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folke/which-key.nvim · source
Snapshot 0 · 2026-11-04T12:47:26Z · Lua · Apache-2.0
Content fingerprint
217d47a50e156e09445a5dfe77a503cd28d8ee14315259e011e5be1dcd57c66aGitHub description at capture
💥 Create key bindings that stick. WhichKey helps you remember your Neovim keymaps, by showing available keybindings in a popup as you type.
README at capture
# 💥 Which Key
**WhichKey** helps you remember your Neovim keymaps, by showing available keybindings
in a popup as you type.
## ✨ Features
- 🔍 **Key Binding Help**: show available keybindings in a popup as you type.
- ⌨️ **Modes**: works in normal, insert, visual, operator pending, terminal and command mode.
Every mode can be enabled/disabled.
- 🛠️ **Customizable Layouts**: choose from `classic`, `modern`, and `helix` presets or customize the window.
- 🔄 **Flexible Sorting**: sort by `local`, `order`, `group`, `alphanum`, `mod`, `lower`, `icase`, `desc`, or `manual`.
- 🎨 **Formatting**: customizable key labels and descriptions
- 🖼️ **Icons**: integrates with [mini.icons](https://github.com/echasnovski/mini.icons) and [nvim-web-devicons](https://github.com/nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons)
- ⏱️ **Delay**: delay is independent of `timeoutlen`
- 🌐 **Plugins**: built-in plugins for marks, registers, presets, and spelling suggestions
- 🚀 **Operators, Motions, Text Objects**: help for operators, motions and text objects
- 🐙 **Hydra Mode**: keep the popup open until you hit `<esc>`
## ⚡️ Requirements
- **Neovim** >= 0.9.4
- for proper icons support:
- [mini.icons](https://github.com/echasnovski/mini.icons) _(optional)_
- [nvim-web-devicons](https://github.com/nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons) _(optional)_
- a [Nerd Font](https://www.nerdfonts.com/) **_(optional)_**
## 📦 Installation
Install the plugin with your package manager:
### [lazy.nvim](https://github.com/folke/lazy.nvim)
```lua
{
"folke/which-key.nvim",
event = "VeryLazy",
opts = {
-- your configuration comes here
-- or leave it empty to use the default settings
-- refer to the configuration section below
},
keys = {
{
"<leader>?",
function()
require("which-key").show({ global = false })
end,
desc = "Buffer Local Keymaps (which-key)",
},
},
}
```
## ⚙️ Configuration
> [!important]
> Make sure to run `:checkhealth which-key` if something isn't working properly
**WhichKey** is highly configurable. Expand to see the list of all the default options below.
<details><summary>Default Options</summary>
<!-- config:start -->
```lua
---@class wk.Opts
local defaults = {
---@type false | "classic" | "modern" | "helix"
preset = "classic",
-- Delay before showing the popup. Can be a number or a function that returns a number.
---@type number | fun(ctx: { keys: string, mode: string, plugin?: string }):number
delay = function(ctx)
return ctx.plugin and 0 or 200
end,
---@param mapping wk.Mapping
filter = function(mapping)
-- example to exclude mappings without a description
-- return mapping.desc and mapping.desc ~= ""
return true
end,
--- You can add any mappings here, or use `require('which-key').add()` later
---@type wk.Spec
spec = {},
-- show a warning when issues were detected with your mappings
notify = true,
-- Which-key automatically sets up triggers for your mappings.
-- But you can disable this and setup the triggers manually.
-- Check the docs for more info.
---@type wk.Spec
triggers = {
{ "<auto>", mode = "nxso" },
},
-- Start hidden and wait for a key to be pressed before showing the popup
-- Only used by enabled xo mapping modes.
---@param ctx { mode: string, operator: string }
defer = function(ctx)
return ctx.mode == "V" or ctx.mode == "<C-V>"
end,
plugins = {
marks = true, -- shows a list of your marks on ' and `
registers = true, -- shows your registers on " in NORMAL or <C-r> in INSERT mode
-- the presets plugin, adds help for a bunch of default keybindings in Neovim
-- No actual key bindings are created
spelling = {
enabled = true, -- enabling this will show WhichKey when pressing z= to select spelling suggestions
suggestions = 20, -- how many suggestions should be shown in the list?
