External command editor

Edit the current Zsh command with Alt+E while preserving multiline content, bindings, and Vim cursor position.

Press Alt+E to open the current Zsh editing buffer in an external editor. Save and close the editor to return the text to the prompt. The command is not executed until you press Enter.

Both the ready-made and detached integrations provide this behavior.

Choose an editor

The editor is selected in this order:

$VISUAL;
$EDITOR;
vi.

Both environment variables can include arguments:

export EDITOR='nvim'
eval "$(nbsp init zsh)"

Another example:

export VISUAL='nano --linenumbers'
eval "$(nbsp init zsh --detached)"

The command is split using Zsh’s own shell-word parsing rather than executed through another shell.

Buffer behavior

Empty, single-line, and multiline commands are supported.
Saving returns the edited text without executing it.
Closing the editor with an error preserves Zsh’s editor status behavior.
Existing prompt content and terminal output are not redirected or hidden.

With vi, vim, or nvim, nbsp records the editor’s final line and Unicode character column. When the edited text returns to Zsh, the cursor is restored to that position when the report is valid.

Other editors, or an invalid cursor report, place the cursor at the end of the edited command.

The temporary cursor file is removed after editing, including error paths.

Existing key bindings

The integration considers the Emacs, Vi insert, and Vi command keymaps. It binds Alt+E only where that key is currently undefined.

Existing user and plugin bindings are left unchanged.