Vim documentation: ui

main help file

---

*ui.txt*	Nvim


			    NVIM REFERENCE MANUAL



Nvim UI protocol							  *ui*

                                      Type |gO| to see the table of contents.

==============================================================================

UI Events							    *ui-events*

GUIs can be implemented as external processes communicating with Nvim over the
RPC API. The UI model consists of a terminal-like grid with a single,
monospace font size. Some elements (UI "widgets") can be drawn separately from
the grid ("externalized").


								  *ui-options*
After connecting to Nvim (usually a spawned, embedded instance) use the
|nvim_ui_attach| API method to tell Nvim that your program wants to draw the
Nvim screen grid with a size of width × height cells. `options` must be
a dictionary with these (optional) keys:
	`rgb`			Decides the color format.
				Set true (default) for 24-bit RGB colors.
				Set false for terminal colors (max of 256).

							      *ui-ext-options*
	`ext_popupmenu`		Externalize the popupmenu. |ui-popupmenu|
	`ext_tabline`		Externalize the tabline. |ui-tabline|
	`ext_cmdline`		Externalize the cmdline. |ui-cmdline|
	`ext_wildmenu`		Externalize the wildmenu. |ui-ext-wildmenu|

Specifying a non-existent option is an error. To facilitate an ui that
supports different versions of Nvim, the |api-metadata| key `ui_options`
contains the list of supported options. Additionally Nvim currently requires
that all connected UIs use the same set of widgets. Therefore the active
widgets will be the intersection of the requested widget sets of all connected
UIs. The "option_set" event will be used to specify which widgets actually are
active.

After attaching, Nvim will send msgpack-rpc notifications, with the method
name "redraw" and a single argument, an array of screen update events.  Update
events are arrays whose first element is the event name and remaining elements
are each tuples of event parameters. This allows multiple events of the same
kind to be sent in a row without the event name being repeated. This batching
is mostly used for "put", as each "put" event just puts contents in one screen
cell, but clients must be prepared for multiple argument sets being batched
for all event kinds.

Events must be handled in order. The user should only see the updated screen
state after all events in the same "redraw" batch are processed (not any
intermediate state after processing only part of the array).

Nvim sends |ui-global| and |ui-grid| events unconditionally; these suffice to
implement a terminal-like interface.

Nvim optionally sends screen elements "semantically" as structured events
instead of raw grid-lines. Then the UI must decide how to present those
elements itself; Nvim will not draw those elements on the grid. This is
controlled by the |ui-ext-options|.

Future versions of Nvim may add new update kinds and may append new parameters
to existing update kinds. Clients must be prepared to ignore such extensions,
for forward-compatibility. |api-contract|

==============================================================================

Global Events							    *ui-global*

["set_title", title]
["set_icon", icon]
	Set the window title, and icon (minimized) window title, respectively.
	In windowing systems not distinguishing between the two, "set_icon"
	can be ignored.

["mode_info_set", cursor_style_enabled, mode_info]
	`cursor_style_enabled` is a boolean indicating if the UI should set
	the cursor style. `mode_info` is a list of mode property maps. The
	current mode is given by the `mode_idx` field of the `mode_change`
	event.

	Each mode property map may contain these keys:

	KEY		DESCRIPTION 
	`cursor_shape`:	"block", "horizontal", "vertical"
	`cell_percentage`: Cell % occupied by the cursor.
	`blinkwait`, `blinkon`, `blinkoff`: See |cursor-blinking|.
	`hl_id`:	Cursor highlight group.
	`hl_lm`:	Cursor highlight group if 'langmap' is active.
	`short_name`:	Mode code name, see 'guicursor'.
	`name`:		Mode descriptive name.
	`mouse_shape`:	(To be implemented.)

	Some keys are missing in some modes.

