From 673956eeefe0f91045651dc922b56b496f553e97 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Erik Loualiche <eloualic@umn.edu>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2026 21:07:01 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] feat: split config editor into e ($EDITOR) and E ($VISUAL)
 keybindings

The TUI now uses $EDITOR (terminal editor) by default for 'e', so editors
like Helix work correctly instead of falling through to $VISUAL (BBEdit).
Shift-E opens the config in $VISUAL for GUI editing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 internal/tui/app.go       | 17 +++++++++++------
 internal/tui/dashboard.go |  4 +++-
 2 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/internal/tui/app.go b/internal/tui/app.go
index e2dbcf8..b660cb4 100644
--- a/internal/tui/app.go
+++ b/internal/tui/app.go
@@ -32,7 +32,8 @@ type OpenFileMsg struct{ Path string }
 type editorFinishedMsg struct{ err error }
 
 // EditConfigMsg signals that the user wants to edit the config file.
-type EditConfigMsg struct{}
+// Visual selects $VISUAL (GUI editor) instead of $EDITOR (terminal editor).
+type EditConfigMsg struct{ Visual bool }
 
 // editorConfigFinishedMsg is sent when the config editor exits.
 type editorConfigFinishedMsg struct{ err error }
@@ -197,7 +198,7 @@ func (m AppModel) Update(msg tea.Msg) (tea.Model, tea.Cmd) {
 			targetPath = tmpFile.Name()
 		}
 
-		editor := resolveEditor()
+		editor := resolveEditor(msg.Visual)
 		c := exec.Command(editor, targetPath)
 		return m, tea.ExecProcess(c, func(err error) tea.Msg {
 			return editorConfigFinishedMsg{err}
@@ -338,10 +339,14 @@ func (m AppModel) listenLogEntries() tea.Cmd {
 // Helpers
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-// resolveEditor returns the user's preferred editor: $VISUAL, $EDITOR, or "vi".
-func resolveEditor() string {
-	if e := os.Getenv("VISUAL"); e != "" {
-		return e
+// resolveEditor returns the user's preferred editor.
+// When visual is true it checks $VISUAL first (GUI editor like BBEdit);
+// otherwise it uses $EDITOR (terminal editor like Helix), falling back to "vi".
+func resolveEditor(visual bool) string {
+	if visual {
+		if e := os.Getenv("VISUAL"); e != "" {
+			return e
+		}
 	}
 	if e := os.Getenv("EDITOR"); e != "" {
 		return e
diff --git a/internal/tui/dashboard.go b/internal/tui/dashboard.go
index be62e4a..d6ad17e 100644
--- a/internal/tui/dashboard.go
+++ b/internal/tui/dashboard.go
@@ -207,6 +207,8 @@ func (m DashboardModel) updateNormal(msg tea.KeyMsg) (DashboardModel, tea.Cmd) {
 		return m, func() tea.Msg { return OpenFileMsg{Path: path} }
 	case "e":
 		return m, func() tea.Msg { return EditConfigMsg{} }
+	case "E":
+		return m, func() tea.Msg { return EditConfigMsg{Visual: true} }
 	case "/":
 		m.filtering = true
 		m.filter = ""
@@ -376,7 +378,7 @@ func (m DashboardModel) View() string {
 			helpKey("↑↓") + helpDesc("navigate") +
 			helpKey("enter") + helpDesc("expand") +
 			helpKey("v") + helpDesc("view") +
-			helpKey("e") + helpDesc("config") +
+			helpKey("e/E") + helpDesc("config") +
 			helpKey("l") + helpDesc("logs") +
 			helpKey("/") + helpDesc("filter")
 		if m.filter != "" {