Key Reference

Every default key, by mode. Use your browser's search — or the search box above — to find one fast.

INFO

Keys marked kitty only require the kitty keyboard protocol, auto-detected at startup on supported terminals — see Terminal compatibility. Legacy terminal encodings cannot transmit those key combinations, so the bindings are unavailable there.

Normal mode

Movement

Key	Action
h / ←	Move left one grapheme
l / →	Move right one grapheme
j / ↓	Move down one visual line
k / ↑	Move up one visual line
w	Select next word (plus one adjacent whitespace run by default — see word-selects-whitespace)
b	Select previous word (plus one adjacent whitespace run by default)
W / B	WORD variants of w / b
Home	Start of line (idiomatic form is g h)
End	End of line (idiomatic form is g l)
{	Up to the blank line above this paragraph
}	Down to the start of the next paragraph
PageDown / PageUp	Scroll one viewport down / up
Ctrl+d / Ctrl+u	Scroll half a viewport down / up
Ctrl+o	Jump list back
Ctrl+i	Jump list forward
Tab	Jump list forward (under kitty, Tab focuses the next pane instead)
Ctrl+h/j/k/l/w/b	One-shot extend of the corresponding motion (kitty only)

Character find

Key	Action
f + char	Find char forward (inclusive)
F + char	Find char backward (inclusive)
t + char	Find char forward (exclusive — stops before)
T + char	Find char backward (exclusive — stops after)
=	Repeat last find forward
-	Repeat last find backward

After f/F/t/T, HUME waits for the target character. Tab counts as a target character; a line ending never does, since these motions never leave the current line.

Selection

Key	Action
e	Toggle Extend mode
;	Collapse to head, exit Extend
Ctrl+;	Collapse to anchor, exit Extend (kitty only)
Ctrl+e	Swap anchor and head
%	Select entire buffer
x	Select current line (forward)
X	Select current line (backward)
Ctrl+x	Same as x but always extends
Ctrl+X	Same as X but always extends (kitty only)
S	Split multi-line selections on newlines
C	Copy each selection to the line below
_	Trim leading/trailing whitespace from each selection
,	Keep only the primary selection
Ctrl+,	Remove primary, promote next (kitty only)
( / )	Cycle primary backward / forward
*	Search the whole word under the cursor

Text objects (use the m prefix):

Sequence	Action
m i w / m a w	Inner / around word
m i W / m a W	Inner / around WORD
m i ( / m a (	Inner / around () (also ), [/], {/}, </>)
m i " / m a "	Inner / around "…"
m i ' / m a '	Inner / around '…'
m i ` / m a `	Inner / around `…`
m i a / m a a	Inner / around argument
m i l / m a l	Inner / around line
m i i	Select the text typed during the last insert
m m	Select the word under the cursor (plus one adjacent whitespace run by default, same rule as w/b — see word-selects-whitespace)
M M	WORD variant of m m
m s + char	Select surrounding delimiter pair
m w + char	Wrap each selection with a delimiter pair
m /	Turn all search matches in the buffer into selections

Editing

Key	Action
d	Delete selection (to kill ring)
c	Change (delete + Insert mode)
y	Yank (clipboard + kill ring)
p	Paste after (smart source)
P	Paste before
[ / ]	Cycle kill ring older / newer and re-paste (only after a p/P)
r + char	Replace every selected character (line endings are left alone). Enter/Tab count as the character, replacing with a newline/tab
J	Join the selected lines into one
&	Align selections into a column
u	Undo
U / Ctrl+r	Redo
.	Repeat last editing action

Entering other modes

Key	Action
i	Insert before selection
a	Insert after selection
I	Insert at first non-blank on line
A	Insert at end of line
o	Open new line below, insert
O	Open new line above, insert
:	Open command line
/	Search forward
?	Search backward

Search

Key	Action
n	Next match
N	Previous match
s	Select within (regex filter on each selection)
Ctrl+/	Use the selected text literally as the search pattern (kitty only)

Macros

Key	Action
Q Q or Q q	Start recording into default register q
Q <0-9>	Start recording into a numbered register
Q (while recording)	Stop recording
q q	Replay register q
q <0-9>	Replay a numbered register
<count> q q	Replay q <count> times

Numbered registers are shared between macros and yanked text — last write wins. Recording is ignored in read-only buffers and during replay.

