denary

Editor Documentation

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A modal terminal editor built on curses with a command-driven, event-based architecture and chunked text storage.

Includes syntax highlighting, multi-buffer management, registers and markers, undo/redo history, Git integration, async LSP and Debug Adapter Protocol support, subprocess execution, and HTTP requests.

Architecture Documentation

System architecture — component boundaries, state ownership, lifecycle, and integrations.
Data flow — interactive traces from input and file I/O through buffers, services, and rendering.

Debug Adapter Protocol

Denary can launch any stdio-based DAP adapter through named profiles in the user init.py. For example, a Python profile using debugpy is:

DAP_CONFIG = {
    "Python: current file": {
        "cmd": ["python", "-m", "debugpy.adapter"],
        "request": "launch",
        "arguments": {
            "program": "${file}",
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
        },
    },
}

${file}, ${fileDirname}, and ${workspaceFolder} are expanded throughout the profile. The adapter itself must be installed separately.

Core debugger commands are debug_start, debug_stop, debug_toggle_breakpoint, debug_continue, debug_pause, debug_next, debug_step_in, debug_step_out, debug_threads, debug_stack, debug_variables, and debug_output. Breakpoints are restored from the project session file.

Installation

Install via pip (Recommended)

If your package is published:

pip install denary

Then run:

denary

Or open a file directly:

denary main.py

Install from Source

Clone the repository:

git clone https://gitlab.com/jordaly/editor.git denary
cd denary

Using Poetry:

poetry install
poetry run python -m denary

Or using plain pip:

pip install -e .
denary

Recommended (Better): Alias That Runs Denary Directly

Instead of activating the venv every time, just point the alias to the venv’s binary.

Assume your venv is here:

~/venvs/denary_venv

Edit your ~/.bashrc:

nano ~/.bashrc

Add this line:

alias denary="~/venvs/denary_venv/bin/denary"

Then reload:

source ~/.bashrc

Now you can run:

denary
denary myfile.py

Quick Start

Open a File

denary myfile.py

If the file does not exist, it will be created.

AI Chat

Denary can open a persistent, project-specific Ollama conversation beside the current code pane. Start Ollama, install at least one model, then run:

:ai_chat

The chat pane streams responses and keeps its conversation history outside the project in Denary's platform data directory. It sends conversation history but does not include editor code unless you explicitly attach the current selection or buffer.

Chat key	Action
`Enter` / `i`	Enter the multiline composer
`Ctrl+G`	Send the composed message
`Enter`	Insert a newline while composing
`Esc`	Return to chat navigation while retaining the draft
`Ctrl+P`	Paste the system or Denary clipboard into the composer
`a`	Attach the current selection, current buffer, or any open buffer
`x`	Detach a pending attachment before sending
`n` / `h`	Start a new chat / open chat history
`m`	Choose an AI provider/model
`c` / `r`	Cancel the active response / retry the last turn
`R` / `d`	Rename / delete the active conversation
`j`, `k`, arrows, page keys, `g`, `G`	Move through the transcript
`v` / `y`	Start or end a line selection / copy selected chat text
`q`	Close the chat pane without deleting its history

Ollama keeps its native API workflow, and providers are configured in the user init.py:

AI_PROVIDERS = {
    "ollama": {
        "type": "ollama",
        "base_url": "http://localhost:11434",
    },
    "cloud": {
        "type": "openai_compatible",
        "base_url": "https://api.example.com/v1",
        "api_key_env": "CLOUD_API_KEY",
        "context_window": 8192,
        "models": ["coding-model"],
    },
}

For a remote Ollama server, replace the URL with its reachable HTTP address. External OpenAI-compatible providers can be added without provider-specific code. api_key_env is only the name of the environment variable containing the API key; it is not the key itself and should not include Bearer.

For the example above, set the key in your shell before starting Denary:

export CLOUD_API_KEY="your-secret-key"

The editor reads CLOUD_API_KEY and sends it as Authorization: Bearer .... Do not store the actual API key in static_config.json.

The chat role is used by chat and non-inline AI commands. The autocomplete role controls inline completion. Existing model and ai_autocomplete_model settings continue to work as Ollama defaults.

Related commands use the ai_chat_* prefix and are listed by :help.

