Vim editor mode

Enable vim-style editing via /config → Editor mode.

Claude Code keeps your vim mode and cursor position when you toggle the transcript viewer with Ctrl+O or open and close a panel such as /config. If you leave the prompt in NORMAL mode, it's still in NORMAL mode when you return, with the cursor where you left it.

Mode switching

Command	Action	From mode
Esc or Ctrl+[	Enter NORMAL mode. In terminals that use the Kitty keyboard protocol, Ctrl+[ requires v2.1.242 or later	INSERT, VISUAL
i	Insert before cursor	NORMAL
I	Insert at beginning of line	NORMAL
a	Insert after cursor	NORMAL
A	Insert at end of line	NORMAL
o	Open line below	NORMAL
O	Open line above	NORMAL
v	Start character-wise visual selection	NORMAL
V	Start line-wise visual selection	NORMAL

Remap INSERT-mode key sequences

The vimInsertModeRemaps setting maps a two-key INSERT-mode sequence to Escape, so a mapping like jj returns you to NORMAL mode. Requires Claude Code v2.1.208 or later.

The following ~/.claude/settings.json example turns on vim mode and maps jj to Escape:

{
  "editorMode": "vim",
  "vimInsertModeRemaps": { "jj": "<Esc>" }
}

Each key is exactly two printable characters typed in sequence, and "<Esc>" is the only supported target. Entries with a different length or target are ignored.

Typing the first character of a sequence inserts it normally. Pressing the second character within one second removes that pending character and switches to NORMAL mode, leaving neither character in your input. After the one-second window, or if a different key follows, both characters stay as literal text, so you can still type a word containing the sequence by pausing between the two keys.

Claude Code reads this setting from your user settings file, the --settings flag, and managed settings only. Entries in a project's .claude/settings.json or .claude/settings.local.json are ignored, so a checked-out repository can't remap your keystrokes.

Navigation (NORMAL mode)

Command	Action
h/j/k/l	Move left/down/up/right
Space	Move right
w	Next word
e	End of word
b	Previous word
0	Beginning of line
$	End of line
^	First non-blank character
gg	Beginning of input
G	End of input
f\{char\}	Jump to next occurrence of character
F\{char\}	Jump to previous occurrence of character
t\{char\}	Jump to just before next occurrence of character
T\{char\}	Jump to just after previous occurrence of character
;	Repeat last f/F/t/T motion
,	Repeat last f/F/t/T motion in reverse
/	Open reverse history search, same as Ctrl+R. The empty search prompt shows a hint: press Esc then i then / to open the command menu instead

In vim NORMAL mode, if the cursor is at the beginning or end of input and can't move further, j/k and ↑/↓ navigate command history instead. ← on an empty prompt opens agent view from NORMAL mode as well as INSERT; before v2.1.219, ← on an empty prompt did nothing in NORMAL mode.

Editing (NORMAL mode)

Command	Action
x	Delete character
dd	Delete line
D	Delete to end of line
dw/de/db	Delete word/to end/back
df\{char\}/dt\{char\}	Delete to and including, or up to, the next occurrence of a character
cc	Change line
C	Change to end of line
cw/ce/cb	Change word/to end/back
s	Substitute character: delete the character under the cursor and enter INSERT mode. Requires Claude Code v2.1.211 or later
S	Substitute line: clear the line and enter INSERT mode. Requires Claude Code v2.1.211 or later
yy/Y	Yank (copy) line
yw/ye/yb	Yank word/to end/back
p	Paste after cursor
P	Paste before cursor
>>	Indent line
<<	Dedent line
J	Join lines
u	Undo
.	Repeat last change

Text objects (NORMAL mode)

Text objects work with operators like d, c, and y:

Command	Action
iw/aw	Inner/around word
iW/aW	Inner/around WORD (whitespace-delimited)
i"/a"	Inner/around double quotes
i'/a'	Inner/around single quotes
i(/a(	Inner/around parentheses
i[/a[	Inner/around brackets
i\{/a\{	Inner/around braces

Visual mode

Press v for character-wise selection or V for line-wise selection. Motions extend the selection, and operators act on it directly.

Command	Action
d/x	Delete selection
y	Yank selection
c/s	Change selection
p	Replace selection with register contents
r\{char\}	Replace every selected character with \{char\}
~/u/U	Toggle, lowercase, or uppercase selection
>/<	Indent or dedent selected lines
J	Join selected lines
o	Swap cursor and anchor
iw/aw/i"/…	Select a text object
v/V	Toggle between character-wise and line-wise, or exit

Block-wise visual mode with Ctrl+V is not supported.