["option_set", name, value]
	The value of ui related option `name` changed. The sent options are
	listed below:

	'arabicshape'
	'ambiwidth'
	'emoji'
	'guifont'
	'guifontset'
	'guifontwide'
	'linespace'
	'showtabline'
	'termguicolors'
	`ext_*` (all |ui-ext-options|)

	Options are not added to the list if their effects are already taken
	care of. For instance, instead of forwarding the raw 'mouse' option
	value, `mouse_on` and `mouse_off` directly indicate if mouse support
	is active right now. Some options like 'ambiwidth' have already taken
	effect on the grid, where appropriate empty cells are added, however
	an ui might still use these options when rendering raw text sent from
	Nvim, like the text of the cmdline when |ui-ext-cmdline| is set.

["mode_change", mode, mode_idx]
	The mode changed.  The first parameter `mode` is a string representing
	the current mode. `mode_idx` is an index into the array received in
	the `mode_info_set` event. UIs should change the cursor style
	according to the properties specified in the corresponding item. The
	set of modes reported will change in new versions of Nvim, for
	instance more submodes and temporary states might be represented as
	separate modes.

["mouse_on"]
["mouse_off"]
	Tells the client whether mouse support, as determined by |'mouse'|
	option, is considered to be active in the current mode. This is mostly
	useful for a terminal frontend, or other situations where nvim mouse
	would conflict with other usages of the mouse. It is safe for a client
	to ignore this and always send mouse events.

["busy_on"]
["busy_off"]
	Nvim started or stopped being busy, and possibly not responsive to
	user input. This could be indicated to the user by hiding the cursor.

["suspend"]
	|:suspend| command or |Ctrl-Z| mapping is used. A terminal client (or other
	client where it makes sense) could suspend itself.  Other clients can
	safely ignore it.

["update_menu"]
	The menu mappings changed.

["bell"]
["visual_bell"]
	Notify the user with an audible or visual bell, respectively.

==============================================================================

Grid Events							      *ui-grid*

["resize", width, height]
	The grid is resized to `width` and `height` cells.

["clear"]
	Clear the grid.

["eol_clear"]
	Clear from the cursor position to the end of the current line.

["cursor_goto", row, col]
	Move the cursor to position (row, col). Currently, the same cursor is
	used to define the position for text insertion and the visible cursor.
	However, only the last cursor position, after processing the entire
	array in the "redraw" event, is intended to be a visible cursor
	position.

["update_fg", color]
["update_bg", color]
["update_sp", color]
	Set the default foreground, background and special colors
	respectively.


						      *ui-event-highlight_set*
["highlight_set", attrs]
	Set the attributes that the next text put on the grid will have.
	`attrs` is a dict with the keys below. Any absent key is reset
	to its default value. Color defaults are set by the `update_fg` etc
	updates. All boolean keys default to false.

	`foreground`:	foreground color.
	`background`:	backround color.
	`special`:	color to use for underline and undercurl, when present.
	`reverse`:	reverse video. Foreground and background colors are
			switched.
	`italic`:	italic text.
	`bold`:		bold text.
	`underline`:	underlined text. The line has `special` color.
	`undercurl`:	undercurled text. The curl has `special` color.

["put", text]
	The (utf-8 encoded) string `text` is put at the cursor position
	(and the cursor is advanced), with the highlights as set by the
	last `highlight_set` update.

["set_scroll_region", top, bot, left, right]
	Define the scroll region used by `scroll` below.

["scroll", count]
	Scroll the text in the scroll region. The diagrams below illustrate
	what will happen, depending on the scroll direction. "=" is used to
	represent the SR(scroll region) boundaries and "-" the moved rectangles.
	Note that dst and src share a common region.

	If count is bigger than 0, move a rectangle in the SR up, this can
	happen while scrolling down.

		+-------------------------+
		| (clipped above SR)      |            ^
		|=========================| dst_top    |
		| dst (still in SR)       |            |
		+-------------------------+ src_top    |
		| src (moved up) and dst  |            |
		|-------------------------| dst_bot    |
		| src (cleared)           |            |
		+=========================+ src_bot
 
	If count is less than zero, move a rectangle in the SR down, this can
	happen while scrolling up.

