ime — Intuitive macOS editor

A fast terminal text editor that feels native on macOS: the same shortcuts you use in every Mac app, mouse and trackpad support, syntax highlighting and a markdown preview. Written in Rust.

ime notes.md

• Mac keybindings out of the box: ⌥←/→ by word, ⌘←/→ to line start/end, ⌘↑/↓ to start/end of file, Shift to select, ⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z, ⌘S, ⌘A, ⌘C/X/V.
• Works with non-US keyboard layouts: ⌥ keeps typing your characters (⌥ò → @ on an Italian layout); editor commands use ⌥⌘ instead.
• Mouse & trackpad: click to place the cursor, drag to select, double-click for a word, triple-click for a line, ⇧-click to extend, smooth vertical and horizontal scrolling.
• Syntax highlighting for ~75 languages (Rust, Go, Python, JS/TS, PHP, C/C++, Markdown, shell, …).
• Auto-closing ( [ { " ' `` ``, typing over closers, auto-indent on ↩.
• Markdown preview (⌥⌘m) right in the terminal.
• Safe saves: written to a temp file and renamed, keeps permissions, CRLF line endings and the trailing newline.

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Install

brew install albedev/tap/ime

Universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. To update: brew upgrade ime.

From source (needs a Rust toolchain from rustup):

cargo install --git https://github.com/albedev/ime

Usage

ime path/to/file      # opens it, or creates it on first save

The status bar shows the file name, a ● when there are unsaved changes, the cursor position, the detected language, and the shortcuts that work in your current terminal.

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Shortcuts

ime has two sets of shortcuts:

• ⌘ shortcuts, used when the terminal supports the kitty keyboard protocol and is set up as described below.
• ⌃ fallbacks, which work in every terminal, including Terminal.app.

The status bar tells you which set is active.

Moving and selecting

Add ⇧ (Shift) to any of these to select while moving.

Action	Shortcut	Fallback
Character / line	← → ↑ ↓
Word left / right	⌥← / ⌥→
Line start / end	⌘← / ⌘→	⌃A / ⌃E, Home / End
File start / end	⌘↑ / ⌘↓	⌃Home / ⌃End
Page up / down	PgUp / PgDn (fn↑ / fn↓)
Select all	⌘A	—
Clear selection	Esc

Editing

Action	Shortcut	Fallback
Delete word left / right	⌥⌫ / ⌥⌦
Delete to line start	⌘⌫	⌃U
Delete to line end		⌃K
New line (keeps indentation, opens {} blocks)	↩
Indent (4 spaces)	⇥
Undo / redo	⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z	⌃Z / ⌃Y
Copy / cut	⌘C / ⌘X	⌃C / ⌃X
Paste	⌘V	your terminal's paste
Save	⌘S	⌃S
Quit (press twice to discard unsaved changes)	⌃Q	⌃Q

Editor commands

Action	Shortcut	Fallback
Show / hide line numbers	⌥⌘n	⌃N
Markdown preview on / off (.md files)	⌥⌘m	⌃P

Mouse & trackpad

Action	Gesture
Place cursor	click
Select	drag
Select word / line	double-click / triple-click
Extend selection	⇧-click
Scroll	two-finger swipe (vertical and horizontal)

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Terminal setup

Why setup is needed

A terminal only passes key presses to the program running inside it as text. Two macOS keys need special handling:

• ⌘ (Command). Terminals normally keep ⌘ for themselves. Terminals that implement the kitty keyboard protocol can pass ⌘ to ime, and ime turns the protocol on automatically. But most terminals also use some ⌘ shortcuts for their own menus (⌘A = select the whole screen, for example). Those need to be freed or remapped.
• ⌥ (Option). On non-US layouts ⌥ types characters you need (@ # [ ] { } ~). Don't enable "Option as Meta" or "Option as Alt". ime doesn't need it, because arrow keys with ⌥ work either way. Some ⌥ letters are dead keys (on the Italian layout ⌥n starts composing ñ), so a few ⌥⌘ shortcuts may need an explicit mapping (below).

