Screenkey.nvim

Screenkey is a Neovim plugin that displays the keys you are typing in a floating window, just like screenkey does. It is useful for screencasts, presentations, and live coding sessions.

📺 Showcase

2024-04-16.22-42-26.mp4

⚡️ Requirements

• Neovim version >= 0.10.0
• a Nerd Font (optional, but recommended)

📋 Installation

lazy:

return {
    "NStefan002/screenkey.nvim",
    lazy = false,
    version = "*", -- or branch = "dev", to use the latest commit
}

packer:

use({ "NStefan002/screenkey.nvim", tag = "*" })

rocks.nvim

:Rocks install screenkey.nvim

Note

• There is no need to call the setup function, only call it if you need to change some options
• There is no need to lazy load Screenkey, it lazy loads by default.

⚙️ Configuration

• Default settings

require("screenkey").setup({
    win_opts = {
        row = vim.o.lines - vim.o.cmdheight - 1,
        col = vim.o.columns - 1,
        relative = "editor",
        anchor = "SE",
        width = 40,
        height = 3,
        border = "single",
        title = "Screenkey",
        title_pos = "center",
        style = "minimal",
        focusable = false,
        noautocmd = true,
    },
    compress_after = 3,
    clear_after = 3,
    disable = {
        filetypes = {},
        buftypes = {},
        events = false,
    },
    show_leader = true,
    group_mappings = false,
    display_infront = {},
    display_behind = {},
    filter = function(keys)
        return keys
    end,
    keys = {
        ["<TAB>"] = "󰌒",
        ["<CR>"] = "󰌑",
        ["<ESC>"] = "Esc",
        ["<SPACE>"] = "␣",
        ["<BS>"] = "󰌥",
        ["<DEL>"] = "Del",
        ["<LEFT>"] = "",
        ["<RIGHT>"] = "",
        ["<UP>"] = "",
        ["<DOWN>"] = "",
        ["<HOME>"] = "Home",
        ["<END>"] = "End",
        ["<PAGEUP>"] = "PgUp",
        ["<PAGEDOWN>"] = "PgDn",
        ["<INSERT>"] = "Ins",
        ["<F1>"] = "󱊫",
        ["<F2>"] = "󱊬",
        ["<F3>"] = "󱊭",
        ["<F4>"] = "󱊮",
        ["<F5>"] = "󱊯",
        ["<F6>"] = "󱊰",
        ["<F7>"] = "󱊱",
        ["<F8>"] = "󱊲",
        ["<F9>"] = "󱊳",
        ["<F10>"] = "󱊴",
        ["<F11>"] = "󱊵",
        ["<F12>"] = "󱊶",
        ["CTRL"] = "Ctrl",
        ["ALT"] = "Alt",
        ["SUPER"] = "󰘳",
        ["<leader>"] = "<leader>",
    },
})

option	explanation
win_opts	see :h nvim_open_win, note1: other options from nvim_open_win help can be provided (such as win, bufpos, zindex etc.), the ones listed above are just defaults)
compress after	compress input when repeated <compress_after> times (for example jjjj will be compressed to j..x4)
clear_after	clear the input after <clear_after> seconds of inactivity
disable	temporarily disable screenkey (for example when inside of the terminal)
disable.filetypes	for example: toggleterm or toml
disable.events	disable User events
disable.buftypes	see :h 'buftype', for example: terminal
group_mappings	for example: <leader>sf opens up a fuzzy finder, if the group_mappings option is set to true, every time you open up a fuzzy finder with <leader>sf, Screenkey will show ␣sf instead of ␣ s f to indicate that the used key combination was a defined mapping.
show_leader	if this option is set to true, in the last example instead of ␣ s f Screenkey will display <leader> s f (of course, if the <space> is <leader>), if the current key is not a defined mapping, Screenkey will display <space> as ␣
display_infront1	if the floating window containing the buffer of the same filetype as in display_infront is opened, screenkey window will be reopened in front of that window (if necessary), Note: you can define filetypes as lua regex, for example "Telescope*" to match every filetype that starts with Telescope
display_behind2	if the floating window containing the buffer of the same filetype as in display_behind is opened, screenkey window will be reopened behind of that window (if necessary), Note: you can define filetypes as lua regex, for example "Telescope*" to match every filetype that starts with Telescope
filter	function that takes an array of key-is_mapping (string-boolean) pairs (keys) as its argument and returns a filtered array of same pairs, allowing customization of which keys should be displayed, Note: this feature is experimental and subject to change (see #38 for the progress of this feature and see below for the example of how to use it)
keys	how to display the special keys

