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cooledit

A terminal-based text editor for Linux, macOS and Windows. Similar to nano but with modern keyboard shortcuts and better file handling. And maybe a tiny bit larger in size :)

Features

  • Cross-platform terminal UI
  • UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1 encoding support with auto-detection
  • LF and CRLF line ending detection and preservation
  • Undo/redo with full history
  • Find and replace with unified search mode (real-time incremental search)
  • Search history navigation and case-sensitive/whole word options
  • System clipboard integration (Ctrl+C/X/V)
  • Line numbers (toggle with Ctrl+L)
  • Word wrap (toggle with Ctrl+W)
  • Configurable cursor shapes (block, underline, bar)
  • 14 built-in color themes including retro DOS and IBM phosphor styles
  • Syntax highlighting with 50+ language support (Chroma-based)
  • Whitespace visualization (spaces, tabs, line endings)
  • Auto-indentation (preserves leading whitespace on Enter)
  • Zen mode (F11 to hide status bar)
  • Bracket matching and navigation (Ctrl+B)
  • Current line highlight (toggle via View menu)
  • Autosave with automatic recovery on startup
  • Smart Home key (cycles between first non-whitespace and column 0)
  • Block indent/unindent (Tab/Shift+Tab with selection)
  • Comment/Uncomment toggle (Ctrl+/) - language-aware
  • Trim trailing whitespace on save (configurable)
  • Position log - remembers cursor position across sessions
  • Scrollbar indicator showing viewport position
  • Verbatim Unicode character input (Ctrl+Shift+U hex, Ctrl+Shift+D decimal)
  • External formatter integration (Ctrl+Shift+F) with built-in support for 20+ languages
  • External linter integration (Ctrl+Shift+L) with diagnostics navigation (F8/Shift+F8)

Installation

npm

npm install -g @tomcoolpxl/cooledit

The npm package downloads the matching release binary from GitHub Releases during installation. It currently supports Linux, macOS, and Windows on x64 and arm64.

If npm global installs require sudo, switch npm to a user-owned prefix instead:

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
npm config set prefix ~/.local
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
npm install -g @tomcoolpxl/cooledit

To make it permanent for future shells, add the same line to your shell startup file:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Linux / macOS

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tomcoolpxl/cooledit/main/install.sh | sh

Install a specific version:

COOLEDIT_VERSION=vX.Y.Z curl -fsSL \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tomcoolpxl/cooledit/main/install.sh | sh

The script installs to ~/.local/bin (non-root) or /usr/local/bin (root) and verifies the SHA256 checksum automatically.

Windows

winget install cooledit.cooledit

Manual download

Download the archive for your platform from the Releases page, extract, and place the cooledit binary somewhere on your PATH.

Build from source

Requires Go 1.25 or later:

git clone https://github.com/tomcoolpxl/cooledit
cd cooledit
go build -o cooledit ./cmd/cooledit

Usage

# Open a file
cooledit filename.txt

# Create new file (opens for editing even if doesn't exist)
cooledit newfile.txt

# Create file without name
cooledit

# Show line numbers
cooledit -l filename.txt
cooledit --line-numbers filename.txt

# Use custom config file
cooledit -c /path/to/config.toml filename.txt
cooledit --config /path/to/config.toml filename.txt

# Show version
cooledit -v
cooledit --version

# Show help
cooledit -h
cooledit --help

Keyboard Shortcuts

File Operations

  • Ctrl+S - Save
  • Ctrl+Shift+S - Save as
  • Ctrl+Q - Quit

Editing

  • Ctrl+Z - Undo
  • Ctrl+Y - Redo
  • Ctrl+X - Cut (current line if no selection)
  • Ctrl+C - Copy (current line if no selection)
  • Ctrl+V - Paste
  • Ctrl+A - Select all
  • Ctrl+/ - Toggle comment on line or selection
  • Insert - Toggle insert/replace mode
  • Tab - Insert spaces to next tab stop (or indent selection)
  • Shift+Tab - Unindent line or selection
  • Ctrl+I - Insert literal tab character
  • Ctrl+Shift+U - Insert Unicode character by hex code point
  • Ctrl+Shift+D - Insert Unicode character by decimal code point
  • Ctrl+Shift+F - Format document with external formatter
  • Ctrl+Shift+L - Run linter on current file
  • F8 - Jump to next diagnostic
  • Shift+F8 - Jump to previous diagnostic
  • Backspace - Delete one character

