TUI Reference

Kimün's terminal UI is built around a single editor screen with an activity rail, one collapsible drawer, and a two-line status bar. There are no editing modes: focus is the only state, and everything reachable by keyboard is also reachable by mouse.

Layout

┌──┬────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┐
│  │                │                               │
│R │     DRAWER     │            EDITOR             │
│A │  (one of:      │                               │
│I │   FIL FND TAG  │                               │
│L │   LNK OUT CFG) │                               │
│  │                │                               │
├──┴────────────────┴───────────────────────────────┤
│ ⌨ EDITOR  hints…                     global hints │
│ path · ln/col · ✓ saved · backlinks · git         │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Activity rail — the icon strip on the far left. Each cell names a drawer view; the active one is marked with a green border segment. Click a cell (or focus the rail and press Enter) to switch the drawer to that view. CFG is pinned at the bottom.
Drawer — a single panel that shows one view at a time: FILES (file tree), FIND (query search), TAGS, LINKS, OUTLINE, or CFG (configuration overview). Toggle it with Ctrl+T; drag the divider between drawer and editor to resize it.
Editor — always visible, takes the remaining width.
Status bar — line 1 shows the focused surface (⌨ when a text field holds the cursor, ≣ for lists) and its key hints; line 2 shows document state: path, line/column, saved/modified, backlink count, git summary.

Tab / Shift+Tab cycle focus across the visible panels (when focus is not inside the editor text — there Tab indents). Ctrl+L / Ctrl+H move focus right / left from anywhere.

The Leader Key

Press Ctrl+G (the leader) and then a short key sequence to reach any command. Sequences are grouped mnemonically — f for +find, n for +note, v for +vault, and so on. A few examples:

Ctrl+G f f    open the file picker
Ctrl+G n d    open today's journal
Ctrl+G v t    open the theme picker

The full group-by-group tree is on the Keybindings cheat-sheet.

Hesitate mid-sequence and a which-key panel pops up above the status bar showing what each next key does (the delay is configurable — leader_timeout_ms). In lists (not text fields), a bare Space also starts a leader sequence — and with the vim editor backend, so does Space in the editor's Normal mode.

The full tree, with your custom bindings applied, is in the cheatsheet: Ctrl+G ?.

Command Palette

Ctrl+P opens the command palette: every leader command as a fuzzy list, searchable by label or key sequence. Enter runs the selected command. It is the same action set as the leader tree — never a second implementation.

Customizing the leader tree

Sequences, additions, removals, and group captions are configurable in config.toml — see Leader tree overrides.

Drawer Views

FILES

The workspace file tree with a breadcrumb header (click a segment to jump up), type-to-filter, and sorting (Ctrl+R opens the sort dialog: field, order, group-directories). Enter opens a note; typing a name that matches nothing offers a Create row. Right-click a row for the file-operations menu (rename / move / delete), also on F2.

FIND

A live query search over the vault. It opens empty, showing a short syntax primer; type to search. Queries are syntax-highlighted as you type (tags aqua, note targets blue, field keys yellow, negation red, an unterminated quote underlined with a ⚠ reason in the header).

Type — results update live; # autocompletes tags, ? (first char) autocompletes saved searches
Up/Down — move through results · Enter — expand the selected note to show match context, again for more, a third time to collapse
Ctrl+Enter (or Ctrl+N) — open the selected note in the editor; the matched text lights up there
Ctrl+R — sort dialog (written into the query as an or: directive) · Ctrl+D — save the query under a name
Bare <, > or = are shorthand for <{note}, >{note}, ={note} (current note's backlinks / forward links / name). The panel titles itself "Backlinks" when the query is any spelling of the backlinks query.

Ctrl+E toggles straight to FIND from anywhere.

LINKS

Link context for the open note, in three sub-tabs — backlinks · outgoing · unlinked (mentions of the note's name that don't link to it). Switch tabs with b / o / u, ←/→, or by clicking the tab name. Enter opens the selected note; right-click opens its file-operations menu.

OUTLINE

The open note's headings as an indented tree, filterable. Enter jumps the editor to that heading.

CFG

A configuration overview: active theme, leader key, preferences key, which-key timeout, and config file path. t (or Enter) opens the theme picker — a live-preview list of every theme; moving the selection restyles the app instantly, Enter persists, Esc reverts. p opens the full Preferences screen.