Key Bindings

Arrow & Basic Movement

Shortcut	Action
Right	Move cursor right
Left	Move cursor left
Up	Move cursor up
Down	Move cursor down
PageUp	Page up
PageDown	Page down
Ctrl+Right	Jump right (word/semantic move)
Ctrl+Left	Jump left (word/semantic move)
Ctrl+Up	Scroll / move up (mode dependent)
Ctrl+Down	Scroll / move down (mode dependent)

Vim-Style Normal Mode Navigation

Shortcut	Action
h	Move left
j	Move down
k	Move up
l	Move right
0	Jump to start of line
$	Jump to end of line
w / W	Move forward by word
b / B	Move backward by word
e / E	Move to end of word
f / F	Find character forward/backward
g	Go command prefix
G	Go to bottom
H	Jump to top of visible window
L	Jump to bottom of visible window
%	Jump to matching bracket

Insert & Editing (Normal Mode)

Shortcut	Action
i	Enter insert mode
a	Append after cursor
A	Append at end of line
o	Insert new line below
O	Insert new line above
x	Delete character
d	Delete (operator)
c	Change (operator)
y	Yank (copy)
p	Paste after
P	Paste before
u	Undo
U	Undo line / extended undo
J	Join lines
>	Indent right
<	Indent left

Search & Repeat

Shortcut	Action
/	Search forward
n	Next match
N	Previous match
*****	Search word under cursor

Marks & Registers

Shortcut	Action
m	Set marker
'	Jump to marker (linewise)
`	Jump to marker (exact position)
@	Execute macro
q	Start/stop macro recording

LSP / Diagnostics (Normal Mode)

Shortcut	Action
K	Show LSP hover / definition
;	LSP-related navigation
Ctrl+D	Diagnostics-related action

(Exact behavior depends on your handler implementations.)

Alt-Based Commands

Shortcut	Action
Alt+;	Toggle selection mode
Alt+Right / Alt+.	Indent right
Alt+Left / Alt+,	Indent left
Alt+/	Alternative slash action
Alt+h / Alt+l	Alternative horizontal move
Alt+j / Alt+k	Move lines or cursor
Alt+Up / Alt+Down	Scroll view
Alt+9 / Alt+0	Jump line start/end
Alt+w	File search
Alt+r	Custom action
Alt+i / Alt+o	Punctuation jump
Alt+[	Bracket-related action
Alt+'	Quote-related action

Shift Selection

Shortcut	Action
Shift+Right	Expand selection right
Shift+Left	Expand selection left
Shift+Up	Expand selection up
Shift+Down	Expand selection down
Ctrl+Shift+Right	Expand selection by word
Ctrl+Shift+Left	Expand selection by word

Misc

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+A	Select all
Ctrl+P	Previous buffer
Ctrl+X	Cut / special action
Ctrl+O	Open file
Ctrl+I	Jump forward in jump list
Q	Quit variant
PageUp / PageDown	Scroll

Commands

Buffer Actions

Command	Description
`h` / `help`	Show help
`q`	Exit editor
`w`	Save current buffer
`saveas [path]`	Save under a new path
`wall` / `wa`	Save all modified buffers
`wq`	Save and close current buffer
`wqa`	Save all modified buffers and exit
`ls`	List open buffers
`open`	Open a file
`bufnew`	Create new buffer
`nbuf` / `nextbuf` / `next` / `n`	Next buffer
`pbuf` / `prevbuf` / `prev` / `p`	Previous buffer
`delbuf` / `d`	Delete buffer
`ff`	File search
`ffr`	New file search
`fb`	Buffer picker
`ex`	File explorer

UI & Behavior

Command	Description
`themes`	Change editor theme
`ln`	Toggle line numbers
`rln`	Toggle relative line numbers
`wordwrap` / `ww`	Toggle soft word wrapping
`completions` / `lspcomp`	Toggle LSP completion suggestions
`gch`	Toggle Git highlight
`scrolloff <n>`	Set scroll offset
`tabsize <n>`	Set current buffer tab width
`indent <style>`	Use spaces or tabs for future indentation
`indentdefaults <style> <n>`	Persist indentation defaults for new files
`retab [style] [n]`	Convert leading indentation without changing visual width

Markers

Command	Description
`m` / `marker`	Add local/global marker
`pm`	Pick marker
`dm`	Delete markers in this buffer
`dgm`	Delete global markers
`dpm`	Delete specific marker
`dam`	Delete all markers

Text Utilities

Command	Description
`clear_registers`	Reset registers
`reset_h_matches`	Reset highlighting
`replace`	Replace text
`comment`	Toggle comment
`upper` / `lower` / `capitalize`	Change case
`filetype <type>`	Set syntax mode