Search

  • Ctrl+F - Enter unified search mode (incremental search with real-time results)
  • Alt+C - Toggle case sensitivity (in search mode)
  • Alt+W - Toggle whole word matching (in search mode)
  • F3 / Shift+F3 - Find next/previous match
  • Enter - Navigate to next match (in search mode)
  • Up / Down - Navigate search history (in search mode)
  • Ctrl+R - Replace current match (in search mode)
  • Ctrl+H - Replace all matches (in search mode, with confirmation)
  • Escape - Exit search mode
  • Ctrl+G - Go to line

Navigation

  • Arrow keys - Move cursor
  • Shift+Arrow keys - Select text
  • Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right - Jump by word
  • Home - Smart home (first non-whitespace, then column 0)
  • End - Line end
  • Ctrl+Home - File start
  • Ctrl+End - File end
  • Page Up / Page Down - Scroll by page
  • Ctrl+] - Jump to matching bracket
  • Ctrl+B - Toggle file browser

View

  • Ctrl+L - Toggle line numbers
  • Ctrl+W - Toggle word wrap
  • Ctrl+Shift+W - Toggle whitespace display
  • Ctrl+H - Toggle syntax highlighting
  • F11 - Toggle status bar (Zen mode)
  • F10 or Esc - Toggle menu
  • F1 - Show keyboard shortcuts help
  • Additional toggles via View menu: current line highlight, scrollbar, trim whitespace on save, remember cursor position

Menu Shortcuts (when menu is open)

Press the underlined letter to activate menu items:

  • File: Save, Save As, Quit
  • Edit: Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All (Grab All)
  • Search: Find/Replace, Find Next, Find Prev
  • Help: Keyboard Shortcuts

Configuration

Config file is auto-created at:

  • Linux/macOS: ~/.config/cooledit/config.toml
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\cooledit\config.toml

Example configuration:

[editor]
line_numbers = false
soft_wrap = false
tab_width = 4
syntax_highlighting = true
show_whitespace = false
current_line_highlight = false      # Highlight current line with different background
trim_trailing_whitespace = false    # Trim trailing whitespace on save
remember_position = true            # Remember cursor position across sessions
show_scrollbar = false              # Show scrollbar indicator

[ui]
show_menubar = false
show_statusbar = true
theme = "default"
cursor_shape = "block"  # Options: block, underline, bar
cursor_blink = true

[search]
case_sensitive = false
whole_word = false

[autosave]
enabled = true
idle_timeout = 2    # seconds before autosave
min_interval = 30   # minimum seconds between autosaves

Themes

14 built-in themes available via View → Themes menu:

  1. default - Terminal defaults with green cursor
  2. dark - Dark background, light text
  3. light - Light background, dark text
  4. monokai - Popular dark theme with vibrant colors
  5. solarized-dark - Precision dark color scheme
  6. solarized-light - Precision light color scheme
  7. gruvbox-dark - Retro warm dark colors
  8. gruvbox-light - Retro warm light colors
  9. dracula - Dark with purple accents
  10. nord - Arctic bluish theme
  11. dos - Classic DOS Edit blue background
  12. ibm-green - Classic green phosphor monitor
  13. ibm-amber - Classic amber phosphor monitor
  14. cyberpunk - Neon theme with hot pink and cyan

Custom themes can be defined in config file using [themes.custom_name] sections.

Unified Search Mode

Press Ctrl+F to enter unified search mode with real-time incremental search:

Searching

  • Type to search - matches appear immediately as you type (all letters and characters are typed)
  • Search highlights all matches in the viewport
  • Status bar shows match count (e.g., "Match 3 of 15")
  • Enter - Navigate to next match
  • F3 / Shift+F3 - Navigate next/previous match
  • Up / Down - Navigate search history
  • Backspace - Delete character from query (or exit if query is empty)

Options

  • Alt+C - Toggle case sensitivity (indicator shows "Match Case" or "Ignore Case")
  • Alt+W - Toggle whole word matching (indicator shows "Whole Word")
  • Search preferences persist across searches within the session

Replacing

  • Ctrl+R - Replace current match (prompts for replacement text)
  • Ctrl+H - Replace all matches (shows confirmation dialog with match count)
  • Replace-all is undoable as a single operation

Exiting

  • Escape - Exit search mode and return to normal editing
  • Query is saved to history for next search

Features

  • Pre-fills search from current selection (if text is selected)
  • Real-time match highlighting (current match vs other matches)
  • Visual error state when no matches found (red status bar)
  • Debounced search (waits 150ms after last keystroke)
  • Performance limit: up to 1000 matches (shows "1000+" if more exist)

File Handling

  • Encoding auto-detection (UTF-8, ISO-8859-1)
  • Line ending auto-detection (LF, CRLF)
  • Original encoding and line endings preserved on save
  • Files are loaded entirely into memory

Autosave

Cooledit automatically saves backup copies of your work to prevent data loss.

