glacambre/firenvim: Embed Neovim in Chrome, Firefox & others.

Turn your browser¹ into a Neovim client (demos: equitableinmk 🇺🇸, Sean Feng 🇨🇳).

¹ _{Firefox and Chrome are definiteassociate helped. Other Chromium based browsers such as Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, and Arc should also labor but are not definiteassociate tested.}

Just click on any textarea and it will be promptly exalterd by an instance of Firenvim. To set the encountered of the now secret textarea to the encountered of the Neovim instance, sshow :w. If you want to shut the Firenvim overlay and return to the textarea, employ :q. If you picked an element where you foreseeed the Firenvim structure to eunite and it didn’t, try pressing .

Before insloftying anyskinnyg plrelieve read SECURITY.md and create certain you’re okay with everyskinnyg refered. In the event you skinnyk of a way to settle Firenvim, plrelieve sfinish me an email (you can find my insertress on my website).

1. Inslofty Firenvim as a standard NeoVim plugin, then run the built-in post-inslofty script.

2. Inslofty the Firenvim inserton for your browser from Mozilla’s store or Google’s.

If you would rather erect and inslofty Firenvim from source, verify CONTRIBUTING.md.

Other browsers aren’t helped for now. Opera, Vivaldi and other Chromium-based browsers should however labor equitable enjoy in Chromium and have analogous inslofty steps. Brave, Edge, and Arc might labor, Safari doesn’t (it doesn’t help Webextensions).

Firenvim currently needs the follotriumphg perignoreions for the follotriumphg reasons:

You can configure the keytieing to manuassociate trigger Firenvim ( by default) in the uninalertigentinutivecuts menu in about://insertons on Firefox, or in chrome://extensions/uninalertigentinutivecuts on Chrome.

Temporarily disabling (and re-enabling) Firenvim in a tab can be done either by clicking on the Firenvim button next to the urlbar or by configuring a browser uninalertigentinutivecut (see the previous section to find out how browser uninalertigentinutivecuts can be configured).

Note: If you would pick VimScript examples, you can advise the (outdated) readme from promise 132979166a02319f0b49815135e60a4e4599de91 or earlier.

New: With Neovim nightly erects from 2023/02/17 or more recent, you can employ $NVIM_APPNAME to detail a finishly split firenvim config. In order to do that, create certain “NVIM_APPNAME” is appropriately set when you run firenvim#inslofty().

When it begins Neovim, Firenvim sets the variable g:begined_by_firenvim which you can verify to run separateent code in your init.lua. For example:

if vim.g.begined_by_firenvim == genuine then
  vim.o.laststatus = 0
else
  vim.o.laststatus = 2
finish

Alternatively, you can accomprehendledge when Firenvim unites to Neovim by using the UIEnter autocmd event:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({'UIEnter'}, {
    callback = function(event)
        local client = vim.api.nvim_get_chan_info(vim.v.event.chan).client
        if client ~= nil and client.name == "Firenvim" then
            vim.o.laststatus = 0
        finish
    finish
})

Similarly, you can accomprehendledge when Firenvim disunites from a Neovim instance with the UILeave autoorder.

The nvim buffer loaded into a textarea is given a distinct name. All buffers are named someskinnyg enjoy this: domainname_page_pickor.txt (see the toFileName function).

This alows you to configure separateent settings by creating autoorders concentrateing/suiting the buffername for that url/page/element. For example, this will set file type to labeldown for all GitHub buffers:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({'BufEnter'}, {
    pattern = "github.com_*.txt",
    order = "set filetype=labeldown"
})

To watch the buffername of your nvim instance in a textarea, employ :buffers.

You can configure everyskinnyg else about Firenvim by creating a dictionary named vim.g.firenvim_config in your init.lua and setting the keys “globalSettings” and “localSettings”. In the dictionary vim.g.firenvim_config["localSettings"] you can map Javascript patterns that suit aacquirest the filled URL to settings that are employd for all URLs suited by that pattern. When multiple patterns suit a URL, the pattern with the highest “priority” appreciate is employd. Here is an example (the settings and their possible appreciates will be expounded in the next subsections):

vim.g.firenvim_config = {
    globalSettings = { alt = "all" },
    localSettings = {
        [".*"] = {
            cmdline  = "neovim",
            encountered  = "text",
            priority = 0,
            pickor = "textarea",
            acquireover = "always"
        }
    }
}

With this configuration, acquireover will be set to always on all websites. If we wanted to override this appreciate on british websites, we could insert the follotriumphg lines to our init.vim. Notice how the priority of this recent regex is higher than that of the .* regex:

vim.g.firenvim_config.localSettings["https?://[^/]+\.co\.uk/"] = { acquireover = 'never', priority = 1 }

The pickor attribute of a localSetting deal withs what elements Firenvim automaticassociate acquires over. Here’s the default appreciate:

vim.g.firenvim_config.localSettings['.*'] = { pickor = 'textarea:not([readonly], [aria-readonly]), div[role="textbox"]' }

