User Guide

Keyboard Shortcuts

General

Key	Action
Ctrl+P	Command palette
Ctrl+O	Open file (supports file:42 to go to line)
Ctrl+Shift+O	Open file from project
Ctrl+Shift+R	Open recent file / project
Ctrl+N	New file
Ctrl+S	Save (save-as for unnamed files)
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save as
Ctrl+W	Close tab
Ctrl+Q	Quit
Ctrl+= / Ctrl+-	Increase / decrease font size
Ctrl+0	Reset font size
Ctrl+B	Toggle sidebar
Ctrl+M	Toggle minimap
Alt+Z	Toggle line wrapping
Ctrl+Shift+H	Toggle whitespace rendering
Ctrl+Shift+P	Cycle theme
F11	Toggle fullscreen
Ctrl+`` / F5	Toggle terminal
Ctrl+Shift+T	New terminal

Editing

Key	Action
Ctrl+D	Select word / add next occurrence
Ctrl+L	Select line
Ctrl+A	Select all
Ctrl+/	Toggle line comment (language-aware)
Ctrl+Up / Ctrl+Down	Move line up / down
Ctrl+Shift+D	Duplicate line
Ctrl+Shift+K	Delete line
Ctrl+J	Join lines
Ctrl+Shift+Up/Down	Add cursor above / below
Ctrl+Shift+[	Fold code block
Ctrl+Shift+]	Unfold code block
Ctrl+Shift+\	Unfold all

Find & Replace

Key	Action
Ctrl+F	Find in file
Alt+F	Replace in file
F3 / Enter	Next match
Shift+F3 / Shift+Enter	Previous match
Alt+R	Toggle regex (inside find bar)
Alt+W	Toggle whole word (inside find bar)
Alt+I	Toggle case-insensitive (inside find bar)
Alt+S	Toggle find-in-selection (inside find bar)
Ctrl+Enter	Replace current match and find next
Ctrl+Shift+F	Find in files (project search)
Alt+Shift+F	Replace in files (project replace)

LSP

Key	Action
F12	Go to definition
Ctrl+F12	Go to implementation
Shift+F12	Find references
Ctrl+Shift+F12	Go to type definition
Ctrl+K	Hover

Bookmarks

Key	Action
Ctrl+F4	Toggle bookmark on current line
F4	Jump to next bookmark
Shift+F4	Jump to previous bookmark

Bookmarked lines show an accent-colored marker in the gutter. Bookmarks wrap around and are per-document.

Navigation

Key	Action
Ctrl+G	Go to line
Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab	Next / previous tab
Ctrl+PageUp / Ctrl+PageDown	Move tab left / right
Ctrl+Shift+G	Git status

Command Palette

Press Ctrl+P to open the command palette. All commands are searchable. The palette filters out raw key-input commands and only shows meaningful actions. Git commands are prefixed with "Git" (e.g. Git Pull, Git Push, Git Commit, Git Stash).

Additional commands available from the palette:

• Sort Lines, Upper Case, Lower Case
• Open User Settings
• Toggle Minimap, Toggle Line Wrapping, Toggle Whitespace
• Toggle Hidden Files -- show/hide dotfiles in the sidebar
• Check For Updates -- query GitHub for a newer release
• Git Pull, Git Push, Git Commit, Git Stash, Git Status
• Git Blame -- toggle per-line blame annotations (author + date)
• Git Log -- show the last 50 commits for the active file
• Close All, Close All Others

Sidebar

File icons in the sidebar are color-coded by extension (e.g. Rust files in red, Python in blue, Go in cyan). Colors are loaded from data/assets/file_icons.json. Hidden files (dotfiles) are hidden by default; toggle visibility with Toggle Hidden Files from the command palette.

Sidebar Context Menu

Right-click a file or folder in the sidebar:

• Open -- open the file
• Copy Path -- copy absolute path to clipboard
• Copy Relative Path -- copy project-relative path
• Refresh -- rescan the project tree
• Rename / Delete -- file operations
• New File / New Folder -- create in the selected directory

LSP Support

Lite Anvil includes built-in configurations for the following language servers. Install the binary and it works automatically -- no configuration needed.

Recommended Language Servers

Language	Server	Install
Rust	rust-analyzer	rustup component add rust-analyzer
Python	pyright-langserver	pip install pyright or npm install -g pyright
Go	gopls	go install golang.org/x/tools/gopls@latest
JavaScript / TypeScript / TSX	typescript-language-server	npm install -g typescript-language-server typescript
C / C++	clangd	Package manager (e.g. apt install clangd)
Java	jdtls	Eclipse JDT.LS
Kotlin	kotlin-language-server	GitHub releases
C#	OmniSharp	dotnet tool install -g OmniSharp
F#	fsautocomplete	dotnet tool install -g fsautocomplete
Scala	metals	Metals
PHP	intelephense	npm install -g intelephense
Ruby	ruby-lsp	gem install ruby-lsp
Lua	lua-language-server	GitHub releases
Bash	bash-language-server	npm install -g bash-language-server
Zig	zls	ZLS
Haskell	haskell-language-server	ghcup install hls
Elixir	elixir-ls	ElixirLS
Erlang	erlang_ls	erlang_ls
OCaml	ocamllsp	opam install ocaml-lsp-server
Gleam	gleam lsp	Bundled with gleam CLI
Dart	dart language-server	Bundled with Dart SDK
Swift	sourcekit-lsp	Bundled with Swift toolchain
Julia	LanguageServer.jl	julia -e 'using Pkg; Pkg.add("LanguageServer")'
Clojure	clojure-lsp	GitHub releases
Crystal	crystalline	Crystalline

Custom LSP Configuration

Create lsp.json in your user config directory or project root to add servers or override builtins:

{
  "my_server": {
    "command": ["my-lsp", "--stdio"],
    "filetypes": ["mylang"],
    "rootPatterns": ["myproject.toml", ".git"]
  }
}

Set "autostart": false to disable a builtin server.