How it Works

  • Autosave triggers after 2 seconds of inactivity (configurable)
  • Backups are stored in a dedicated directory:
    • Windows: %APPDATA%\cooledit\autosave\
    • Linux: ~/.local/share/cooledit/autosave/
    • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/cooledit/autosave/

Recovery

If cooledit finds an autosave backup when opening a file, it shows a recovery prompt:

  • [R]ecover - Load the autosave content (marks file as modified)
  • [O]pen original - Load the original file (keeps autosave for later)
  • [D]iscard - Delete the autosave and load original file

Lifecycle

  • Autosave is cleared when you save with Ctrl+S
  • Autosave is kept if you quit without saving (for future recovery)
  • Toggle autosave via View → Autosave menu

Code Formatting

Press Ctrl+Shift+F or use Edit → Format Document to format the current file using an external formatter.

Built-in Formatter Support

Cooledit includes default formatters for many languages:

Language Formatter Language Formatter
Go gofmt Python black
JavaScript prettier TypeScript prettier
Rust rustfmt JSON prettier
YAML prettier HTML/CSS prettier
C/C++ clang-format Java google-java-format
Shell/Bash shfmt TOML taplo
Markdown prettier SQL sql-formatter

Custom Formatters

Override or add formatters in your config file:

# Use goimports instead of gofmt for Go
[formatters.go]
command = "goimports"

# Use autopep8 instead of black for Python
[formatters.python]
command = "autopep8"
args = ["-"]

# Add formatter for a language without built-in support
[formatters.haskell]
command = "ormolu"
args = ["--stdin-input-file", ".hs"]

Features

  • Format is undoable with Ctrl+Z
  • 5-second timeout prevents hangs
  • Error messages shown in status bar
  • Works with any command that reads from stdin and writes to stdout

Code Linting

Press Ctrl+Shift+L or use Edit → Run Linter to check the current file for errors and warnings.

Built-in Linter Support

Cooledit includes default linters for many languages:

Language Linter Language Linter
Go go vet Python ruff
JavaScript eslint TypeScript eslint
Rust cargo check C gcc -fsyntax-only
C++ g++ -fsyntax-only Shell/Bash shellcheck
YAML yamllint JSON jsonlint

Diagnostics Display

  • Gutter markers: Shows severity in the line number column
    • ✗ - Error (red)
    • ⚠ - Warning (yellow)
    • ℹ - Info (blue)
    • • - Hint
  • Status bar: Shows diagnostic message when cursor is on affected line
  • Navigation: Use F8 / Shift+F8 to jump between diagnostics

Custom Linters

Override or add linters in your config file:

# Use golangci-lint instead of go vet for Go
[linters.go]
command = "golangci-lint"
args = ["run", "--fast"]

# Use pylint instead of ruff for Python
[linters.python]
command = "pylint"
args = ["--output-format=parseable"]

# Add linter for a language without built-in support
[linters.ruby]
command = "rubocop"
args = ["--format", "emacs"]

Features

  • Diagnostics cleared automatically when you edit the file
  • 10-second timeout prevents hangs
  • Error messages shown in status bar
  • Works with any command that outputs file:line:col: message format

Building

# Build
go build ./cmd/cooledit

# Run tests
go test ./...

# Run without building
go run ./cmd/cooledit filename.txt

Dependencies

  • github.com/gdamore/tcell/v2 - Terminal handling
  • github.com/atotto/clipboard - System clipboard integration
  • github.com/BurntSushi/toml - Configuration file parsing

Non-Features

  • No multiple file buffers
  • No plugin system
  • Single file editing only

Author

Tom Cool

License

Copyright (C) 2026 Tom Cool

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

See the LICENSE file for the complete license text.

Source Code

The complete source code for this software is available at: https://github.com/tomcoolpxl/cooledit

Bug Reports

To report bugs or request features, please open an issue at: https://github.com/tomcoolpxl/cooledit/issues

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GPL-3.0 license
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Releases 3

cooledit 0.5.1 Latest
Mar 19, 2026
+ 2 releases

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