An IntelliJ Platform plugin that helps you master Vim keybindings through interactive tips and coaching. Learn Vim commands while coding!
Vim Coach is an IntelliJ Platform plugin designed to help developers learn and master Vim keybindings. The plugin provides bite-sized Vim tips through notifications, making it easy to discover and practice new commands while you code. Whether you're a Vim beginner or looking to expand your knowledge, Vim Coach helps you level up your editing skills one tip at a time.
- Vim Tips: Get Vim tips displayed as notifications
- On-Demand Action: Run
Vim Coach: Show Tipfrom Find Action (Ctrl+Shift+A) - Startup Tips: See a Vim tip when you start your IDE
- Periodic Tips: Schedule reminder tips from the plugin settings
- Category Filters: Enable or disable tip categories from the settings UI, with newly added categories enabled by default
- Tip Exclusions: Exclude individual tips from notifications and restore them later from settings
- Advanced Tips: Advanced, niche tips are hidden from the default rotation until you opt in with Show advanced tips in settings. When shown, the notification title reads
Vim Coach · Advanced - Apply Tips to .ideavimrc: When a tip ships a mapping or command (for example a plugin tip's
Plugline) and you have IdeaVim installed, click the apply button on the notification. Vim Coach appends the lines (skipping any already present), opens the file at the change, and offers a Reload now button - Settings UI: Control startup tips, periodic reminders, active categories, the advanced-tips opt-in, and excluded tips from
Settings | Tools | Vim Coach - Mnemonics: Tips can include a short memory aid, shown beneath the tip to make its keystrokes easier to recall
- Comprehensive Library: Hundreds of Vim commands covering navigation, editing, searching, and more
- Remote Updates: Tips can be loaded from remote sources for fresh content
This plugin requires IdeaVim to be installed.
If you use IdeaVim, you can map Vim Coach actions in your ~/.ideavimrc:
let mapleader = " "
map <leader>st <Action>(com.github.pooryam92.vimcoach.actions.ShowVimTipAction)Vim Coach no longer installs a default key binding for Vim Coach: Show Tip, so custom IdeaVim mappings are the preferred way to add a shortcut without conflicting with existing IDE shortcuts.
Source selection is done with Gradle run tasks:
./gradlew runIde(default remote mode)./gradlew runIdeWithFileTips(forces local file mode)./gradlew runIdeWithMinuteTipSchedule(keeps the setting UI in hours, but treats the configured value as minutes for faster testing)
In file mode, the loader uses only vimcoach.tip.file.path (set by the run task).
For periodic-tip testing, development mode also supports the JVM property vimcoach.tip.interval.unit=minutes.
To point the plugin at an alternative remote tip source (for example a beta branch) without rebuilding, set the vimcoach.tip.remote.url JVM option via Help | Edit Custom VM Options and restart the IDE. When unset, tips load from the default GitHub source.
Contributions are welcome! Feel free to submit issues or pull requests.
This plugin is based on the IntelliJ Platform Plugin Template.