Syntax Highlighting

51 built-in syntax grammars:

Category	Languages
Systems	Assembly, C, C++, D, Rust, Zig
JVM	Java, Kotlin, Scala, Groovy, Clojure
Web	JavaScript, TypeScript, TSX, HTML, CSS, Vue, Svelte, PHP
.NET	C#, F#
Scripting	Python, Ruby, Lua, Bash, PowerShell, R, Lisp
Functional	Haskell, OCaml, Elixir, Erlang, Gleam, Julia, Crystal
Other	Go, Dart, Swift
Data/Config	JSON (via JS), TOML, YAML, INI, XML, CSV, Env, Fstab, SQL, PostgreSQL, Meson
Markup	Markdown, Dockerfile

XML highlighting also covers .csproj, .fsproj, .vbproj, .vcxproj, .sln, .props, .targets, .nuspec, .pom, .svg, .plist, .xaml.

Groovy highlighting covers .gradle files. Kotlin highlighting covers .gradle.kts files (via .kts extension).

Toggle line comments (Ctrl+/) automatically picks the correct marker for the active language -- // for Rust/C/JS, # for Python/Bash/TOML, -- for Lua/SQL/Haskell, ; for Assembly/Lisp/INI, % for Erlang, and block-comment wrapping (<!-- --> for HTML/Markdown/XML/Vue, /* */ for CSS, (* *) for OCaml) for languages without a line-comment form.

Configuration

Lite Anvil is configured via a TOML file. Open it from the sidebar settings icon or via the command palette: Open User Settings.

Config location

Platform	Path
Linux	~/.config/lite-anvil/config.toml
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/lite-anvil/config.toml
Windows	%APPDATA%\lite-anvil\config.toml

Key options

theme = "dark_default"         # dark_default, light_default, fall, summer, textadept
indent_size = 2
tab_type = "soft"              # "soft" (spaces) or "hard" (tabs)
line_endings = "lf"            # "lf" or "crlf"
line_limit = 80
line_height = 1.2
highlight_current_line = true
draw_whitespace = false
borderless = false
max_tabs = 8
blink_period = 0.8
disable_blink = false
mac_command_as_ctrl = true     # macOS: fold Cmd into Ctrl (on by default on Mac)
format_on_paste = true         # convert pasted indent to match document style

[lsp]
load_on_startup = true
semantic_highlighting = true
inline_diagnostics = true
format_on_save = true

[terminal]
placement = "bottom"
reuse_mode = "pane"

[ui]
padding_x = 14
padding_y = 7
caret_width = 2
scrollbar_size = 4
tab_width = 170

[fonts.ui]
path = "/path/to/your/font.ttf"
size = 15

[fonts.code]
path = "/path/to/your/mono.ttf"
size = 15

Custom keybindings can be added under [keybindings]:

[keybindings]
"ctrl+shift+l" = "doc:select-lines"
"alt+shift+f" = "lsp:format-document"

Command line options

lite-anvil [file...]          Open files
lite-anvil file.rs:42         Open file at line 42
lite-anvil -v                 Verbose mode (log LSP errors to stderr)
lite-anvil --verbose          Same as -v

The :N line-number suffix also works in the file picker (Ctrl+O).

Themes

Cycle themes with Ctrl+Shift+P or the command palette. JSON theme files are in data/assets/themes/.

Nano Anvil

Nano Anvil is a minimal single-file editor included alongside Lite Anvil.

Running Nano Anvil

# From the release archive
./nano-anvil

# Open a specific file
./nano-anvil myfile.rs

On Linux, Nano Anvil is also available as a desktop application (Nano Anvil in your application menu).

Differences from Lite Anvil

Nano Anvil is designed for lightweight, single-file editing:

• Single file at a time (no tabs, no project)
• No sidebar, terminal, LSP, git integration, bookmarks, or code folding
• Syntax highlighting for 50+ languages (shared with Lite Anvil)
• Find and replace within the current file
• Full undo/redo (capped at 100 entries)
• 2 built-in themes (dark + light)

Keyboard Shortcuts (Nano Anvil)

Key	Action
Ctrl+O	Open file
Ctrl+S	Save (prompts for path if untitled)
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save As
Ctrl+Q	Quit
Ctrl+F	Find
Alt+F	Find and Replace
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+A	Select All
Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X / Ctrl+V	Copy / Cut / Paste
Ctrl+P	Command Palette
Ctrl+= / Ctrl+-	Zoom In / Out