Coming from Helix

Mitos is a fork of Helix and keeps its selection-first editing model. Most movement, selection, register, and window bindings will be familiar. Check the keymap for Mitos’s defaults.

Configuration and runtime

Run ms instead of hx. User configuration lives in ~/.config/mitos on Linux and macOS, or %AppData%\mitos on Windows. Project settings use .mitos/. Mitos does not automatically load files from Helix’s configuration directory.

Copy settings you want to keep into Mitos’s configuration, then run :config-reload. Mitos accepts many older editor setting names and provides migration commands to update them. Unknown editor settings are rejected, so check errors rather than assuming every Helix option has an equivalent. languages.toml keeps its existing setting names.

Keep Mitos’s bundled runtime with its executable. Do not point MITOS_RUNTIME at a Helix runtime; themes and language queries can differ. The default themes are Modus Operandi and Modus Vivendi. See Themes to choose another.

Useful differences

• Workspace trust controls project-local configuration.
• Alt-r opens a replacement prompt; r still replaces individual characters. Custom keymaps using replace for character replacement should use replace_char instead.
• The quicklist keeps picker locations available after closing the picker.
• Spell checking works without a language server.
• paste_after_all and paste_before_all paste every yanked value at each selection. See Pasting every value.
• Alt-u and Alt-Shift-u undo and redo selection changes. Use g- and g+ to move backward and forward through text history.
• Supported images open as read-only previews.
• Custom commands define your own : commands.
• Component keys let you remap pickers, prompts, menus, and popups as well as editor modes.

Use Files, buffers, and splits and Language servers to set up your day-to-day workflow.