The command line

Some of what Helix does isn’t bound to a key. Instead, it lives behind the command line, which you open with : in normal mode. A prompt appears at the bottom of the editor, you type a command, and Enter runs it. If you change your mind, Escape closes the prompt without doing anything.

You’ve been using it already: :o opens a file. Saving and quitting live here too: :w writes the buffer, :q quits, :wq does both, and :q! quits without saving. This embedded editor has nowhere to go when it quits, so practice :w here and keep the rest for a real terminal. A few more commands are useful time and time again:

• :goto 5, or just :5 for short, jumps to line 5
• :reload discards your edits and re-reads the file from disk
• :buffer-close, or :bc, closes the current buffer
• :theme switches the color scheme
• :set and :toggle change editor settings for the session

Helix has no ranges or addresses to learn — commands that work on text act on your selection, which you already know how to make.

Work through the checklist below to run your first two commands.