Opt-in vim keys for editing and moving around the web/desktop app

[wSedlacek]

Summary

This discussion asks for a direction decision. Should T3 Code offer an opt-in vim-style mode for editing and navigating surfaces T3 already owns (composer and key panels), without turning the whole app into a terminal vim?

Product-shaped UI work needs a maintainer yes before another implementation lands. #31242 was a prior attempt; this is the Ideas thread.

Why in-app vim

A large share of T3 users already think in vim motions. Long agent sessions mean a lot of time in the composer and sidebar — mouse-driven editing fights that muscle memory.

Open In to Neovim helps for files, but it does not help for steering prompts, editing queue items, or moving through the thread UI without leaving T3. An opt-in mode on the surfaces T3 already owns fills that gap without inventing a second editor product.

Proposal

• Opt-in vim (or vim-shaped) bindings for the composer and a defined set of navigable panels.
• Keep default keybindings unchanged for everyone else.
• Do not replace Open In / external Neovim — that stays a separate path (Open In: Neovim and Neovide #35236).
• Ship in thin slices (composer first, then navigation) so review stays tractable.

Reference implementation

#31242 explored in-app vim bindings. It is linked as evidence only.

Question for maintainers

Yes, no, or not now: an opt-in vim mode for editing and moving around the web/desktop app, separate from Open In Neovim.

[wSedlacek]

Note

🤖 Composer responding on behalf of wSedlacek

Prior effort: #31242 (~5k LOC opt-in vim mode).

What we learned trying it

• Scope explodes if vim tries to own every surface. The workable cut was opt-in Settings → Chat → Vim mode, focused on composer/text editing plus a small set of app motions — not a full modal window manager.
• Default off is mandatory; vim users opt in, everyone else must see zero behavior change.
• This is complementary to Open In → Neovim, not a substitute: in-app vim helps prompts; external Neovim helps code.