Vim Mode 

Kimün has built-in vim emulation: vim's modal editing on top of the built-in editor, with no external process or plugins. Insert mode keeps every editor feature (autocomplete, auto-surround, smart-Enter, the styled markdown view). Normal, Visual, and Replace modes run the vim engine. The one exception is bare Enter in Normal mode, which Kimün handles differently from vim's <CR> motion; see Editing.

Enable it in config.toml:

editor_backend = "vim"

or from the Preferences window (Editor section). The change applies the next time you open a note. To use Neovim itself, with your own init.lua and plugins, use editor_backend = "nvim".

Modes 

The footer shows the active mode, plus the pending keys of an in-progress command (e.g. 2d, gu, di).

Mode	Enter	Leave
NORMAL	Esc from any mode	—
INSERT	i a I A o O, or any change operator (c, s, S, …)	Esc
REPLACE	R (overwrite chars in place)	Esc
VISUAL	v (charwise)	Esc, or any operator
V-LINE	V (linewise)	Esc, or any operator

Cursor movement 

All motions take a count (3w, 5j). Counts compose with operators: 2d3w deletes six words.

Keys	Motion
h j k l, arrows	left / down / up / right
w b e	next word start / previous word start / word end
W B E	same over WORDS (any non-blank run, so foo.bar is one WORD)
ge gE	backward to previous word / WORD end
0 ^	line start / first non-blank
$ g_	line end / last non-blank
gg G	first / last line
5gg 5G	go to line 5 (the count is a line number)
{ }	previous / next paragraph
%	matching bracket (() [] {} <>), across lines
f x F x	to next / previous occurrence of x on the line
t x T x	till just before / after x
; ,	repeat last find, same / opposite direction

Count-finds are atomic, as in vim: 2fx with only one x on the line fails and the cursor stays put.

Operators 

Operators combine with any motion or text object; doubling one operates on whole lines.

Keys	Operator	Linewise form
d	delete (fills the register)	dd
c	change (delete and enter Insert)	cc
y	yank	yy
> <	indent / outdent	>> <<
gu gU g~	lowercase / uppercase / toggle case	guu / gUU / g~~ (also gugu-style)
D C Y	delete / change / yank to line end	—

Examples: dw, ce (and vim's cw = ce rule), d$, dj (linewise, two lines), dG, d2G, dfx, dtx, d;, gUiw, g~e.

A failed motion fails the whole command, as in vim: dfz with no z on the line, dj on the last line, or d% with no bracket under the cursor deletes nothing and leaves the register and the . command unchanged.

Text objects 

Text objects work with any operator (diw, ci", ya() and in Visual mode (vi(, va"). i = inner, a = around (delimiters included; aw takes trailing space).

Keys	Object
iw / aw	word
i( i) ib / a( …	(…) block
i{ i} iB / a{ …	{…} block
i[ i] / a[ …	[…] block
i< i> / a< …	<…> block
i" i' i` / a" …	quoted string

Text objects are single-line for now.

Editing 

Keys	Action
x X	delete char under / before cursor (never joins lines; xp swaps chars)
r x	replace one char with x
R	Replace mode: overwrite until Esc; Backspace restores the original char; arrows reposition
s S	substitute char / line (delete and enter Insert)
J	join next line with one space, indent stripped
gJ	join verbatim, no space handling
~	toggle case of the char under the cursor
u / Ctrl+r	undo / redo
.	repeat the last change. Works for operators, x, r, paste, indents, inserts (ihello<Esc>), cw+typed text, cc, s, R, …
p P	paste after / before (linewise yanks paste as lines)
Enter	Differs from vim: continues a list (or carries/dedents an indent) the same way Insert mode's Enter does, or otherwise splits the row at the cursor. Either way it enters Insert, like o. Vim's <CR> motion (next line's first non-blank) is not implemented. With a count or pending operator (3<CR>, d<CR>), Enter is unmapped

Visual mode 

v selects charwise, V linewise. Motions, counts, finds (vf,), gg/5G, and text objects (vi(, va") all extend or re-aim the selection; o jumps to the other end. gv reselects the last selection (in Visual it swaps with it), so V j > gv > indents the same rows twice, as does V j > ..

Keys	Action on the selection
d x	delete
c s	change (delete and enter Insert)
y	yank
p P	replace the selection with the register (the replaced text enters the register, as in vim)
u U g~	lowercase / uppercase / toggle case
> <	indent / outdent the selected lines (3> shifts three steps)
J gJ	join the selected lines
( [ { " ' ` * _ ~	Differs from vim: wraps the selection (auto-surround). The wrapped text stays selected in Visual, so wraps can be chained: * bolds, [ [ builds a wikilink, and ~ wraps for strikethrough (use g~ for vim's toggle-case)

A mouse drag selects exactly what it covers, in Visual. Ctrl+C and right-click copy the selection the same way, then return to Normal.

. after any Visual edit repeats it at the cursor on a region of the same shape: as many lines for V, as many characters for a one-row v, and for a v across rows the same number of rows ending at the same column.

Registers, search, command line 

• Every yank and every delete/change fills the unnamed register, as in vim: xp transposes, ddp moves a line down. The register is separate from the OS clipboard, and Ctrl+C/X/V keep working independently.
• / and ? open the find bar. Enter steps to the next match and Shift+Enter back; Esc closes the bar, and n / N keep jumping between matches afterwards. The bar uses the same keys with both editor backends.
• There is no :%s. Search and replace lives in the find bar: press Tab to show the replacement field, then Enter to replace one match or Ctrl+A for all. See replace in buffer. u undoes a whole replace in one step. The pattern is Rust regex, so vim regex syntax such as \v and \zs doesn't apply.
• : opens the command palette.
• A bare Space in Normal mode starts a leader sequence (with the which-key panel). Space starts a sequence only from a clean Normal state. Mid-command (d Space, f Space, a pending count) it still acts as the motion/target character.

Not (yet) supported 

Macros (q) and named registers ("a) are planned. Visual block mode (Ctrl+v), scroll motions (zz, H/M/L, gj/gk), tag objects (it/at), gd, and gwip are not available; gd and code-centric commands are unlikely to come to a notes app.