Grass

A calm, zero-config terminal code editor.

No modes. No config files. Just type.

Why

Nano starts instantly but stays plain. Vim and Helix are powerful, but they ask you to learn an editing language first. Grass sits between them: one mode, one theme, syntax highlighting, and about 1,700 lines of Python you can read in an afternoon.

It is not a Vim replacement. No plugins, no LSP, no mouse. One file at a time, on purpose.

Install

pipx install grass-editor

No pipx? pip install grass-editor also works. On Windows, install curses support first:

pip install windows-curses
pip install grass-editor

Python 3.9 or newer.

Run

grass hello.py

With no file, grass opens the splash. grass --version prints the version.

A look

Splash	Ctrl-P finder

One theme, Meadow: warm off-white text, green keywords, gold functions, a dark status bar. It assumes a dark 256-color terminal; basic colors fall back.

Keys

Notes

• Always in typing mode, like nano.
• Saves are atomic: a crash cannot leave the original file truncated.
• Tabs are preserved and shown at 4-column stops.
• A file without a trailing newline stays that way. The status bar says no newline.
• Highlighting is limited to the visible area and updates after a short pause, so typing stays fast in large files.
• Highlighting covers C, C++, Perl, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, Rust, Ruby, Java, shell, HTML, CSS, JSON, YAML, Markdown, and other Pygments languages.
• Wide characters (CJK) and long wrapped lines are not fully supported yet.

Development

git clone https://github.com/mukundzha/grass.git
cd grass
pip install -e .
python tests/run_tests.py

Tests are plain functions with a small custom runner. CI runs on Python 3.9 through 3.13.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Issues and PRs are welcome.