Key bindings

Zed can be configured via a simple JSON file located at ~/.config/zed/keymap.json.

Predefined keymaps

We have a growing collection of pre-defined keymaps in zed repository's keymaps folder. Our current keymaps include:

• Atom
• JetBrains
• SublimeText
• TextMate
• VSCode (default)

These keymaps can be set via the base_keymap setting in your settings.json file. Additionally, if you'd like to work from a clean slate, you can provide "None" to the setting.

Custom key bindings

Accessing custom key bindings

You can open keymap.json via ⌘ + K, ⌘ + S, the command palette, or the Zed > Settings > Open Key Bindings application menu item.

Adding a custom key binding

To customize key bindings, specify a context and the list of bindings to set. Re-mapping an existing binding will clobber the existing binding in favor of the custom one.

An example of adding a set of custom key bindings:

[
  {
    "context": "Editor",
    "bindings": {
      "ctrl-w": "editor::SelectLargerSyntaxNode",
      "ctrl-shift-W": "editor::SelectSmallerSyntaxNode",
      "ctrl-c": "editor::Cancel"
    }
  }
]

You can see more examples in Zed's default.json

There are some key bindings that can't be overridden; we are working on an issue surrounding this.

Keybinding syntax

Zed has the ability to match against not just a single keypress, but a sequence of keys typed in order. Each key in the "bindings" map is a sequence of keypresses separated with a space.

Each key press is a sequence of modifiers followed by a key. The modifiers are:

• ctrl- The control key
• cmd- On macOS, this is the command key
• alt- On macOS, this is the option key
• shift- The shift key
• fn- The function key

The keys can be any single unicode codepoint that your keyboard generates (for example a, 0, £ or ç).

A few examples:

 "bindings": {
   "cmd-k cmd-s": "zed::OpenKeymap", // matches ⌘-k then ⌘-s
   "space e": "editor::Complete", // type space then e
   "ç": "editor::Complete", // matches ⌥-c
 }

NOTE: Keys on a keyboard are not always the same as the character they generate. For example shift-e actually types E (or alt-c types ç). Zed allows you to match against either the key and its modifiers or the character it generates. This means you can specify alt-c or ç, but not alt-ç. It is usually better to specify the key and its modifiers, as this will work better on different keyboard layouts.

Remapping keys

A common request is to be able to map from one sequence of keys to another. As of Zed 0.124.0 you can do this with the workspace::SendKeystrokes action.

[
  {
    "bindings": {
      "alt-down": ["workspace::SendKeystrokes", "down down down down"],
      "cmd-alt-c": [
        "workspace::SendKeystrokes",
        "cmd-shift-p copy relative path enter"
      ],
      "cmd-alt-r": ["workspace::SendKeystrokes", "cmd-p README enter"]
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "Editor && vim_mode == insert",
    "bindings": {
      "j k": ["workspace::SendKeystrokes", "escape"],
    }
  }
]

There are some limitations to this, notably:

• Any asynchronous operation will not happen until after all your key bindings have been dispatched. For example this means that while you can use a binding to open a file (as in the cmd-alt-r example) you cannot send further keystrokes and hope to have them interpreted by the new view.
• • Other examples of asynchronous things are: communicating with a language server, changing the language of a buffer, anything that hits the network.
• There is a limit of 100 simulated keys at a time, this is to avoid accidental infinite recursion if you trigger SendKeystrokes again inside your bindings.

The argument to SendKeystrokes is a space-separated list of keystrokes (using the same syntax as above). Due to the way that keystrokes are parsed, any segment that is not recognized as a keypress will be sent verbatim to the currently focused input field.

All key bindings

Global

Editor

Editor (Full Only)

Editor (Auto Height Only)

Pane

Buffer Search Bar

Workspace

Project Panel

Project Search Bar

Terminal

Assistant Editor