Drift Editor

⚠️ Under active development. Expect breaking changes and incomplete features.

Drift is built on a fork of uirelays: bung87/uirelays#tmp2.

This project synthesizes ideas and code from three previous editor explorations, developed through collaborative vibe coding.

A lightweight IDE/text editor written in Nim, built on uirelays.

Features

• Fast & Lightweight: Minimal dependencies, quick startup
• Syntax Highlighting: Nim, C, C++, JavaScript, Python, Rust, Java, C#, XML, HTML, Markdown
• File Explorer: Sidebar directory tree with git status indicators
• Git Integration: Status panel, changed file list, diff viewer
• Side-by-Side Diff: Open changed files as tabs with "Previous / Current" panes
• LSP Support: Hover, go-to-definition, diagnostics (nimlangserver / nimsuggest)
• Debugging: DAP client with breakpoints, call stack, variables panel
• AI Assistant: Integrated chat panel via ACP (Agent Communication Protocol)
• Terminal: Built-in terminal panel at the bottom
• Command Palette: Quick access to commands and keyboard shortcuts
• Theme System: Dark themes with customizable color tokens
• Sticky Scroll: Floating parent-scope headers while scrolling
• Notifications: In-app toast notifications

Architecture

src/
├── drift.nim              # Entry point
├── app/
│   ├── app.nim            # Main App object, event loop, render loop
│   ├── app_layout.nim     # Window layout computation
│   ├── app_commands.nim   # Command registry (Ctrl+Shift+P, Ctrl+W, etc.)
│   ├── event_router.nim   # Input event routing
│   └── ...
├── core/
│   ├── document.nim       # Text document model
│   ├── history.nim        # Undo/redo
│   ├── selection.nim      # Selection & multi-cursor
│   ├── config.nim         # TOML configuration
│   └── types.nim          # Domain types
├── editor/
│   ├── state.nim          # EditorState (cursor, scroll, viewport)
│   ├── color_highlight.nim # Syntax highlighting
│   ├── diff_engine.nim    # Myers diff + prefix/suffix fallback
│   ├── git_diff.nim       # Git diff markers
│   └── sticky_scroll.nim  # Sticky scope headers
├── services/
│   ├── lsp_thread.nim     # LSP worker thread (JSON-RPC over TCP)
│   ├── ai_thread.nim      # AI assistant thread (ACP over stdio)
│   ├── dap_thread.nim     # Debug adapter thread (DAP over TCP)
│   └── git.nim            # Git command wrapper
├── ui/
│   ├── diff_view.nim      # Side-by-side diff viewer
│   ├── tabs.nim           # Tab bar
│   ├── file_explorer.nim  # Sidebar file tree
│   ├── git_panel.nim      # Git status panel
│   ├── search_panel.nim   # Find/replace & workspace search
│   ├── ai_panel.nim       # AI chat panel
│   ├── debug_panel.nim    # Debug variables/scopes
│   ├── debug_sidebar.nim  # Debug controls + call stack
│   ├── command_palette.nim # Command picker
│   ├── theme.nim          # Theme system
│   └── ...
├── widgets/
│   └── widgets.nim        # Reusable UI primitives
└── utils/
    ├── file_watcher.nim   # Directory change monitoring
    └── text.nim           # Text utilities

See notes/ARCHITECTURE.md for the full architecture overview.

Tech Stack

• Language: Nim 2.2
• GUI: uirelays
• Concurrency: std/atomics + custom SPSC lock-free channels
• Async I/O: chronos (LSP/DAP network I/O)
• Image Loading: pixie

Building

Prerequisites

• Nim 2.2+
• uirelays

Build

# Debug build
nim c -o:drift src/drift.nim

# Release build
nim c -d:release -o:drift src/drift.nim

Usage

# Open editor
./drift

# Open specific file
./drift myfile.nim

# Open directory
./drift /path/to/project

# Custom window size
./drift -w 1600 -h 900

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+O	Open file
Ctrl+Shift+O	Open folder
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+W	Close tab
Ctrl+T	New file
Ctrl+Shift+P	Command palette
Ctrl+F	Find
Ctrl+H	Replace
Ctrl+Shift+F	Find in workspace
Ctrl+B	Toggle sidebar
Ctrl+G	Go to line
`Ctrl+``	Toggle terminal
F5	Start debugging
F9	Toggle breakpoint
Esc	Close panel / overlay

License

Dual-licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Commercial License.

• Open source / personal / educational use: AGPL-3.0
• Commercial / proprietary / closed-source use: Commercial license required

See LICENSE and LICENSE-AGPL for details.