		+=========================+ src_top
		| src (cleared)           |            |
		|------------------------ | dst_top    |
		| src (moved down) and dst|            |
		+-------------------------+ src_bot    |
		| dst (still in SR)       |            |
		|=========================| dst_bot    |
		| (clipped below SR)      |            v
		+-------------------------+
 
==============================================================================

Popupmenu Events						 *ui-popupmenu*

Only sent if `ext_popupmenu` option is set in |ui-options|

["popupmenu_show", items, selected, row, col]
	Show |popupmenu-completion|. `items` is an array of completion items
	to show; each item is an array of the form [word, kind, menu, info] as
	defined at |complete-items|, except that `word` is replaced by `abbr`
	if present.  `selected` is the initially-selected item, a zero-based
	index into the array of items (-1 if no item is selected). `row` and
	`col` give the anchor position, where the first character of the
	completed word will be.

["popupmenu_select", selected]
	Select an item in the current popupmenu. `selected` is a zero-based
	index into the array of items from the last popupmenu_show event, or
	-1 if no item is selected.

["popupmenu_hide"]
	Hide the popupmenu.

==============================================================================

Tabline Events							   *ui-tabline*

Only sent if `ext_tabline` option is set in |ui-options|

["tabline_update", curtab, tabs]
	Tabline was updated. UIs should present this data in a custom tabline
	widget.
	curtab:	  Current Tabpage
	tabs:	  List of Dicts [{ "tab": Tabpage, "name": String }, ...]

==============================================================================

Cmdline Events							   *ui-cmdline*

Only sent if `ext_cmdline` option is set in |ui-options|

["cmdline_show", content, pos, firstc, prompt, indent, level]
        content: List of [attrs, string]
	         [[{}, "t"], [attrs, "est"], ...]

	Triggered when the cmdline is displayed or changed.
	The `content` is the full content that should be displayed in the
	cmdline, and the `pos` is the position of the cursor that in the
	cmdline. The content is divided into chunks with different highlight
	attributes represented as a dict (see |ui-event-highlight_set|).

	`firstc` and `prompt` are text, that if non-empty should be
	displayed in front of the command line. `firstc` always indicates
	built-in command lines such as `:` (ex command) and `/` `?` (search),
	while `prompt` is an |input()| prompt. `indent` tells how many spaces
	the content should be indented.

	The Nvim command line can be invoked recursively, for instance by
	typing `<c-r>=` at the command line prompt. The `level` field is used
	to distinguish different command lines active at the same time. The
	first invoked command line has level 1, the next recursively-invoked
	prompt has level 2. A command line invoked from the |cmd-line-window|
	has a higher level than than the edited command line.

["cmdline_pos", pos, level]
	Change the cursor position in the cmdline.

["cmdline_special_char", c, shift, level]
	Display a special char in the cmdline at the cursor position. This is
	typically used to indicate a pending state, e.g. after |c_CTRL-V|. If
	`shift` is true the text after the cursor should be shifted, otherwise
	it should overwrite the char at the cursor.

	Should be hidden at next cmdline_show.

["cmdline_hide"]
	Hide the cmdline.

["cmdline_block_show", lines]
	Show a block of context to the current command line. For example if
	the user defines a |:function| interactively:
	    :function Foo()
	    :  echo "foo"
	    :
 
	`lines` is a list of lines of highlighted chunks, in the same form as
	the "cmdline_show" `contents` parameter.

["cmdline_block_append", line]
	Append a line at the end of the currently shown block.

["cmdline_block_hide"]
	Hide the block.

==============================================================================

Wildmenu Events							   *ui-wildmenu*

Only sent if `ext_wildmenu` option is set in |ui-options|

["wildmenu_show", items]
	Activate the wildmenu (command-line completion). `items` is an array
	with the completion items.

["wildmenu_select", selected]
	Select an item in the current wildmenu. `selected` is a zero-based
	index into the array of items from the last wildmenu_show event, or -1
	if no item is selected.

["wildmenu_hide"]
	Hide the wildmenu.

==============================================================================
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