Compatibility

Terminal	⌘ shortcuts	Setup	Tested
cmux	✅	3 small changes	✅ yes
Ghostty	✅	4 config lines	⚠️ not yet
Terminal.app	❌ never (no kitty protocol)	none, use the ⌃ fallbacks	⚠️ fallback mode only
iTerm2	✅ via key mappings	key mappings	⚠️ not yet
kitty	✅	2 config lines	⚠️ not yet
WezTerm	✅	2 config lines	⚠️ not yet
Alacritty	✅ via key bindings	key bindings	⚠️ not yet
VS Code, JetBrains, tmux, SSH	❌	none, use the ⌃ fallbacks	⚠️ not yet

"Not yet" means the settings below follow each terminal's documentation but haven't been tried on a real machine. Reports and fixes are welcome.

Universal fallback: send the key sequence yourself

If your terminal swallows a ⌘ shortcut, map it in the terminal's settings to send this escape sequence. ime understands these sequences in every terminal, even ones without the kitty protocol:

Shortcut	Escape sequence	As text
⌘A	ESC [97;9u	\e[97;9u
⌘C	ESC [99;9u	\e[99;9u
⌘X	ESC [120;9u	\e[120;9u
⌘S	ESC [115;9u	\e[115;9u
⌘Z	ESC [122;9u	\e[122;9u
⇧⌘Z	ESC [122;10u	\e[122;10u
⌥⌘n	ESC [110;11u	\e[110;11u
⌥⌘m	ESC [109;11u	\e[109;11u

The format is ESC [ <key code> ; <modifiers> u. The key code is the character's Unicode value (a = 97). The modifiers value is 1 + Shift 1 + ⌥ 2 + ⌃ 4 + ⌘ 8.

The catch: a remapped key sends this sequence to every program, so in a plain shell the shortcut may print junk like [97;9u.

---

cmux

cmux is built on Ghostty's engine (it reports itself as TERM_PROGRAM=ghostty), but it has its own shortcuts and config files.

1. Send ⌘A, ⌥⌘n and ⌥⌘m to ime. Append to ~/Library/Application Support/com.cmuxterm.app/config.ghostty:

# ime: send these keys straight to the program (skips menus and dead keys)
keybind = super+a=csi:97;9u
keybind = super+alt+n=csi:110;11u
keybind = super+alt+m=csi:109;11u
# ⌘C copies the terminal selection if there is one, otherwise goes to ime
keybind = performable:super+c=copy_to_clipboard

2. Free ⌥⌘n. cmux uses it for "New Browser Workspace". In ~/.config/cmux/cmux.json, add right after "schemaVersion": 1,:

"shortcuts" : {
  "bindings" : {
    "newBrowserWorkspace" : ""
  }
},

3. Free ⌘A from the "Select All" menu item. Menu shortcuts win over keybinds, so move it to an unused combo (⌃⌥⇧⌘A):

defaults write com.cmuxterm.app NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add "Select All" '@~^$a'

Reload with ⌘⇧, after steps 1–2. Step 3 needs cmux to be quit and reopened.

Trade-offs

• ⌥⌘n no longer opens a browser workspace.
• In a plain shell, ⌘A, ⌥⌘n and ⌥⌘m print junk.
• ⌘A no longer selects the whole terminal (use ⌃⌥⇧⌘A).
• ⌘A may also stop selecting all in cmux's own text fields (address bar, search…).

Undo

defaults delete com.cmuxterm.app NSUserKeyEquivalents
# then remove the lines/blocks added in steps 1 and 2

Ghostty

Add to ~/.config/ghostty/config (or ~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config.ghostty):

# ime: send these keys straight to the program (skips menus and dead keys)
keybind = super+a=csi:97;9u
keybind = super+alt+n=csi:110;11u
keybind = super+alt+m=csi:109;11u
# ⌘C copies the terminal selection if there is one, otherwise goes to ime
keybind = performable:super+c=copy_to_clipboard

Reload with ⌘⇧,. Leave macos-option-as-alt unset: Ghostty already picks the right default for your layout.

Trade-off: in a plain shell ⌘A no longer selects the screen, and ⌘A / ⌥⌘n / ⌥⌘m print junk.

Terminal.app

Terminal.app doesn't support the kitty keyboard protocol, so ⌘ shortcuts can never reach ime. Use the ⌃ fallbacks instead; the status bar lists them. Everything else (⌥ word movement, Shift selection, mouse, trackpad, ⌘V paste) works.

Settings → Profiles → your profile:

• Keyboard tab:
  • Leave "Use Option as Meta key" off on non-US layouts. ⌥←/→ still move by word, because Terminal sends ESC b / ESC f for them by default.
  • Line start/end: use ⌃A / ⌃E.
• View menu:
  • Make sure Allow Mouse Reporting is checked (⌘R toggles it). Without it, clicks and scrolling go to Terminal instead of ime.