},
presets = {
operators = true, -- adds help for operators like d, y, ...
motions = true, -- adds help for motions
text_objects = true, -- help for text objects triggered after entering an operator
windows = true, -- default bindings on <c-w>
nav = true, -- misc bindings to work with windows
z = true, -- bindings for folds, spelling and others prefixed with z
g = true, -- bindings for prefixed with g
},
},
---@type wk.Win.opts
win = {
-- don't allow the popup to overlap with the cursor
no_overlap = true,
-- width = 1,
-- height = { min = 4, max = 25 },
-- col = 0,
-- row = math.huge,
-- border = "none",
padding = { 1, 2 }, -- extra window padding [top/bottom, right/left]
title = true,
title_pos = "center",
zindex = 1000,
-- Additional vim.wo and vim.bo options
bo = {},
wo = {
-- winblend = 10, -- value between 0-100 0 for fully opaque and 100 for fully transparent
},
},
layout = {
width = { min = 20 }, -- min and max width of the columns
spacing = 3, -- spacing between columns
},
keys = {
scroll_down = "<c-d>", -- binding to scroll down inside the popup
scroll_up = "<c-u>", -- binding to scroll up inside the popup
},
---@type (string|wk.Sorter)[]
--- Mappings are sorted using configured sorters and natural sort of the keys
--- Available sorters:
--- * local: buffer-local mappings first
--- * order: order of the items (Used by plugins like marks / registers)
--- * group: groups last
--- * alphanum: alpha-numerical first
--- * mod: special modifier keys last
--- * manual: the order the mappings were added
--- * case: lower-case first
sort = { "local", "order", "group", "alphanum", "mod" },
---@type number|fun(node: wk.Node):boolean?
expand = 0, -- expand groups when <= n mappings
-- expand = function(node)
-- return not node.desc -- expand all nodes without a description
-- end,
-- Functions/Lua Patterns for formatting the labels
---@type table<string, ({[1]:string, [2]:string}|fun(str:string):string)[]>
replace = {
key = {
function(key)
return require("which-key.view").format(key)
end,
-- { "<Space>", "SPC" },
},
desc = {
{ "<Plug>%(?(.*)%)?", "%1" },
{ "^%+", "" },
{ "<[cC]md>", "" },
{ "<[cC][rR]>", "" },
{ "<[sS]ilent>", "" },
{ "^lua%s+", "" },
{ "^call%s+", "" },
{ "^:%s*", "" },
},
},
icons = {
breadcrumb = "»", -- symbol used in the command line area that shows your active key combo
separator = "➜", -- symbol used between a key and it's label
group = "+", -- symbol prepended to a group
ellipsis = "…",
-- set to false to disable all mapping icons,
-- both those explicitly added in a mapping
-- and those from rules
mappings = true,
--- See `lua/which-key/icons.lua` for more details
--- Set to `false` to disable keymap icons from rules
---@type wk.IconRule[]|false
rules = {},
-- use the highlights from mini.icons
-- When `false`, it will use `WhichKeyIcon` instead
colors = true,
-- used by key format
keys = {
Up = " ",
Down = " ",
Left = " ",
Right = " ",
C = " ",
M = " ",
D = " ",
S = " ",
CR = " ",
Esc = " ",
ScrollWheelDown = " ",
ScrollWheelUp = " ",
NL = " ",
BS = "",
Space = " ",
Tab = " ",
F1 = "",
F2 = "",
F3 = "",
F4 = "",
F5 = "",
F6 = "",
F7 = "",
F8 = "",
F9 = "",
F10 = "",
F11 = "",
F12 = "",
},
},
show_help = true, -- show a help message in the command line for using WhichKey
show_keys = true, -- show the currently pressed key and its label as a message in the command line
-- disable WhichKey for certain buf types and file types.
disable = {
ft = {},
bt = {},
},
debug = false, -- enable wk.log in the current directory
}
```
<!-- config:end -->
</details>
## ⌨️ Mappings
**WhichKey** automatically gets the descriptions of your keymaps from the `desc`
attribute of the keymap. So for most use-cases, you don't need to do anything else.
