Turning Helix into an IDE with the help of WezTerm and CLI tools

Quan Tong

"Life is all about sharing. If we are good at something, pass it on." - Mary Berry

Turning Helix into an IDE with the help of WezTerm and CLI tools

2023-08-19

Categories: Development Environment

Helix as IDE

This post recaps previous series of posts about Helix.

Running code
Jumping to build errors
Quickly select a command and open it in a new pane
Testing a single function
Git integration
File tree
Creating snippets
How to debug?
Interactive global search
Opening file in GitHub

1. Running code

In my previous post, I shared a method for running code from within Helix by using this PR.

I later discovered another useful trick here. We can use wezterm cli get-text command to extract the filename and line number from the status line:

1status_line=$(wezterm cli get-text | rg -e "(?:NORMAL|INSERT|SELECT)\s+[\x{2800}-\x{28FF}]*\s+(\S*)\s[^│]* (\d+):*.*" -o --replace '$1 $2')
2filename=$(echo $status_line | awk '{ print $1}')
3line_number=$(echo $status_line | awk '{ print $2}')

2. Jumping to build errors

/2023/07/21/jump-to-build-error-helix

3. Quickly select a command and open it in a new pane

/2023/08/04/quick-select-wezterm

4. Testing a single function

As we can retrieve the filename and line number from the status line, we can easily extract the test name and pass it to cargo test:

 1  "test_single")
 2    test_name=$(head -$line_number $filename | tail -1 | sed -n 's/^.*fn \([^ ]*\)().*$/\1/p')
 3    split_pane_down
 4    case "$extension" in
 5      "rs")
 6        run_command="cd $PWD/$(dirname "$basedir"); cargo test $test_name; if [ \$status = 0 ]; wezterm cli activate-pane-direction up; end;"
 7        ;;
 8    esac
 9    echo "$run_command" | $send_to_bottom_pane
10    ;;

5. Git integration

While Helix currently does not support Git, we can open lazygit in the bottom pane using the following script:

1  "lazygit")
2    split_pane_down
3    program=$(wezterm cli list | awk -v pane_id="$pane_id" '$3==pane_id { print $6 }')
4    if [ "$program" = "lazygit" ]; then
5        wezterm cli activate-pane-direction down
6    else
7        echo "lazygit" | $send_to_bottom_pane
8    fi
9    ;;

and reload automatically after switching back.

git blame

Since we can obtain the filename and line number, we can easily send it to tig:

1  "blame")
2    split_pane_down
3    echo "tig blame $filename +$line_number" | $send_to_bottom_pane
4    ;;

6. File tree

/2023/08/02/file-tree-workaround-for-helix

Discover how to open broot from within Helix:

 1  "explorer")
 2    left_pane_id=$(wezterm cli get-pane-direction left)
 3    if [ -z "${left_pane_id}" ]; then
 4      left_pane_id=$(wezterm cli split-pane --left --percent 20)
 5    fi
 6
 7    left_program=$(wezterm cli list | awk -v pane_id="$left_pane_id" '$3==pane_id { print $6 }')
 8    if [ "$left_program" != "br" ]; then
 9      echo "br" | wezterm cli send-text --pane-id $left_pane_id --no-paste
10    fi
11
12    wezterm cli activate-pane-direction left
13    ;;

And when opening a file from broot, ensure it opens in the right pane:

 1fpath="$1"
 2
 3pane_id=$(wezterm cli get-pane-direction right)
 4if [ -z "${pane_id}" ]; then
 5  pane_id=$(wezterm cli split-pane --right --percent 80)
 6fi
 7
 8program=$(wezterm cli list | awk -v pane_id="$pane_id" '$3==pane_id { print $6 }')
 9if [ "$program" = "hx" ]; then
10  echo ":open ${fpath}\r" | wezterm cli send-text --pane-id $pane_id --no-paste
11else
12  echo "hx ${fpath}" | wezterm cli send-text --pane-id $pane_id --no-paste
13fi
14
15wezterm cli activate-pane-direction --pane-id $pane_id right

7. Creating snippets

/2023/07/31/create-snippets-in-helix

8. How to debug?

I submitted this PR to allow the target directory to appear in the completion list in the debugger prompt, and it got merged so quickly.

9. Interactive global search

I’m implementing a mechanism that involves sending a command using fzf (combine with ripgrep) to the bottom pane when a key is pressed:

1  "fzf")
2    split_pane_down
3    echo "hx-fzf.sh \$(rg --line-number --column --no-heading --smart-case . | fzf --delimiter : --preview 'bat --style=full --color=always --highlight-line {2} {1}' --preview-window '~3,+{2}+3/2' | awk '{ print \$1 }' | cut -d: -f1,2,3)" | $send_to_bottom_pane
4    ;;

Once a selection is made, the file will be opened by Helix in the top pane:

 1selected_file=$1
 2top_pane_id=$(wezterm cli get-pane-direction Up)
 3if [ -z "$selected_file" ]; then
 4    if [ -n "${top_pane_id}" ]; then
 5        wezterm cli activate-pane-direction --pane-id $top_pane_id Up
 6        wezterm cli toggle-pane-zoom-state
 7    fi
 8    exit 0
 9fi
10
11if [ -z "${top_pane_id}" ]; then
12    top_pane_id=$(wezterm cli split-pane --top)
13fi
14
15wezterm cli activate-pane-direction --pane-id $top_pane_id Up
16
17send_to_top_pane="wezterm cli send-text --pane-id $top_pane_id --no-paste"
18
19program=$(wezterm cli list | awk -v pane_id="$top_pane_id" '$3==pane_id { print $6 }')
20if [ "$program" = "hx" ]; then
21    echo ":open $selected_file\r" | $send_to_top_pane
22else
23    echo "hx $selected_file" | $send_to_top_pane
24fi
25
26wezterm cli toggle-pane-zoom-state

I have submitted this PR to hide the bottom pane after that.

10. Opening file in GitHub

As simple it seems:

1  "open")
2    gh browse $filename:$line_number  
3    ;;

You can see my full script here and the Helix configuration below:

1[keys.normal.";"]
2b = ":sh hx-wezterm.sh blame"
3e = ":sh hx-wezterm.sh explorer"
4f = ":sh hx-wezterm.sh fzf"
5g = ":sh hx-wezterm.sh lazygit"
6o = ":sh hx-wezterm.sh open"
7r = ":sh hx-wezterm.sh run"
8s = ":sh hx-wezterm.sh test_single"
9t = ":sh hx-wezterm.sh test_all"

Tags: broot helix lazygit tig wezterm

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