Aether

An experimental modal text editor with a client–server architecture and tree-sitter integration.

Aether splits editing across two processes: a long-lived server, running locally, holds all text state — buffer contents, cursors, selections, the undo stack, per-viewport soft wrap — while thin clients render what the server sends and forward keystrokes. Multiple clients can share a buffer, see each other's cursors, and share a single undo stack.

Features

• Modal editing (normal/insert mode)
• Tree-sitter integration (highlighting, indentation, navigation)
• Surround/unsurround, toggle-comment, join and move lines
• Undo and redo stacks for edits and cursor/selection motions
• Fuzzy pickers for files/buffers/projects, file explorer, project-wide grep
• Mouse support, soft wrap, system-clipboard integration
• Git integration (gutter, inline diff, blame, hunk staging)
• LSP (diagnostics, hover, go-to-definition, format)
• Terminal and web clients

Keybindings

Type Space ? for the in-app overlay. Holding the Shift key extends the selection (e.g., Shift-w); a leading count repeats a motion (e.g., 3w).

Motions (normal mode)

Key	Action
h/l	Character left/right
j/Alt-j	Logical/visual line down
k/Alt-k	Logical/visual line up
w/Alt-w	Small/big word forward
b/Alt-b	Small/big word backward
e/Alt-e	Small/big word end
0, Home	Logical line start
Alt-l, End	Logical line end
Alt-h	First non-blank of line
g/Alt-g	Go to line (count, default 1)/last line
d/Alt-d	Cursor down a page/half page
u/Alt-u	Cursor up a page/half page
f/Alt-f	Find character forward/backward (next key is the target)
t/Alt-t	Till character forward/backward
m/Alt-m	Matching bracket/inner matching bracket
]/[	Next/previous navigation unit
}/{	Select to end/start of unit
Alt-Left/Alt-Right	Jump back/forward (cross-file history)

Selection & history (normal mode)

Key	Action
c	Collapse selection
o	Swap cursor and anchor
y/Alt-y	Expand/contract selection to syntax node
x/Alt-x	Select line downward/upward
z/Alt-z	Undo/redo cursor motion
r	Repeat last motion
-	Center cursor in window

Search & grep (normal mode)

Key	Action
/	Search
?	Search, selecting from the cursor to the match
Alt-/	Search for current selection
n/Alt-n	Next/previous match
>/<	Next/previous grep result
Esc	Clear the active search

Editing (Ctrl — shared by normal and insert)

Most Ctrl edits operate in both modes. The clipboard/edit keys are selection-scoped in normal and line-scoped in insert (since insert has no selection).

Key	Normal	Insert
Ctrl-c	Change selection	Change line
Ctrl-d	Delete selection	Delete line
Ctrl-y	Copy selection	Copy line
Ctrl-x	Cut selection	Cut line
Ctrl-v	Paste before selection	Paste at cursor
Ctrl-r	Replace selection with clipboard	Replace line with clipboard
Ctrl-s	Surround selection (next key = delimiter)	Surround line
Ctrl-Alt-s	Unsurround selection	Unsurround line
Ctrl-z/Ctrl-Alt-z	Undo/redo	Undo/redo
Ctrl-l/Ctrl-h	Indent/dedent	Indent/dedent
Ctrl-j/Ctrl-k	Move line(s) down/up	Move line(s) down/up
Ctrl-g	Join lines	Join lines
Ctrl-t	Toggle comment	Toggle comment
Ctrl-o/Ctrl-Alt-o	Open line below/above	Open line below/above

Mode transitions

Key	Action
i/a	Insert at selection start/end
Alt-i/Alt-a	Insert at first non-blank of line/last line end
Esc	Leave insert mode

Application

Chord	Action
Space f	Find files
Space b	Switch buffer
Space g	Grep workspace
Space e	File explorer
Space p	Switch project
Space ,	Project settings
Space s/Space Alt-s	Save/save as
Space r	Reload from disk
Space n	New scratch buffer
Space c	Close buffer
Space q	Quit
Space ?	Show keyboard shortcuts

View

Chord	Action
Space w	Toggle soft wrap

Git

Chord	Action
Space a	Stage/unstage the change under the cursor (or selected lines)
Space v	Revert the change under the cursor (or selected lines)
Space h/Space Alt-h	Next/previous hunk
Space i	Toggle inline diff
Space o	Blame commit details for the cursor line

Code / LSP

Chord	Action
Space d/Space Alt-d	Go to definition/references
Space k	Hover (type & docs)
Space j	Show diagnostic at cursor
Space x/Space Alt-x	Next/previous diagnostic
Space t	Diagnostics list
Space m	Format document
Space l	LSP servers (status, restart)

Building

Aether is a standard Cargo workspace.

cargo build --release

This produces two binaries:

• aether — the server daemon
• ae — the terminal client

Running

1. Start the server:

   aether

2. Start the client, optionally naming a project and a file/directory to open:

   ae                     # start with the project picker open
   ae aether              # open the "aether" project in a scratch buffer
   ae aether src/main.rs  # open a file
   ae aether src/         # open the file explorer at a directory

   file is resolved against the current working directory and must fall within one of the project's roots. A directory opens the file browser there.

   Projects are created and managed from the project picker (Space p); running ae with no arguments opens it.

Web client

The web client (web/, TypeScript) is served by the same server process. Build the bundle once, then open it in a browser:

cd web
npm install     # first time only
npm run build   # tsc (typecheck + compile), then Vite bundles to web/dist

npm run build runs tsc && vite build. The server serves web/dist directly — the path is baked from the crate and read at runtime, so a rebuilt bundle is picked up without rebuilding the server. With the server running, open http://127.0.0.1:2384. There's no token to copy: the daemon is loopback-only and authorizes by Host/Origin, so a browser on the same machine just connects.

License

MIT