Learn Vim

A collection of Vim shortcuts, commands, and practice tools assembled to make learning Vim practical. The goal is an overview of features and commands that boost productivity — not exhaustive reference, but a solid launchpad.

All commands live in vim-cheatsheet.md as the single source of truth. Run node scripts/generateData.js ui-cheatsheet to regenerate ui-cheatsheet/src/data.json, which both the web app and the Neovim plugin read at runtime.

Entry format: * LEVEL - \cmd1`, `cmd2` - description`

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Web cheatsheet

Live at budavariam.github.io/learn-vim.

Feature	Description
Fuzzy search	Filter commands by key, description, or category (Fuse.js).
Level range slider	Narrow to commands at a given difficulty tier (0 = essential → 9 = advanced).
Category filter	Focus a single Vim topic from the dropdown.
Known tracking	Click a card to mark/unmark it as learned. Persisted in localStorage.
Unknown-only mode	Toggle to hide everything you already know.
Mark all / reset	Bulk-mark everything known, or reset to all unknown.
Memorize drawer	Alt-click a card to pin it for focused review. Drag to reorder.
Quiz game	Flash-card quiz at /game.
Interactive keyboard	Visual keyboard overlay — keys colour-coded by Vim category. Toggle Ctrl/Shift for modifier combos. Filter to known/unknown/memorize. Three locale layouts (EN / HU / ES).
Dark mode	Toggle via the sun/moon button; preference is persisted.
Table of contents	Sidebar on desktop, drawer on mobile for quick category navigation.
About modal	? button opens a full feature overview.

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Neovim plugin

Lives in nvim-plugin/. Reads the same data.json as the web cheatsheet — one source of truth.

Install with lazy.nvim:

{
  'budavariam/learn-vim',
  config = function()
    local root = vim.fn.stdpath('data') .. '/lazy/learn-vim/nvim-plugin'
    vim.opt.rtp:prepend(root)
    require('vim-learn').setup({
      data_path = vim.fn.stdpath('data') .. '/lazy/learn-vim/ui-cheatsheet/src/data.json',
    })
  end,
  keys = {
    { '<leader>vl', '<cmd>VimLearnCheatsheet<CR>', desc = 'Vim cheatsheet' },
    { '<leader>vq', '<cmd>VimLearnQuiz<CR>',       desc = 'Vim quiz' },
  },
}

Keymap	Action
<leader>vl	Floating cheatsheet: live fuzzy search (/), filter (f), toggle known (Space).
<leader>vq	Flash-card quiz: k = known, n = skip, r = reshuffle, u = unknown.

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Vim Arcade (/arcade)

An interactive vim practice game served at /learn-vim/arcade/.

Running locally

cd ui-arcade
npm install
npm run generate-data   # populate data.json from vim-cheatsheet.md
npm run dev             # http://localhost:5174/learn-vim/arcade/

Or with Docker (requires the repo root as build context):

docker compose --profile dev up          # hot-reload dev server on :5174
docker compose --profile prod up --build # production nginx on :3001

Game modes

Mode	Description
General	Endless practice — earn points, unlock higher command levels.
Timed Challenge	Fixed session: 1, 2, 5, 10, or 15 minutes. Score as many commands as possible.
Survival	Every miss ends the game. Longer time limits but zero tolerance.
VimGolf	Reach the target buffer state in the fewest keystrokes possible.

Arcade features

Feature	Description
Real code editor	Monaco editor (VS Code's engine) with full vim key bindings (monaco-vim).
Languages	Go, Rust, Python, TypeScript, C, C++ — a ~200-line realistic file loads for each.
Command detection	Keystrokes matched against the vim-cheatsheet data; ex commands (:wq, :s/…) detected via the vim statusbar.
Progressive difficulty	Commands are drawn from levels 0–ceiling. Ceiling advances when 75 % of current-level commands reach the repetition target.
Concurrent challenges	Starts with 1 active challenge, grows to up to 4 as you hit completion milestones.
Dynamic scoring	Points × time multiplier (Lightning/Fast/Good/Completed) × combo multiplier (up to ×3).
Combo system	Consecutive successes boost the multiplier (×1.5 at 3, up to ×3 at 12).
Repetition target	1×, 2×, 3×, or 5× — how many times each command must be completed before the ceiling advances.
Guided mode	Six variants: None / First only / After failure / First + on failure / Alternating / Always. Guided completions earn 20 % of normal points; a blind verification challenge queues after guided reveals.
Dynamic assist	Optional: auto-reveal the solution at X % of the time limit (30–150 %). Capped at 100 % in Survival mode. Togglable without restarting via the in-game settings drawer (⌘⇧P).
Category focus	Pick which command categories to practice. Color-coded chips with the same hue algorithm as the cheatsheet. Defaults to 6 essential categories. Presets saved in localStorage.
Unsupported commands	Mark any command as "not supported in Monaco" during a session. Toggle at setup to skip marked commands in future games.
Warmup	1–3 easy challenges at the start of each session; count scales with starting level (level 9 → 1 warmup).
Survival stats	High score tracks "achieved time" vs "expected time" (sum of presented challenge limits).
Post-game review	After any session, review every challenged command with its success rate. Items with ≥ 60 % success across ≥ 3 attempts are suggested for "mark as known" — shared with the quiz app's knownItems localStorage key.
High scores	Top-10 per mode in localStorage. General/Timed sorted by score; Survival sorted by time survived.
Quit + Info	In-game Quit button navigates back to setup. Info button (ℹ) shows current config in a modal.

VimGolf mode

Feature	Description
20 built-in challenges	Easy → Hard, covering motions, operators, macros, :sort, :g/^/m0, visual-block, regex substitutions, and more.
Keystroke counter	Every keydown in the editor counts. Displayed prominently.
Timer	Runs from first keystroke; pauses after solve.
Reset	Restores the buffer to the starting state and resets the keystroke counter. Timer keeps running.
Check / Diff	Click Check to compare current content to the target. On mismatch, a line-level LCS diff overlay shows what's missing or extra.
Solution toggle	Show/hide the expected result. Available in the panel and via the ⌘⇧P settings drawer.
High scores per challenge	Top-10 entries sorted by keystrokes (ASC) then time (ASC).
Import challenges	Fetch by vimgolf.com challenge ID (best-effort, CORS permitting) or paste raw JSON. Custom challenges persisted in localStorage.
Attribution	Challenges with a vimgolfId field link back to vimgolf.com.

Settings drawer (⌘⇧P)

Opens an in-game panel without leaving the editor. Currently toggles:

• Guided mode — switch between all six guided variants live without restarting.

Neovim arcade plugin

VimLearnArcade command opens an arcade session inside Neovim:

• Same engine logic as the browser game (mirrored in Lua).
• vim.ui.select setup wizard: mode, language, level, repetition, guided, dynamic assist, category multi-select (Space toggle, presets saved in vim-learn-state.json).
• Vertical split: editor buffer (left) + challenge panel (right).
• Key interception via vim.on_key; ex commands via CmdlineLeave autocmd.
• High scores saved to stdpath('data')/vim-learn-arcade-scores.json.

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practice.py is a Python 3 terminal quiz.

python3 practice.py

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Recommended resources

• vimtutor — built-in interactive tutorial; run it in your terminal
• openvim.com — browser-based interactive tutorial
• vim.rtorr.com — great cheatsheet that inspired this one
• vim fandom wiki — deep-dive tips and tricks
• vimgolf.com — fun challenges to sharpen muscle memory
• vim :help — the definitive reference, always at hand

Configuration

My Neovim configuration is available in my dotfiles repository.