Missing here: select all (⌘A). Select with the mouse or with ⇧ + movement keys instead.

iTerm2

Settings → Profiles → your profile → Keys:

1. General: set Left/Right Option key to Normal on non-US layouts.

2. Key Mappings → Presets… → Natural Text Editing. This gives you ⌥←/→, ⌘←/→ and ⌘⌫ as line movement and deletion.

3. Add one mapping per ⌘ shortcut you want: + → press the shortcut → Action Send Escape Sequence → value from the table above without the leading ESC:

   Shortcut	Send Escape Sequence
   ⌘A	[97;9u
   ⌘S	[115;9u
   ⌘Z	[122;9u
   ⇧⌘Z	[122;10u
   ⌥⌘n	[110;11u
   ⌥⌘m	[109;11u

   Leave ⌘C / ⌘V alone so normal copy & paste keeps working; use ⌃C / ⌃X to copy from ime.

Mouse: Profiles → Terminal → Enable mouse reporting (on by default).

kitty

kitty is where the keyboard protocol comes from, so ⌘ reaches ime out of the box. In ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf:

# keep ⌥ typing characters on non-US layouts (this is the default)
macos_option_as_alt no
# ⌘C: copy kitty's selection if there is one, otherwise pass the key to ime
map cmd+c copy_or_noop

WezTerm

In ~/.wezterm.lua:

local wezterm = require 'wezterm'
local config = wezterm.config_builder()

config.enable_kitty_keyboard = true                         -- lets ⌘ reach ime
config.send_composed_key_when_left_alt_is_pressed = true    -- ⌥ò = @ on non-US layouts

return config

WezTerm keeps ⌘C / ⌘V for itself; use ⌃C / ⌃X to copy from ime.

Alacritty

In ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml:

[window]
option_as_alt = "None"   # keep ⌥ typing characters on non-US layouts

[keyboard]
bindings = [
  { key = "A", mods = "Command",         chars = "\u001b[97;9u" },
  { key = "S", mods = "Command",         chars = "\u001b[115;9u" },
  { key = "Z", mods = "Command",         chars = "\u001b[122;9u" },
  { key = "Z", mods = "Command|Shift",   chars = "\u001b[122;10u" },
  { key = "N", mods = "Command|Option",  chars = "\u001b[110;11u" },
  { key = "M", mods = "Command|Option",  chars = "\u001b[109;11u" },
]

Other terminals

VS Code / JetBrains integrated terminals, tmux, SSH sessions: use the ⌃ fallbacks. Mouse and trackpad work as long as the terminal has mouse reporting on.

• tmux: ⌘ shortcuts usually don't make it through tmux. Add set -g mouse on for mouse support.
• SSH: copy/cut use macOS pbcopy, so they only work when ime runs on your Mac, not on the remote machine.

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Troubleshooting

See exactly what ime receives

IME_KEYS=1 ime file.txt

The status bar then shows every key and mouse event as ime sees it. For ⌥⌘n you should see something like Char('n') … ALT | SUPER.

Common problems

Problem	Fix
A shortcut does nothing and nothing shows up	The terminal (or one of its menus) took it: free it or map it as described above.
A ⌥⌘ shortcut only works with ⇧	⌥ + that letter is a dead key on your layout: map it to its escape sequence.
The status bar shows ⌃ shortcuts in a terminal that should support ⌘	The terminal didn't answer the kitty protocol query (check it's enabled, e.g. WezTerm's enable_kitty_keyboard).
Clicking or scrolling doesn't work	Turn on mouse reporting in the terminal.
ime: …: stream did not contain valid UTF-8	ime only opens UTF-8 text files.

Known limitations

• Wide characters (CJK, emoji) count as one column, so the cursor drifts on those lines.
• The syntax colors use a fixed dark theme and look washed out on light terminal backgrounds.
• After a jump into a very large file, highlighting restarts 300 lines above the view. A comment or string longer than that can be colored wrong.
• Not there yet: find/replace, multiple files, soft wrap.

Development

cargo test                  # unit tests
cargo run -- samples/test.md

samples/ has a .txt, .md and .php file for trying the editor and its highlighting.

License

MIT © 2026 Alberindo Loffrè