursors**
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- Infinite **undo** (at least until you run out of ram)
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- Full **unicode** support, including support for the kitty text sizing protocol
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- Plenty of **themes** included and support for vscode themes via the
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flow-themes project
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- Runs on **Linux, FreeBSD, MacOS, Windows and Android** (under termux) with
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easy **cross-compilation** to all supported targets
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# Requirements
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- A modern terminal with **24bit color** and, ideally, **kitty keyboard
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protocol** support. **Kitty**, **Foot** and **Ghostty** are the recommended
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terminals at this time. **Zellij** also works well. Most other terminals will
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work, but likely with reduced functionality.
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- **NerdFont** support. Either via terminal font fallback or a patched font.
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- A **UTF-8** locale
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# Roadmap
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See our [devlog](/devlog/2025) for on-going updates from the development team.
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## In Development
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- LSP completion support
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- Persistent undo/redo
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- File watcher integration
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## Future
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- Collaborative editing
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- Plugin system
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- Multi-terminal sessions
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# Download / Install
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There is an [installation guide](https://flow-control.dev/installation) on the
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main website, and source, release and nightly build binary
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[downloads](https://flow-control.dev/downloads).
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Or check your favorite local system package repository.
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[](https://repology.org/project/flow-control/versions)
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# Building
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Make sure your system meets the requirements listed above.
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Flow builds with zig 0.15.2 at this time. Build with:
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```shell
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zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe
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```
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Zig will by default build a binary optimized for your specific CPU. If you get
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illegal instruction errors add `-Dcpu=baseline` to the build command to produce
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a binary with generic CPU support.
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Thanks to Zig you may also cross-compile from any host to pretty much any
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target. For example:
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```shell
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zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe -Dtarget=x86_64-windows --prefix zig-out/x86_64-windows
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zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe -Dtarget=x86_64-macos-none --prefix zig-out/x86_64-macos
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zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe -Dtarget=aarch64-linux-musl --prefix zig-out/aarch64-linux
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```
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When cross-compiling zig will build a binary with generic CPU support.
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The output binary is:
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```
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zig-out/bin/flow
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```
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It is statically built (by default) and contains all the required tree-sitter parsers
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and queries. No additional runtime files are required.
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# Running Flow Control
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The Flow Control binary is called `flow`.
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Place it in your path for convenient access:
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```shell
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sudo cp zig-out/bin/flow /usr/local/bin
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```
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Or if you prefer, let zig install it in your home directory:
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```shell
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zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe --prefix ~/.local
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```
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Flow Control is a single statically linked binary. No further runtime files are
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required. You may install it on another system by simply copying the binary.
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```shell
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scp zig-out/bin/flow root@otherhost:/usr/local/bin
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```
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Files to load may be specifed on the command line:
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```shell
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flow fileA.zig fileB.zig
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```
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The last file will be opened and the previous files will be placed in reverse
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order at the top of the recent files list. Switch to recent files with Ctrl-e.
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Common target line specifiers are supported too:
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```shell
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flow file.txt:123
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```
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Or Vim style:
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```shell
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flow file.txt +123
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```
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Use the --language option to force the file type of a file:
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```shell
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flow --language bash ~/.bash_profile
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```
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Show supported language names with `--list-languages`.
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See `flow --help` for the full list of command line options.
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# Documentation
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## User manual
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A basic user manual is available inside flow. You can open it with the
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`Open help` command (F1).
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It is also available in the website [documentation](https://flow-control.dev/docs/)
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section.
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## Development Resources
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Additional [developer](https://flow-control.dev/docs/#resources) resources can
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be found on the Flow Control website at.
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There is also an AI generated developer guide at
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[](https://deepwiki.com/neurocyte/flow).
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Accuracy may vary. Check details against the referenced source code.
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# Configuration
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Configuration is mostly dynamically maintained with various commands in the UI.
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It is stored under the standard user configuration path. Usually
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`~/.config/flow` on Linux. %APPDATA%\Roaming\flow on Windows. Somewhere magical
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on MacOS.
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There are commands to open the various configuration files, so you don't have to
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manually find them. Look for commands starting with `Edit` in the command
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palette.
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File types may be configured with the `Edit file type configuration` command.
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You can also create a new file type by adding a new `.conf` file to the
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`file_type` directory. Have a look at an existing file type to see what options
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are available.
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Logs, traces and per-project most recently used file lists are stored in the
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standard user application state directory. Usually `~/.local/state/flow` on
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Linux and %APPDATA%\Roaming\flow on Windows.
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# Key bindings and commands
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Press `F1` to view the online manual.
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Press `F4` to switch the current keybinding mode. (flow, vim, emacs, etc.)
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Press `ctrl+shift+p` or `alt+x` to show the command palette.
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Press `ctrl+F2` to see a full list of all current keybindings and commands.
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Run the `Edit keybindings` command to save the current keybinding mode to a
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file and open it for editing. Save your customized keybinds under a new name
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in the same directory to create an entirely new keybinding mode. Keybinding
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changes will take effect on restart.
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# Terminal configuration
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Kitty, Ghostty and most other terminals have default keybindings that conflict
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with common editor commands. I highly recommend rebinding them to keys that are
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not generally used anywhere else.
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For Kitty rebinding `kitty_mod` is usually enough:
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```
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kitty_mod ctrl+alt
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```
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For Ghostty each conflicting binding has to be reconfigured individually.
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# Community
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Join our [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/4wvteUPphx) server or use the
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discussions section here on GitHub to meet with other Flow users!
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