However, the **mapping spec** is still useful to configure group descriptions and mappings that don't really exist as a regular keymap.
> [!WARNING]
> The **mappings spec** changed in `v3`, so make sure to only use the new `add` method if
> you updated your existing mappings.
Mappings can be added as part of the config `opts.spec`, or can be added later
using `require("which-key").add()`.
`wk.add()` can be called multiple times from anywhere in your config files.
A mapping has the following attributes:
- **[1]**: (`string`) lhs **_(required)_**
- **[2]**: (`string|fun()`) rhs **_(optional)_**: when present, it will create the mapping
- **desc**: (`string|fun():string`) description **_(required for non-groups)_**
- **group**: (`string|fun():string`) group name **_(optional)_**
- **mode**: (`string|string[]`) mode **_(optional, defaults to `"n"`)_**
- **cond**: (`boolean|fun():boolean`) condition to enable the mapping **_(optional)_**
- **hidden**: (`boolean`) hide the mapping **_(optional)_**
- **icon**: (`string|wk.Icon|fun():(wk.Icon|string)`) icon spec **_(optional)_**
- **proxy**: (`string`) proxy to another mapping **_(optional)_**
- **expand**: (`fun():wk.Spec`) nested mappings **_(optional)_**
- any other option valid for `vim.keymap.set`. These are only used for creating mappings.
When `desc`, `group`, or `icon` are functions, they are evaluated every time
the popup is shown.
The `expand` property allows to create dynamic mappings. Only functions as `rhs` are supported for dynamic mappings.
Two examples are included in `which-key.extras`:
- `require("which-key.extras").expand.buf`: creates numerical key to buffer mappings
- `require("which-key.extras").expand.win`: creates numerical key to window mappings
```lua
local wk = require("which-key")
wk.add({
{ "<leader>f", group = "file" }, -- group
{ "<leader>ff", "<cmd>Telescope find_files<cr>", desc = "Find File", mode = "n" },
{ "<leader>fb", function() print("hello") end, desc = "Foobar" },
{ "<leader>fn", desc = "New File" },
{ "<leader>f1", hidden = true }, -- hide this keymap
{ "<leader>w", proxy = "<c-w>", group = "windows" }, -- proxy to window mappings
{ "<leader>b", group = "buffers", expand = function()
return require("which-key.extras").expand.buf()
end
},
{
-- Nested mappings are allowed and can be added in any order
-- Most attributes can be inherited or overridden on any level
-- There's no limit to the depth of nesting
mode = { "n", "v" }, -- NORMAL and VISUAL mode
{ "<leader>q", "<cmd>q<cr>", desc = "Quit" }, -- no need to specify mode since it's inherited
{ "<leader>w", "<cmd>w<cr>", desc = "Write" },
}
})
```
## 🎯 Triggers
There's two ways that **which-key** can be triggered:
- by a trigger keymap
- by a `ModeChanged` event for visual and operator pending mode
Both can be configured using `opts.triggers` and `opts.defer`.
By default `opts.triggers` includes `{ "<auto>", mode = "nixsotc" }`, which
will setup keymap triggers for every mode automatically and will trigger during
`ModeChanged`.
> [!NOTE]
> Auto triggers will never be created for existing keymaps.
> That includes every valid single key Neovim builtin mapping.
> If you want to trigger on a builtin keymap, you have to add it manually.
>
> ```lua
> triggers = {
> { "<auto>", mode = "nixsotc" },
> { "a", mode = { "n", "v" } },
> }
> ```
> [!TIP]
> To manually setup triggers, you can set `opts.triggers` to:
>
> ```lua
> triggers = {
> { "<leader>", mode = { "n", "v" } },
> }
> ```
For `ModeChanged` triggers, you can configure the `opts.defer` option.
When it returns `true`, the popup will be shown only after an additional key is pressed.
So `yaf`, would show which-key after pressing `ya`, but not after `y`.
