Announcing ‘mini.clue’

announce

Show next key clues. Basically a ‘which-key’ + ‘hydra’ combo with different UI, implementation, and configuration

Author

Evgeni Chasnovski

Published

August 1, 2023

Hello, Neovim users!

I am relieved to finally make the release of mini.clue - new module of mini.nvim to show next key clues. It can also be installed using separate GitHub repository.

‘mini.clue’ is basically a folke/which-key.nvim but with different implementation of how user input is processed. This allows it to have ‘hydra’-like submodes and be independent from ‘timeoutlen’ (built-in duration after which currently typed keys are forced to execute).

One important distinction from ‘folke/which-key.nvim’ is that ‘mini.clue’ can’t create mappings during its setup. It needs to be done separately, mostly because I believe that this (separation of mapping creation and showing setup) leads to a cleaner user config.

I love how this module turned out. Originally, I thought that it would be not hard to implement, but it became a really painful process to try to mitigate all Neovim’s built-in quirks (especially for Operator-pending mode). It is a huge relief to finally release this.

On a slightly sad note, this will replace the last Folke’s plugin in my config :(

Here are main features of ‘mini.clue’:

Implement custom key query process to reach target key combination:
- Starts after customizable opt-in triggers (mode + keys).
- Each key press narrows down set of possible targets.
  
  Pressing <BS> removes previous user entry.
  
  Pressing <Esc> or <C-c> leads to an early stop.
  
  Doesn’t depend on ‘timeoutlen’ and has basic support for ‘langmap’.
- Ends when there is at most one target left or user pressed <CR>. Results into emulating pressing all query keys plus possible postkeys.
Show window (after configurable delay) with clues. It lists available next keys along with their descriptions (auto generated from descriptions present keymaps and user-supplied clues).
Configurable “postkeys” for key combinations - keys which will be emulated after combination is reached during key query process.
Provide customizable sets of clues for common built-in keys/concepts:
- g key.
- z key.
- Window commands.
- Built-in completion.
- Marks.
- Registers.
Lua functions to disable/enable triggers globally or per buffer.

For more details see these tags in help:

For more information, see help file.

Please, check it out and tell me what you think! You can leave your suggestions either here in comments or in dedicated beta-testing issue.

Thanks!