zide

A modal terminal code editor written in Zig — vim keybindings, incremental tree-sitter syntax highlighting, LSP, git signs, fuzzy finders, and an integrated terminal, in a single static binary with no runtime dependencies.

If you like Neovim + NvChad but want one file you can scp to a box, that's zide.

Built on libvaxis (vxfw widget framework), taking cues from Neovim/NvChad for UX and Flow Control for architecture.

Features

Editing — vim modal editing with NORMAL / INSERT / VISUAL / COMMAND modes

• Motions: h j k l, w b e, 0 ^ $, gg G, H M L, f F t T, Ctrl-d/Ctrl-u, Ctrl-e/Ctrl-y, zz zt zb, marks, jumplist (Ctrl-o/Ctrl-i)
• Operators + text objects: d c y with iw i( a" …, dd cc yy, counts (3dd, 5j)
• Surround: cs" ', ds(, S( in visual mode
• Comments: gcc, gcj, gcip, gc over a visual selection, Space /
• Registers, macros (q{a-z} record, @{a-z} replay), undo/redo, / search with n/N
• Visual and visual-line select, yank/delete/put, system clipboard (Ctrl-Shift-c)

Code intelligence

• Incremental tree-sitter highlighting — every keystroke goes through ts_tree_edit
  • incremental reparse, Neovim-style; no full rescans while typing
• LSP client (zls): go-to-definition, references, hover, rename, completion, signature help, inlay hints, live diagnostics with ]d/[d navigation
• Document symbols, symbol breadcrumbs, :Format / format-on-save via zig fmt

Workflow

• Telescope-style pickers — find files, live grep, recent files, buffer lines, document symbols, quickfix, buffers, themes
• File tree sidebar with devicons (Ctrl-n, Space e)
• Git integration — hunk signs, ]c/[c navigation, stage/reset/preview hunk, blame line
• Integrated terminal — horizontal, vertical, and floating splits (Alt-h / Alt-v / Alt-i)
• Multiple buffers with a tabline, plus a start dashboard and session restore
• Which-key popup for pending prefixes and a built-in cheatsheet (Space c h)
• 9 themes — onedark, gruvbox, tokyonight, catppuccin, nord, white, gruvbox-light, solarized-light, latte — switched live with :theme / :themes

Terminal behaviour

• UTF-8 aware — cursor stays on codepoint boundaries, grapheme-width rendering
• Truecolor, mode-colored statusline, block/beam cursor per mode
• Kitty keyboard protocol and legacy terminal input
• Single static binary — grammar and queries compiled in, zero runtime files

Building

Requires Zig 0.14.1 (dependencies are pinned for it — see build.zig.zon).

zig build                          # debug build
zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSmall  # small stripped binary
zig build run -- path/to/file.zig

Keys

Press Space c h inside the editor for the full cheatsheet. The common ones:

Key	Action
Space f f / Space f w	find files / live grep
Space f o / Space f z	recent files / buffer lines
Space f s / Space q	document symbols / quickfix
Space b / Space t / Space x	buffer picker / theme picker / close buffer
Space e / Ctrl-n	focus / toggle file tree
Space g s g p g r g b	stage / preview / reset hunk, blame line
Space c r / Space i	rename symbol / toggle inlay hints
gd / gr / K	goto definition / references / hover
]c [c / ]d [d / ]q [q	git hunk / diagnostic / quickfix nav
Alt-h / Alt-v / Alt-i	horizontal / vertical / floating terminal
Tab / Shift-Tab	next / previous buffer
Ctrl-s / u / Ctrl-r	save / undo / redo

Ex commands: :w :q :q! :wq :x :qa :e :bn :bp :bd :ls :<line> :theme :themes :noh :Format :AutoFormat :InlayHints :LspRestart

Architecture

src/
├── main.zig     entry: load file, wire Editor into the vxfw App loop
├── editor.zig   modal Editor widget: modes, motions, operators, pickers, statusline
├── buffer.zig   text model: byte array + line table + per-buffer Highlighter
├── syntax.zig   Highlighter: tree-sitter parse → per-byte style table
├── theme.zig    palettes + capture-name → color mapping
├── tree.zig     file tree sidebar
├── lsp.zig      JSON-RPC client for zls
├── term.zig     integrated terminal splits
└── queries/     vendored tree-sitter highlight queries (nvim-treesitter capture names)

The buffer is a plain byte array with a rebuilt line table; every edit produces a TSInputEdit so the parser reuses the previous syntax tree. Highlight captures (@keyword, @function.builtin, …) map to theme colors by name, with Neovim-style base-name fallback.

Roadmap

• undo/redo, yank/paste, counts, / search, visual mode
• theme system with :theme live switching
• multiple buffers + tabline
• file tree, fuzzy finder, toggleable terminal
• LSP client
• more grammars (C, Markdown, …) — only Zig is vendored today
• tree-sitter query predicate evaluation (#eq? / #match?)
• language servers beyond zls, configured per filetype
• editor window splits (terminal splits exist; buffer splits don't)
• config file — everything is compile-time defaults today

License

MIT