> [!TIP]
> Defer some operators:
>
> ```lua
> ---@param ctx { mode: string, operator: string }
> defer = function(ctx)
> if vim.list_contains({ "d", "y" }, ctx.operator) then
> return true
> end
> return vim.list_contains({ "<C-V>", "V" }, ctx.mode)
> end,
> ```
## 🎨 Icons
> [!note]
> For full support, you need to install either [mini.icons](https://github.com/echasnovski/mini.icons) or [nvim-web-devicons](https://github.com/nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons)
There's multiple ways to set icons for your keymaps:
- if you use lazy.nvim, then some icons will be autodetected for keymaps belonging to certain plugins.
- custom rules to decide what icon to use
- in your mapping spec, you can specify what icon to use at any level, so at the node for `<leader>g` for example, to apply to all git keymaps.
The `icon` attribute of a mapping can be a `string`, which will be used as the actual icon,
or an `wk.Icon` object, which can have the following attributes:
- `icon` (`string`): the icon to use **_(optional)_**
- `hl` (`string`): the highlight group to use for the icon **_(optional)_**
- `color` (`string`): the color to use for the icon **_(optional)_**
valid colors are: `azure`, `blue`, `cyan`, `green`, `grey`, `orange`, `purple`, `red`, `yellow`
- `cat` (`string`): the category of the icon **_(optional)_**
valid categories are: `file`, `filetype`, `extension`
- `name` (`string`): the name of the icon in the specified category **_(optional)_**
> [!TIP]
> If you'd rather not use icons, you can disable them
> by setting `opts.icons.mappings` to `false`.
## 🚀 Usage
When the **WhichKey** popup is open, you can use the following key bindings (they are also displayed at the bottom of the screen):
- hit one of the keys to open a group or execute a key binding
- `<esc>` to cancel and close the popup
- `<bs>` go up one level
- `<c-d>` scroll down
- `<c-u>` scroll up
## 🐙 Hydra Mode
Hydra mode is a special mode that keeps the popup open until you hit `<esc>`.
```lua
-- Show hydra mode for changing windows
require("which-key").show({
keys = "<c-w>",
loop = true, -- this will keep the popup open until you hit <esc>
})
```
## 🔥 Plugins
Four built-in plugins are included with **WhichKey**.
### Presets
Built-in key binding help for `motions`, `text-objects`, `operators`, `windows`, `nav`, `z` and `g` and more.
### Marks
Shows a list of your buffer local and global marks when you hit \` or '
### Registers
Shows a list of your buffer local and global registers when you hit " in _NORMAL_ mode, or `<c-r>` in _INSERT_ mode.
### Spelling
When enabled, this plugin hooks into `z=` and replaces the full-screen spelling suggestions window by a list of suggestions within **WhichKey**.
## 🎨 Colors
The table below shows all the highlight groups defined for **WhichKey** with their default link.
<!-- colors:start -->
| Highlight Group | Default Group | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **WhichKey** | ***Function*** | |
| **WhichKeyBorder** | ***FloatBorder*** | Border of the which-key window |
| **WhichKeyDesc** | ***Identifier*** | description |
| **WhichKeyGroup** | ***Keyword*** | group name |
| **WhichKeyIcon** | ***@markup.link*** | icons |
| **WhichKeyIconAzure** | ***Function*** | |
| **WhichKeyIconBlue** | ***DiagnosticInfo*** | |
| **WhichKeyIconCyan** | ***DiagnosticHint*** | |
| **WhichKeyIconGreen** | ***DiagnosticOk*** | |
| **WhichKeyIconGrey** | ***Normal*** | |
| **WhichKeyIconOrange** | ***DiagnosticWarn*** | |
| **WhichKeyIconPurple** | ***Constant*** | |
| **WhichKeyIconRed** | ***DiagnosticError*** | |
| **WhichKeyIconYellow** | ***DiagnosticWarn*** | |
| **WhichKeyNormal** | ***NormalFloat*** | Normal in th which-key window |
| **WhichKeySeparator** | ***Comment*** | the separator between the key and its description |
| **WhichKeyTitle** | ***FloatTitle*** | Title of the which-key window |
| **WhichKeyValue** | ***Comment*** | values by plugins (like marks, registers, etc) |
<!-- colors:end -->