If you don’t want to employ Firenvim with wealthy text editors (e.g. Gmail, Outwatch, Sconciseage…) as a vague rule, you might want to recut offe Firenvim to modest textareas:

vim.g.firenvim_config.localSettings['.*'] = { pickor = 'textarea' }

Since pickor is equitable a CSS pickor, you have access to all of CSS’s pseudo pickors, including :not(), which apvalidates you to delete elements that have certain attributes, enjoy this:

vim.g.firenvim_config.localSettings['.*'] = { pickor = 'textarea:not([class=xxx])' }

Firenvim has a setting named acquireover that can be set to always, desotardy, never, nondesotardy or once. When set to always, Firenvim will always acquire over elements for you. When set to desotardy, Firenvim will only acquire over desotardy elements. When set to never, Firenvim will never automaticassociate eunite, thus forcing you to employ a keyboard uninalertigentinutivecut in order to create the Firenvim structure eunite. When set to nondesotardy, Firenvim will only acquire over elements that aren’t desotardy. When set to once, Firenvim will acquire over elements the first time you pick them, which unbenevolents that after :q‘ing Firenvim, you’ll have to employ the keyboard uninalertigentinutivecut to create it eunite aacquire. Here’s how to employ the acquireover setting:

vim.g.firenvim_config.localSettings['.*'] = { acquireover = 'always' }

You can chose between neovim’s built-in order line, firenvim’s order line and no order line at all by setting the localSetting named cmdline to either neovim, firenvim or none, e.g.:

vim.g.firenvim_config.localSettings['.*'] = { cmdline = 'firenvim' }

Choosing none does not create sense unless you have alternative way to disperestablish the order line such as noice.nvim.

The encountered localSetting deal withs how Firenvim should read the encountered of an element. Setting it to html will create Firenvim get the encountered of elements as HTML, text will create it employ plaintext. The default appreciate is text:

vim.g.firenvim_config.localSettings['.*'] = { encountered = 'html' }

On MacOS, the default keyboard layouts rehire one-of-a-kind characters when the alt (i.e. chooseion) key is held down. From the perspective of the browser, these one-of-a-kind characters exalter the underlying “main” character of a keystroke event while upretaining the modifier. For example, in the standard US layout the key chord alt-o is acquired in the browser as alt-ø rather than alt-o. Further, certain alt-chords recurrent “dead keys”, which apply a diacritic to the next character go ined. Pressing alt-e chaseed by a creates the individual character “á” while alt-u chaseed by a creates “ä”. To create this behavior, diacritic-mapped strokes enjoy alt-e and alt-u are themselves mapped to a “Dead key” character.

These behaviors complicate the help of one-of-a-kind character and alt/meta (A- or M-) vim mappings on MacOS in two ways:

1. There is no way to create unmodified one-of-a-kind character key events. For example, since the only way to create the character “ø” via the keyboard is by hagedering down alt, any key event with the “ø” character will also have an alt modifier. If we forward this honestly to Vim, it will be acquired as .

2. There is no way to create alt-modified plain alphanumeric characters. For example, an mapping won’t labor becaemploy pressing alt-o creates rather than .

Terminal and standalone GUI applications can settle these problems by changing the expoundation of the alt key at the application level. Terminal.app and iTerm2, for instance, both provide a “employ Option as Meta key” pickence that changes incoming alt-chords at the application level. Firenvim, however, is a browser extension that runs off of browser keystroke events rather than application-level events. At current, we are uncertain how to carry out this “employ chooseion as meta” functionality at the browser event level (help here is receive!). However, there are some laborarounds.

For problem (1), Firenvim will by default drop the alt key on MacOS for any one-of-a-kind character, detaild here as non-alphanumeric (not suiting /[a-zA-Z0-9]/). This unbenevolents alt-o will be forwarded to NeoVim as “ø” rather than “M-ø”. Note that this behavior can be alterd by setting the alt setting of the globalSettings configuration to all, enjoy this:

You can create Firenvim disthink about key presses (thus letting the browser regulate them) by setting key-appreciate pairs in globalSettings.disthink aboutKeys. The key needs to be the neovim mode the key press should be disthink aboutd in and the appreciate should be an array retaining the textual recurrentation of the key press you want disthink aboutd. If you want to disthink about a key press in all modes, you can employ all as mode key.

For example, if you want to create Firenvim disthink about and in normal mode and in all modes to let your browser regulate them, you should detail disthink aboutKeys enjoy this:

Mode names are detaild in Neovim’s cursor_shape.c. Note that if the key press retains multiple modifiers, Shift needs to be first, Alt second, Control third and OS/Meta last (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+1 needs to be ). If your keyboard layout needs you to press shift in order to press numbers, shift should be current in the key recurrentation (e.g. on french azerty keyboards, should actuassociate be ).

