Home

nem

nem is a terminal text editor with nano's shape and emacs's keys: one window of text, a mode line and an echo line, driven by C-x C-f, C-s and M-x. It is configured in Lua, in init.lua.

This wiki is the reference for configuring it and for every key it binds.

Page	What it covers
Configuration	Where init.lua lives, how it is loaded, key notation, and what happens when it has a bug
Settings	Every option nem.set takes: its values, its default, what it does
Lua API	nem.set, nem.bind, nem.command, nem.run, nem.hook and nem.buf
Keybindings	Every key, globally and in each mode, in prompts and in questions
Commands	Every command by name, with its keys: what M-x runs
Languages	How nem colours code, the languages built in, and how to add your own
Searching	The built-in ripgrep and fzf, their options, and the syntax every list narrows by
Recipes	Configs to copy: projectile's keys, format on save, commands of your own

A first init.lua

-- ~/.config/nem/init.lua
nem.set("tab-width", 4)
nem.set("theme", "light")

-- F5 saves.
nem.bind("<f5>", "save-buffer")

-- A command of your own, in M-x and on a key.
nem.command("reverse-line", "Reverse the characters on the current line.",
  function()
    nem.buf.replace_line(nem.buf.line():reverse())
  end)
nem.bind("C-c r", "reverse-line")

Restart nem and it is in effect. A mistake in it is reported in the echo area, and nem starts anyway with its defaults for whatever failed.

Finding your way inside nem

• M-x runs any command by name, with fuzzy completion: M-x fwc finds forward-char.
• Pausing after a prefix key such as C-x lists what can follow it.
• <f1> b lists every binding; <f1> k then a key says what the key does.
• M-s r searches the project as you type, and M-s f finds a file in it: ripgrep and fzf, built in. See Searching.

These pages are kept with nem's code, in docs/wiki in the repository, and the key and command references are generated from it, so they describe the version of nem the latest release was built from.