Rui

A focused text editor for Windows and Linux, with optional Vim keybindings and a built-in way to learn them.

Rui is deliberately another text editor. It does not try to replace an IDE or win a feature checklist. Its job is smaller: open plain-text files quickly, edit them reliably, and feel the same on Windows and Linux.

The interface is English by default. German is available under Settings → General → Interface language and switches immediately.

I built Rui because I wanted one focused editor on both platforms. Windows Notepad is too limited for the way I work, while a full IDE is often more than I need. I also wanted a practical way to use and learn Vim-style editing without making Neovim itself my everyday Windows editor.

That scope is intentional: no debugger, no LSP, no completion and no terminal. Rui is a compact place for notes, snippets, scripts, logs and files you want to inspect before they go anywhere else.

Install

Linux — one line, no repository, no root:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jli-software/Rui/main/install.sh | bash

Installs into your home directory and adds rui file.txt to your terminal. Remove again with ~/.local/share/rui/install.sh --uninstall.

Windows — from Releases:

File	What it is
rui-setup.exe	NSIS installer (per-user)
rui.exe	portable, runs without installing
rui-setup.msi	MSI, for Intune/GPO

Not code-signed, so SmartScreen warns on first launch (More info → Run anyway). macOS is untested.

Focused by design

• Syntax highlighting for 16 languages, loaded on demand
• Find & replace, go to line, undo/redo, folding, line numbers
• Command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) instead of a menu bar
• System clipboard shortcuts, word wrap toggle (Alt+Z)
• Clickable status bar — file name, position, language, encoding

• Tabs, each keeping its own cursor, folds and undo history
• Rename in the tab — F2 or double click the name
• Quick Open (Ctrl+O) — fuzzy search across your folders
• Saves only when told to — Ctrl+S or :w, autosave is opt-in

Every question Rui asks happens inside the window, in Rui's own colours — never a system dialog landing somewhere else.

Vim as an option — and a learning path

Vim mode is off by default. Turn it on when you want it; the normal Rui shortcuts keep working alongside it. Ctrl+K opens a searchable shortcut sheet grouped by modes, movement, editing, search, clipboard and commands, so the keybindings are available while you learn them instead of living in a separate manual.

Normal, insert, visual and replace mode are supported, with the current mode shown in the status bar. :w, :wq, :tabnew, :set number and friends go through Rui's own save and open paths, so encoding survives them. The same setup works on Windows and Linux.

At home on Omarchy

On Omarchy, Rui derives its colours from the active theme and follows a theme change while it is running — no restart, no second configuration to keep in sync.

Outside Omarchy, Rui's Sage palette follows the system in light and dark mode.

Keyboard

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+P	Command palette
Ctrl+O	Quick Open
Ctrl+N / Ctrl+S / Ctrl+Shift+S	New / Save / Save as
F2	Rename the file
Ctrl+F / Ctrl+G	Find and replace / Go to line
Ctrl+Shift+C / Ctrl+Shift+A / Ctrl+Shift+V	Copy selection / Copy whole file / Paste
Alt+Z	Word wrap on or off
Ctrl+T / Ctrl+W / Ctrl+Tab	New tab / Close tab / Next tab
Ctrl+K	Keyboard shortcuts
Ctrl+I	Settings

With Vim keybindings on, everything Vim binds works in the text area alongside Rui's own Ctrl shortcuts — Ctrl+K shows the full list.

Build

npm ci
npm run tauri dev              # run it
cd src-tauri && cargo test     # tests

Build through the Tauri CLI, not cargo build --release — a plain Cargo build loads the dev server instead of the bundled frontend.

Stack: Tauri 2 + CodeMirror 6

• Rust for file I/O, encoding and window behaviour.

Licence

MIT — see LICENSE.