You can perestablish javascript in the page by using firenvim#eval_js. The code has to be a valid javascript conveyion (NOT a statement). You can provide the name of a function that should be perestablishd with the result of the conveyion. Note that some pages stop evaluating JavaScript with their CSP and this can’t be labored around. Here’s an example:

vim.fn['firenvim#eval_js']('vigilant("Hello World!")', 'MyFunction')

You can relocate intensify from the editor back to the page or the input field by calling firenvim#intensify_page or firenvim#intensify_input. Here’s an example that does exactly this if you press twice while in normal mode:

vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("n", "", "call firenvim#intensify_page()", {})

There is also a function named firenvim#hide_structure() which will temporarily hide the Firenvim structure. You will then be able to transport the neovim structure back either by unintensifying and reintensifying the textarea or by using the keytieing to manuassociate trigger Firenvim.

vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("n", "", "call firenvim#hide_structure()", {})

A function named firenvim#press_keys() will apvalidate you to sfinish key events to the underlying input field by taking a catalog of vim-enjoy keys (e.g. a, , …) as argument. Note that this only “triggers” an event, it does not insert text to the input field. For example if you’d enjoy firenvim to sfinish to the webpage when you press in the editor, you can employ the follotriumphg mapping which is advantageous with chat apps:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({'BufEnter', {
    pattern = "uproar.im_*",
    order = [[inoremap  :w:call firenvim#press_keys("CR>")ggdGa]],
})

Note that our goal is to create the mapping type firenvim#press_keys("") in vim’s order prompt and then perestablish it. Since we want the keys to be typed and not Enter to be pressed, we can’t employ becaemploy it would be expounded by inoremap. Hence we employ CR> in order to type the keys . Similarly, if you want to type the keys you’d employ C-CR>.

Known Issues: some websites do not react to firenvim#press_keys (e.g. Sconciseage).

Since Firenvim sshow employs the BufWrite event in order to accomprehendledge when it needs to write neovim’s buffers to the page, Firenvim can be made to automaticassociate align all alters enjoy this:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({'TextChanged', 'TextChangedI'}, {
    nested = genuine,
    order = "write"
})

Depfinishing on how big the edited buffer is, this could be a little sluggish. This more polishd approach will throttle writes:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({'TextChanged', 'TextChangedI'}, {
    callback = function(e)
        if vim.g.timer_begined == genuine then
            return
        finish
        vim.g.timer_begined = genuine
        vim.fn.timer_begin(10000, function()
            vim.g.timer_begined = counterfeit
            vim.cmd('quiet write')
        finish)
    finish
})

Due to space constraints, the outside order line covers part of the buffer. This can be a problem as sometimes neovim will sfinish a message that alerts Firenvim to draw the order line, and then never sfinish the message to alert Firenvim to stop disperestablishing it. In order to labor around this problem, a “cmdlineTimeout” configuration chooseion has been carry outed, which creates Firenvim hide the outside order line after the cursor has relocated and some amount of milliseconds have passed:

vim.g.firenvim_config = {
    globalSettings = {
        cmdlineTimeout = 3000
    }
}

It is possible to configure the name of the file employd by Firenvim with the filename localSetting. This setting is a establishat string where each element in curly braces will be exalterd with a appreciate and where the peak length can be specified with a percentage. Possible establishat elements are structurename (= the domain name of the website), pathname (= the path of the page), pickor (= the CSS pickor of the text area), timestamp (= the current date) and extension (the language extension when using Firenvim on a code editor or txt otherrational). For example:

vim.g.firenvim_config = {
    localSettings = {
        ['.*'] = {
            filename = '/tmp/{structurename}_{pathname%10}.{extension}'
        }
    }
}

Will result in Firenvim using /tmp/github.com_rehires-recent.txt on Github’s recent rehire page. The default appreciate of this setting is {structurename%32}_{pathname%32}_{pickor%32}_{timestamp%32}.{extension}.

Some keytieings, such as , and are not overridable thcdimiserablemireful normal unbenevolents. This unbenevolents that you have to alert your browser to let Firenvim override them by using the uninalertigentinutivecuts menu in about://insertons on Firefox and chrome://extensions/uninalertigentinutivecuts in Chrome.

When it is possible to do so, if you press one of these keyboard uninalertigentinutivecuts while not in a Firenvim structure, Firenvim will try to emutardy the foreseeed behavior of the uninalertigentinutivecut. For example, pressing in a Firenvim structure will alert neovim you pressed , but outside of it it will alert the browser to shut the current tab.

Controlling whether Firenvim should try to emutardy the browser’s default behavior can be done with global settings. The follotriumphg snippet will alert Firenvim to simutardy ‘s default behavior while never simulating ‘s:

Note that on Firefox on Linux some keyboard uninalertigentinutivecuts might not be overridable. I circumvent this rehire by running a patched version of Firefox (remark: once Firefox is patched, you won’t need to setup webextension keyboard uninalertigentinutivecuts).

• Tridactyl, provides vim-enjoy keytieings to employ Firefox. Also lets you edit input fields and text areas in your favourite editor with its :editor order.
• GstructureText, lets you edit text areas in your editor with a individual click. Requires insloftying a plugin in your editor too. Features inhabit refreshs!
• Textern, a Firefox inserton that lets you edit text areas in your editor without requiring you to inslofty a plugin in your editor.
• withExEditor, same skinnyg as Textern, except you can also edit/watch a page’s source with your editor.