Utilities

Command	Description
`align`	Align text by a delimiter (e.g. `=`, `:`, `,`, `
`column_edit`	Insert, replace, or delete text within column ranges per line
`date`	Copy date
`datetime`	Copy current date & time
`file_path`	Copy current file path
`json_format`	Format JSON in selection or entire file
`number_lines`	Add line numbers to each line
`rejoin`	Split and rejoin selection or entire file using a delimiter
`remove_empty_lines`	Remove blank or whitespace-only lines
`reverse_lines`	Reverse the order of lines
`shuffle_lines`	Randomly shuffle lines
`slugify`	Convert text to URL-friendly slug format
`sort` / `sort_r`	Sort selection or entire file by lines (normal or reverse)
`trim` / `trim_l` / `trim_r`	Trim whitespace (both, left, or right) per line
`unique_lines` / `dedup`	Remove duplicate lines (keep first occurrence)
`uuid`	Copy random UUID
`wrap`	Wrap text to a specified width
`json_format`	formats json with indentation

Git Commands

Command	Description
`git_status`	Show Git status
`git_diff`	Show diff
`git_commit_all`	Commit all
`git_blame`	Show blame
`git_log`	Show history
`git_refresh`	Refresh state
`git_hunk`	Show previous version of changed code

LSP Commands

Command	Description
`lsp_diagnostics`	Show buffer diagnostics
`lsp_hover`	Show hover info
`lsp_definition`	Go to definition
`lsp_refresh`	Restart LSP for buffer
`lsp_references`	References picker
`lsp_line_diagnostics`	Show diagnostics for current line
`lsp_clear_diagnostics`	Clear diagnostics
`lsp_clear_line_diag` / `clrld`	Clear diagnostics for current line

LSP Completion

In Insert mode, press Ctrl+Space to request completion at the cursor. A language server may also request completion automatically when you type one of its advertised trigger characters (for example, .). The completion picker combines language-server results with words found in open buffers and matching file names when the cursor is in a string.

Use the picker to filter and select an entry. LSP entries show their kind and detail, and their documentation appears in the preview pane; when supported, Denary resolves missing documentation from the server on demand. Selecting an entry applies its replacement range, snippet text, UTF-16 positions, and any additional edits supplied by the server. Language-server commands attached to an item are executed after the edits are applied.

Completion requires an LSP configured for the current file extension. If no usable LSP is available, Ctrl+Space still opens the local word and file completion picker. This picker is separate from AI autocomplete: AI suggestions appear as ghost text and are controlled by the ai_autocomplete_* commands.

AI Commands

Denary automatically requests AI code completions after a short pause in Insert mode at safe code boundaries, including before closing delimiters and between tokens. Requests are suppressed in the middle of identifiers and in an empty, context-free file. Suggestions appear as dim virtual text: press Tab to accept the entire suggestion, or Esc to dismiss it without leaving Insert mode. A second Esc returns to Normal mode.

Command	Description
`ai`	Send a custom instruction to the AI
`ai_gen`	Manually request inline autocomplete
`ai_autocomplete_toggle`	Pause/resume autocomplete for this session
`ai_autocomplete_default on	off`
`ai_autocomplete_multifile_toggle`	Toggle open-buffer context for this session
`ai_autocomplete_multifile_default on	off`
`ai_autocomplete_model`	Choose a dedicated autocomplete model
`ai_autocomplete_accept`	Accept the visible suggestion
`ai_autocomplete_dismiss`	Dismiss the visible suggestion
`ai_review`	Review Git diff for issues
`ai_commit_message`	Generate a commit message from Git diff
`ai_get`	Retrieve a non-inline AI result at the cursor
`ai_show`	Show the non-inline AI result picker
`ai_remove`	Cancel/remove a non-inline AI request
`change_ai_model`	Change the shared AI model
`editor_info` / `info`	Show editor state and diagnostics

Static configuration accepts ai_autocomplete_enabled (default true), ai_autocomplete_model (falls back to model), and ai_autocomplete_delay_ms (default 600, clamped to 100–5000 ms). All Ollama autocomplete requests use the Ollama provider's base_url; external autocomplete requests use the selected OpenAI-compatible provider. Ollama remains the default. ai_autocomplete_multifile_enabled defaults to true. Related context comes only from loaded open buffers and uses their unsaved in-memory content. The ai_autocomplete_related_context_chars setting accepts "auto" (the default) or a numeric upper bound. Automatic sizing reads the selected model's Ollama context metadata when available (or the provider's configured context window), reserves room for the current file and response, and uses only the remaining budget for relevant buffer excerpts.

HTTP Request Execution

Select a block and run:

Command	Description
`req`	Make http request

Request Format

<HTTP_METHOD> <URL>
<Header>: <Value>
<Header>: <Value>

<Optional Body>

Examples

GET:

GET https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1
Accept: application/json

POST:

POST https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "title": "Hello world",
    "body": "Testing request from editor",
    "userId": 1
}

Regex Replacement

Perform regex-based find and replace in the current buffer.

Command	Description
`replace`	Run a regex search and replace

Capture Groups

Parentheses create capture groups that can be reused in the replacement.