Telescope Search

Two modal pickers float over the editor, list on the left, preview on the right:

Ctrl+K — query search (same grammar as FIND); the preview shows the note with matches emphasized and a filename · N matches header.
Ctrl+O — fuzzy file finder by name; typing a new name offers a Create row.

Enter opens the selection (query matches stay highlighted in the editor until your first edit). Ctrl+D saves the current query.

Editor

The editor renders Markdown styled in place — still plain editable source, no separate mode:

Headings bright/bold (H3 yellow), bold/italic styled, bullets dimmed, blockquotes get a ▏ bar, inline and fenced code get a code background
[[wikilinks]] blue and underlined, #tags colored — both clickable (click follows / runs the tag query; click again on the same spot to place the cursor for editing)
Task lists: - [ ] checkboxes accented, - [x] rows dimmed and struck through
The cursor line reveals raw markup for editing
An empty note shows a ghost tip (Type to start · [[ to link · # to tag · Ctrl+G for commands) that vanishes on the first keystroke

When the cursor enters a link or tag, status line 2 shows where it goes: → people/maria · 3 backlinks or → #tag · tag query.

Following links

With the cursor on a link, Ctrl+Enter follows it (Ctrl+N does the same on terminals that can't distinguish Ctrl+Enter from Enter):

Wikilink — opens the note (picker if several match); relative paths and #fragment suffixes resolve correctly
Markdown link — same; URL — opens in your browser; image — opens in your image viewer
#tag — opens the query search pre-filled with that tag

Find in buffer

Ctrl+F opens a one-line find bar; matches highlight in the buffer; press Ctrl+F / Enter to advance. Esc closes.

Text formatting

Action	Binding	Effect
Bold	`Ctrl+B`	`…` around the selection
Italic	`Ctrl+I`	`…`
Strikethrough	`Ctrl+S`	`~~…~~`

Autocomplete

Typing [[ pops up a note list; # (not at line start) pops up tags — filter by typing, accept with Tab/Enter, dismiss with Esc. Works in the editor and in every query field. (Textarea backend only; the Neovim backend uses your own completion setup.)

Pasting

Ctrl+V (or the terminal's native paste) adapts to the clipboard: plain text inserts; a URL over a selection wraps it as [selection](url); an image saves to /assets/ and inserts a relative image link.

Mouse

Full parity with the keyboard:

Gesture	Effect
Click	focus the panel / select the row
Click the selected row again	open it
Click a `[[link]]` / `#tag` in the editor	follow it / run the tag query
Right-click a file or note row	file-operations menu
Right-click in the editor (no selection)	context menu for the open note
Right-click in the editor (with selection)	copy the selection
Drag the drawer∕editor divider	resize
Click a breadcrumb segment	jump up the tree
Click a rail cell / LINKS tab	switch view
Scroll	scroll the pane under the cursor

Saved Searches

Ctrl+D saves the active query (from FIND, the query modal, or the panel) under a name; queries are stored as templates, so {note} re-resolves against whichever note is open when run. Open the picker with F3 or Ctrl+G f s: type to filter, 1–9 quick-select, Enter runs it in FIND, Delete removes it. Or type ?name directly in any query field.

Quick Note & Journal

Ctrl+W — quick note dialog: type a thought, Enter saves it to your inbox with a timestamp name (Shift+Enter saves and opens it).
Ctrl+J — open (or create) today's journal entry.

Workspaces

F4 opens the workspace switcher. Manage workspaces (create/rename/delete/re-path) in the Preferences screen under Workspaces.

Preferences Screen

Ctrl+, opens Preferences: workspace paths, theme, keybindings, autosave, indexing. Also reachable via the palette, Ctrl+G v p, or the CFG drawer's p.

Preferences was previously on Ctrl+Shift+P; it moved because that combination is a chord prefix in kitty's default configuration, which swallows the next key.

Key Bindings

The full default table lives on the Keybindings cheat-sheet — one screen, everything on it. All bindings are remappable in Configuration.

Everything else lives behind the leader (Ctrl+G) — press it and pause: the which-key panel pops up and shows you everything available.