#Firenvim

Turn your browser into a Neovim client.

#How to use

For now, just click on textareas or input fields. When you want to set the content of the textarea to the content of the neovim frame, just :w. When you want to close the neovim frame, just :q.

#Installing

Before installing anything, please read SECURITY.md and make sure you're OK with everything mentionned in there. If you think of a way to compromise Firenvim, please send an email (you can find my address in my commits).

#Pre-built

Get the extension from AMO, get the native messenger from the releases page. Run the native messenger once in your shell and if it results in Native messenger successfully installed. being printed, you're done.

#From source

#Requirements

Installing from source requires nodejs, npm and neovim v.>=0.4

#Cross-browser steps

First, install Firenvim like a regular vim plugin (either by changing your runtime path manually or by using your favourite plugin manager).

Then, run the following commands:

git clone git@git.sr.ht:~glacambre/firenvim
cd firenvim
npm install
npm run build
npm run install_manifests

These commands should create three directories: target/chrome, target/firefox and target/xpi.

#Firefox-specific steps

Go to about:addons, click on the cog icon and select install addon from file (note: this might require setting xpinstall.signatures.required to false in about:config).

#Google Chrome/Chromium-specific steps

Go to chrome://extensions, enable "Developer mode", click on Load unpacked and select the target/chrome directory.

#Other browsers

Other browsers aren't supported for now. Opera, Vivaldi and other Chromium-based browsers should however work just like in Chromium and have similar install steps. Brave and Edge might work, Safari doesn't (it doesn't support Webextensions).

#Permissions

Firenvim currently requires the following permissions for the following reasons:

• Access your data for all websites: this is necessary in order to be able to append elements (= the neovim iframe) to the DOM.
• Exchange messages with programs other than Firefox: this is necessary in order to be able to start neovim instances.
• Access browser tabs: This is required in order to find out what the currently active tab is.

#Configuring Firenvim

Firenvim is configured by creating a variable named g:firenvim_config in your init.vim. This variable is a dictionnary containing the key "localSettings". g:firenvim_config["localSettings"] is a dictionnary the keys of which have to be a javascript pattern matching a url and the values of which are dictionnaries containing settings that apply for all urls matched by the javascript pattern. When multiple patterns match a same URL, the pattern with the highest "priority" value is used.

Here's an example g:firenvim_config that matches the default configuration:

let g:firenvim_config = {
    \ 'localSettings': {
        \ '.*': {
            \ 'selector': 'textarea',
            \ 'priority': 0,
        \ }
    \ }
\ }

This means that for all urls (".*"), textareas will be turned into firenvim instances. Here's an example that disables firenvim everywhere but enables it on github:

let g:firenvim_config = {
    \ 'localSettings': {
        \ '.*': {
            \ 'selector': '',
            \ 'priority': 0,
        \ }
        \ 'github\.com': {
            \ 'selector': 'textarea',
            \ 'priority': 1,
        \ }
    \ }
\ }

Note that it is not necessary to specify the priority key because it defaults to 1, except for the .* pattern, which has a priority of 0.

#Drawbacks

The main issue with Firenvim is that some keybindings (e.g. <C-w>) are not overridable. I circumvent this issue by running a patched version of firefox.

#You might also like

• Tridactyl, provides vim-like keybindings to use Firefox. Also lets you edit input fields and text areas in your favourite editor with its :editor command.
• GhostText, lets you edit text areas in your editor with a single click. Requires installing a plugin in your editor too. Features live updates!
• Textern, a Firefox addon that lets you edit text areas in your editor without requiring you to install a plugin in your editor.
• withExEditor, same thing as Textern, except you can also edit/view a page's source with your editor.