Syntax	Meaning
`\0`	Entire match
`\1`	First group
`\2`	Second group
`\3`	Third group

Example

Find

(\w+)\s+(\w+)

Replace

\2 \1

Result

hello world → world hello

Named Capture Groups

Groups can also be named.

(?P<name>pattern)

Named groups are referenced in the replacement using:

\g<name>

Example

Find

(?P<first>\w+)\s+(?P<last>\w+)

Replace

\g<last> \g<first>

Result

john doe → doe john

Case Transformations

The replacement string supports case modifiers.

Syntax	Effect
`\U`	Uppercase until `\E`
`\L`	Lowercase until `\E`
`\u`	Uppercase next character
`\l`	Lowercase next character
`\E`	End transformation

Example

Find

select

Replace

\U\0\E

Result

select → SELECT

Word Boundaries

\b matches the boundary between a word and a non-word character.

Example

Find

\bselect\b

Matches

select

Does not match

selected

Example: SQL Keyword Formatting

Find

\b(select|from|where|join|group\s+by|order\s+by)\b

Replace

\U\0\E

Result

select name from users where id = 1
↓
SELECT name FROM users WHERE id = 1

Configuration

Denary loads its configuration from a platform-specific directory.

Config Location

Linux

~/.config/denary/init.py

macOS

~/Library/Application Support/denary/init.py

Windows (WSL recommended)

~/.config/denary/init.py

If the file does not exist, create it manually.

Example:

mkdir -p ~/.config/denary
nano ~/.config/denary/init.py

AI Static Configuration

AI provider definitions belong in init.py; provider and model selections are persisted automatically in static_config.json. A provider example is available at examples/init.py.

Set "completions": false in static_config.json, or run the completions command, to disable LSP suggestion popups.

For example, on Linux:

cp examples/init.py ~/.config/denary/init.py
export CLOUD_API_KEY="your-secret-key"

To use remote Ollama, change its base_url, for example:

AI_PROVIDERS["ollama"]["base_url"] = "http://my-ollama-server:11434"

api_key_env must contain only the environment variable name, such as CLOUD_API_KEY; never put the secret itself in a configuration file.

LSP Configuration

The init.py file allows you to:

Configure Language Servers (LSPs)
Map file extensions to language identifiers
Provide custom initialization settings

Denary expects two dictionaries:

LSP_CONFIG = {}
EXT_TO_LANG = {}

Example Configuration

LSP_CONFIG

LSP_CONFIG = {
    "python": {
        "cmd": [
            "/home/user/.config/denary/pylsp_venv/bin/python",
            "-m",
            "pylsp",
        ],
        "settings": {
            "pylsp": {
                "plugins": {
                    "flake8": {"enabled": True, "maxLineLength": 100},
                    "pyflakes": {"enabled": False},
                    "pycodestyle": {"enabled": False},
                }
            },
        },
    },

    "javascript": {
        "cmd": [
            "/home/user/.config/denary/ts_server/node_modules/.bin/typescript-language-server",
            "--stdio",
        ],
    },

    "c": {
        "cmd": [
            "/home/user/.config/denary/clangd_venv/bin/clangd",
            "--all-scopes-completion",
            "--clang-tidy",
            "--offset-encoding=utf-8",
        ],
    },

    "csharp": {
        "cmd": [
            "mono",
            "/home/user/.config/denary/omnisharp/OmniSharp.exe",
            "--languageserver",
        ],
    },

    "sql": {
        "name": "sqls",
        "cmd": [
            "/home/user/go/bin/sqls",
        ],
    },
}

name is optional and defaults to the language-server executable name. It gives server-specific command workflows, such as SQLS connection switching, a stable identity.

EXT_TO_LANG

This maps file extensions to language keys defined in LSP_CONFIG.

EXT_TO_LANG = {
    ".py": "python",
    ".c": "c",
    ".h": "c",
    ".cpp": "c",
    ".js": "javascript",
    ".ts": "javascript",
    ".jsx": "javascript",
    ".tsx": "javascript",
    ".cs": "csharp",
    ".sql": "sql",
}

How It Works

You open a file:
```
denary main.py
```
Denary checks the file extension (.py)
It maps it using EXT_TO_LANG
It loads the corresponding LSP from LSP_CONFIG
The language server is started using the cmd array

Recommended Structure for LSP Tools

It is recommended to keep all LSP-related tools inside:

~/.config/denary/

Example layout:

~/.config/denary/
├── init.py
├── pylsp_venv/
├── clangd_venv/
├── ts_server/
└── omnisharp/

This keeps your setup portable and isolated.

Important Notes

cmd must be a list (not a string)
Paths must be absolute
The language key in EXT_TO_LANG must exist in LSP_CONFIG
If an extension is not mapped, no LSP will be started

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