❓ How to use

• :Screenkey toggle (or just Screenkey) to toggle the screenkey

• Don't worry about leaking your passwords when using sudo while streaming/recording because you forgot to turn off your display-key application, Screenkey will only show pieces of information about your input in Neovim.

• This plugin exposes get_keys function that you can use in a statusline component. You can use :Screenkey toggle_statusline_component or change vim.g.screenkey_statusline_component to toggle this feature on/off. For lualine it would look something like this:

vim.g.screenkey_statusline_component = true

vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>ssc", function()
    vim.g.screenkey_statusline_component = not vim.g.screenkey_statusline_component
end, { desc = "Toggle screenkey statusline component" })

require("lualine").setup({
    -- other options ...
    sections = {
        -- other sections ...
        lualine_c = {
            -- other components ...
            function()
                return require("screenkey").get_keys()
            end,
        },
    },
})

• Run :checkhealth screenkey to diagnose possible configuration problems

• Screenkey exposes redraw function that redraws the Screenkey window, could be used like this:

require("screenkey").redraw()

or

:Screenkey redraw

• Screenkey exposes is_active function that returns true if the Screenkey window is active, false otherwise, could be used like this:

local screenkey = require("screenkey")
local notify = require("notify")
local toggleScreenKey = function()
    vim.cmd("Screenkey toggle")
    -- change notification position
    notify.setup({
        top_down = screenkey.is_active(),
    })
end

vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>tsk", toggleScreenKey, { desc = "[T]oggle [S]creen[K]ey" })

Note

If you're using a terminal inside of the Neovim, and you want screenkey to automatically stop displaying your keys when you're > inside of the terminal, see disable option in the plugin configuration.

• For fully custom statusline users, screenkey will fire User events if vim.g.screenkey_statusline_component is enabled. There are two patterns: ScreenkeyUpdated on keypress and ScreenkeyCleared when clearing screenkey after inactivity (see clear_after option). If you are experiencing performance issues and do not rely on these events, you can disable them with the disable.events option. Example usage with heirline:

require("heirline").setup({
    statusline = {
        {
            provider = function()
                return require("screenkey").get_keys()
            end,
            update = {
                "User",
                pattern = "Screenkey*",
                callback = vim.schedule_wrap(function()
                    vim.cmd("redrawstatus")
                end),
            },
        },
    },
})

• One example of how you could use the filter function:

-- filter out j and k keys, but only if they are not part of a mapping
require("screenkey").setup({
    filter = function(keys)
        return vim.iter(keys)
            :filter(function(k)
                return (k.key ~= "j" and k.key ~= "k") or k.is_mapping
            end)
            :totable()
    end,
})

🙏 I took inspiration (and some code) from

• nvim-best-practices
• harpoon v2

👀 Similar projects

• keys.nvim:

Footnotes

1. This is currently an experimental feature. Please report any issues you encounter. Use it responsibly, do not set too many conditions, as it can slow down the plugin. Also, if the conflict occurs (e.g. two floating windows are present at the same time - one with the filetype that matches the display_infront condition and the other with the filetype that matches the display_behind condition), nothing will happen (this is subject to change) ↩

2. Same as above ↩