Getting Started

Modal editing has a reputation for a steep first hour. It doesn't need one: the ideas below take about five minutes, and they cover most of what you'll do all day.

First launch

Launch HUME on a file:

hume path/to/file.txt

Or run hume with no arguments to open a scratch buffer. The current mode is shown on the right side of the status bar.

The first minute

1. Launch: hume path/to/file.txt (or just hume for a scratch buffer).
2. Learn the keys: type :tutor and press Enter to open the interactive tutorial. The tutorial is an editable copy of the bundled tutor.rst — feel free to experiment in it. Re-running :tutor later in the same session switches back to your existing buffer, preserving any edits; after :bd! it opens a fresh copy.
3. Quit: :q closes the current buffer, and quits HUME once it's the last one open. :q! discards unsaved changes. :wq saves and quits. :qa quits everything.
4. Where am I? The mode label (NOR, INS, EXT, …) sits on the right of the status bar; the file path and cursor position sit on the left.
5. Turn on the extras (optional): Out of the box HUME is a lean editor — language-server smarts, fuzzy file and buffer pickers, and the plugin manager stay off until you ask for them. Copy the bundled starter config, init.scm.example, to ~/.config/hume/init.scm (%APPDATA%\hume\init.scm on Windows) and they're all on next launch. See Configuration for what each line does and where to find the file.

The modal idea

HUME has distinct modes. Every key you press is interpreted in the context of the current mode — there is no "always-on" Insert mode. This lets the same keys serve as both navigation and commands.

How is this different from a normal editor?

In a conventional editor every letter you type lands in the document, so actions have to be chorded shortcuts — Ctrl+C, Cmd+V, Ctrl+F — and many moves need the mouse.

Modal editors invert that. In Normal mode letters are commands: d deletes, w jumps a word, x selects a line, and nothing you type reaches the buffer. To write prose you switch to Insert mode, type, and press Esc to come back. The payoff is that almost every edit is a plain keystroke — no modifiers, no mouse.

The three main modes

The three modes you will use most:

Mode	How to enter	What it does
Normal	Esc from anywhere	Navigate and issue commands
Insert	i, a, o, c from Normal mode	Type text
Extend	e from Normal mode	Grow and shrink selections

You spend most of your time in Normal. Drop into Insert only to type, then Esc back. See Modes for the full list, including command-line, search, and select modes.

Motions

Motions move the cursor or change the current selection — w to the next word, f followed by a character to jump to it on the line, g g to the first line. Motions are how you navigate, and in Extend mode they are also how you grow or shrink a selection.

See Moving Around for the full set.

Selection-first editing

HUME follows the select-then-act model. You first say what you want to act on — a word, a line, a paragraph, a pair of quotes — and then say what to do with it: d to delete, c to change, y to yank. There is no cursor-without-selection: what looks like a single-character cursor is just a one-character selection, and every editing command operates on the current selection.

This is the opposite of the more familiar action-then-target order (press d, then say what to delete). Selecting first means you always see exactly what an edit will touch before it happens.

See Selections for how to build and shape selections.

Multiple selections

HUME can hold several selections at once, and any editing command acts on all of them simultaneously. The classic example is renaming: select every occurrence of a word, press c, and type the new name once — every selected instance changes together.

See Selections for how to create and manage multiple selections.

Next steps

• Modes — full description of each mode
• Moving Around — navigating your file
• Editing — edit your file
• Selections — selecting the text
• Files & Buffers — opening, saving, and quitting
• Key Reference — every key by mode