See Register prefix for the full register list.

Other

Key	Action
" + reg	Register prefix (0–9, k, c, b)
1–9 then [0-9]*	Numeric count prefix (0 is a digit only inside a count; otherwise unbound)

Goto prefix (g)

Press g then a second key:

Key	Action
g g	Go to first line of buffer
g e	Go to last line of buffer
g h	Go to line start
g l	Go to line end
g s	Go to first non-blank on line
g u	Lowercase the selection
g U	Uppercase the selection
g C	Capitalize each word in the selection

View prefix (z)

Press z then a second key:

Key	Action
z z	Center view on cursor
z t	Scroll cursor to top of screen
z b	Scroll cursor to bottom of screen

Pane prefix (Ctrl+p)

Press Ctrl+p then a second key:

Key	Action
Ctrl+p p	Focus next pane
Ctrl+p h	Focus pane to the left
Ctrl+p j	Focus pane below
Ctrl+p k	Focus pane above
Ctrl+p l	Focus pane to the right
Ctrl+p s	Split the focused pane, stacking the new pane below it
Ctrl+p v	Split the focused pane side by side
Ctrl+p c	Close the focused pane (does nothing if it's the only pane)
Tab	Focus next pane (kitty only)

Insert mode

Key	Action
Esc / Ctrl+c	Return to Normal mode
← / → / ↑ / ↓	Move cursor
Home / End	Go to line start / end
Tab	Insert tab (literal \t, or spaces to the next tab stop when tab-style = soft)
Backspace	Delete character before cursor; snaps to previous tab stop when in leading whitespace (auto-pairs aware)
Delete	Delete character under cursor
Enter	Insert newline, copying leading whitespace from current line (auto-pairs aware)
Ctrl+w	Delete word before cursor
Any other character	Insert character (auto-pairs aware)

Insert mode handles auto-pair insertion: typing (, [, {, ", ', or ` inserts the matching close character. Backspace inside an empty pair deletes both characters.

Extend mode

Key	Action
All other keys	Same as Normal mode, but motions extend or shrink the selection

The status bar shows EXT in Extend mode.

Command line

Key	Action
Enter	Execute command
Esc / Ctrl+c	Cancel
Tab	Complete
Shift+Tab	Complete (previous)
Up / Down	Recall previous / next command starting with the typed prefix
Left / Right	Move the cursor
Backspace	Delete character before cursor; on empty input, dismiss the command line
Ctrl+w	Delete word before cursor

Search mode

Entered with / (forward) or ? (backward). Every keystroke live-previews the next match from the position where search was opened.

Key	Action
Enter (empty input)	Cancel and return to Normal
Enter (non-empty)	Commit pattern to the search register, jump to first match, return to Normal
Esc / Ctrl+c	Cancel, restore pre-search selection
Backspace (input non-empty)	Delete char and re-preview
Backspace (empties input)	Restore pre-search selection, stay in Search mode
Backspace (on empty input)	Exit Search mode
Ctrl+w	Delete word before cursor
Up / Down	Recall previous / next pattern starting with the typed prefix (separate / and ? rings)
Left / Right	Move the cursor
Any other character	Insert and re-preview
Tab / Shift+Tab	No-op

Select mode

Entered with s from Normal mode (requires at least one non-collapsed selection). Live-previews sub-match selections within the original selections. Does not overwrite the search register, so n/N continue the prior search after Enter.

Key	Action
Enter (empty input)	Cancel, restore original selections
Enter (non-empty)	Keep the live-preview selections, return to Normal
Esc / Ctrl+c	Cancel, restore original selections
Backspace (input non-empty)	Delete char and re-preview
Backspace (empties input or on empty)	Restore original selections, stay in Select mode
Ctrl+w	Delete word before cursor
Left / Right	Move the cursor
Any other character	Insert and re-preview
Tab / Shift+Tab / Up / Down	No-op (Select mode has no pattern history)