Hako is a lightweight terminal-based modal text environment written primarily in C.
It focuses on distraction-free editing while giving users a Vim-inspired workflow, split panes, a built-in file explorer named Kami, and an optional in-editor AI assistant named Rei. The project is designed to build with a straightforward gcc command or Makefile, has no third-party libraries linked, and keeps user preferences in .hakorc.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Vim-inspired normal, insert, visual, and visual-line modes with counts, registers, text objects, marks, jumplist, dot repeat, substitution, and bracket matching.
- Horizontal and vertical pane splitting, pane switching, resizing, and closing via Ctrl-W commands.
- Kami file explorer with directory navigation, hidden-file toggle, refresh, and directories-first sorting.
- Rei AI panel with Anthropic, OpenAI, and Ollama provider choices, SSE streaming, slash commands, project trust, and per-project history.
- Syntax highlighting for more than 40 languages including C, C++, Rust, Go, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, TypeScript, Java, Kotlin, Haskell, Swift, YAML, TOML, Dockerfile, and Makefile.
- Clipboard support with bracketed paste handling and system copy and paste shortcuts.
- Configurable settings through `.hakorc`, including tab width, indentation, line numbering, mouse support, explorer width, and theme selection.
- Seventeen theme presets including dark, light, gruvbox, nord, dracula, monokai, solarized, tokyonight, catppuccin, onedark, material, everforest, rosepine, github-dark, github-light, ayu, and kanagawa.
Website: github.com/zblauser/hako
Support:
Developer: zblauser
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
Hako is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Vim-like Text Editors | |
|---|---|
| Neovim | Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability |
| Helix | Kakoune / Neovim inspired editor. |
| Lapce | Modern editor in Rust which uses native GUI and GPU rendering |
| NvChad | Neovim config aiming to provide a base configuration |
| LunarVim | IDE layer for Neovim |
| Kakoune | Implements Vi’s "keystrokes as a text editing language" model |
| Vis | Combining modal editing with structural regular expressions |
| vile | Text editor that combines aspects of the Emacs and vi editors |
| pyvim | Implementation of Vim in Python |
| gVim | Vim with a built-in GUI |
| amp | Vim-like editor written in Rust |
| Vy | Vim-like in Python made from scratch |
| moe | Command-line editor inspired by Vim |
| ad | Adaptable text editor |
| Levee | Also known as Captain Video |
| xvi | Portable multi-file text editor |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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