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CtrlUserKnown edited this page Jun 26, 2026 · 3 revisions

Welcome to Charvim!

Charvim is a highly customized Neovim configuration designed to enhance productivity and provide a modern development experience. This wiki will help you get started with the basics of Vim and understand the custom features built into Charvim.

How Vim Works

Vim (and Neovim) is a modal editor. This means that the keys on your keyboard do different things depending on which "mode" you are in.

The Four Main Modes

  1. Normal Mode: The default mode. Used for navigation and running commands. Press Esc to return here from any other mode.
  2. Insert Mode: Used for typing text. Enter this mode by pressing i, a, or o.
  3. Visual Mode: Used for selecting blocks of text. Enter this mode by pressing v (character-wise), V (line-wise), or Ctrl-v (block-wise).
  4. Command-line Mode: Used for saving, quitting, and searching. Enter this mode by typing : or / (for searching) from Normal mode.

Basic Vim Motions & Commands

Efficiency in Vim comes from staying in Normal Mode and using motions.

1. Basic Movement (The Home Row)

Instead of arrow keys, use these to keep your hands centered:

  • h: Move left
  • j: Move down
  • k: Move up
  • l: Move right

2. Moving Within a Line

  • w: Jump forward to the start of the next word.
  • b: Jump backward to the start of the previous word.
  • e: Jump forward to the end of the word.
  • 0: Jump to the absolute beginning of the line.
  • $: Jump to the end of the line.
  • ^: Jump to the first non-blank character.

Charvim Customizations:

  • H: Jump to the beginning of the line (replaces 0).
  • L: Jump to the end of the line (replaces $).

Tip

More custom navigation and line manipulation shortcuts can be found in the charVim-Wiki.md file.

3. Moving Within a File

  • gg: Go to the first line of the file.
  • G: Go to the last line of the file.
  • {number}G: Go to a specific line number (e.g., 10G).
  • Ctrl + d: Scroll down half a page.
  • Ctrl + u: Scroll up half a page.

4. Basic Editing

  • i: Insert before the cursor.
  • a: Append after the cursor.
  • o: Open a new line below.
  • x: Delete the character under the cursor.
  • u: Undo the last change.
  • Ctrl + r: Redo.

5. Operators + Motions

You can combine operators with motions to perform actions:

  • d: Delete (e.g., dw deletes a word, dd deletes a line).
  • y: Yank/Copy (e.g., yw yanks a word, yy yanks a line).
  • p: Paste after the cursor.

6. Saving and Quitting

  • :w: Save (write) the file.
  • :q: Quit.
  • :wq: Save and quit.
  • :q!: Quit without saving.

Customizations

Please note that I have made extensive customizations to the Neovim base to fit my personal workflow and preferences. These include:

  • LSP (Language Server Protocol) for IDE-like features (autocompletion, go-to-definition). Servers: Lua, Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, Java (JDTLS), Kotlin, Go, C/C++, Swift, Typst, XML.
  • Treesitter for advanced syntax highlighting and incremental selection.
  • Harpoon for fast file navigation.
  • Custom Keymaps for common tasks (check lua/keymaps.lua in the config).
  • Statusline & UI enhancements for a cleaner look.
  • Multi-cursor support via a custom native implementation (lua/multicursor.lua).
  • Find & Replace / Rename panel with live preview, backed by rg with optional LSP rename (lua/rename-config.lua).
  • AI assistance via avante.nvim using Anthropic Claude (claude-haiku-4-5).
  • Debugging with DAP for Python, Java, C/C++, Swift, and Kotlin.

For a detailed breakdown of all the specific customizations and how to use them, please visit the: 👉 Charvim Wiki - Detailed Customizations

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