micro-editor-cheat-sheet.md

Micro Editor Cheat Sheet

Micro is a terminal text editor that uses standard Ctrl-key shortcuts (like a normal GUI editor) — no modes to worry about.

Files

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+s	Save
Ctrl+o	Open file
Ctrl+q	Quit / close current file or pane
Ctrl+w	Switch focus to next split/pane (does NOT close)

Editing

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+z	Undo
Ctrl+y	Redo
Ctrl+c	Copy
Ctrl+x	Cut
Ctrl+v	Paste
Ctrl+a	Select all
Ctrl+d	Duplicate line
Ctrl+k	Delete line
Tab / Shift+Tab	Indent / unindent

Navigation

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+g	Open help file
Ctrl+l	Jump to line number
Ctrl+Home / Ctrl+End	Start / end of file
Ctrl+Up / Ctrl+Down	Also start / end of file (alias)
Home / End	Start / end of line
Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right	Move by word
Ctrl+r	Toggle line number ruler

Search & Replace

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+f	Find
Ctrl+n	Find next
Ctrl+p	Find previous
Ctrl+e then replace 'old' 'new'	Find and replace (no direct keybinding)

Selection

Shortcut	Action
Shift+arrow keys	Select text
Ctrl+Shift+arrow	Select by word
Alt+Up/Down (on selection)	Move selected line(s) up/down

Tabs

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+t	Open new tab
Alt+,	Previous tab
Alt+.	Next tab

Multi-cursor / Splits

Shortcut	Action
Alt+n	Spawn multi-cursor on current word or selection
Alt+Shift+Up/Down	Add cursor on line above/below
Alt+c	Remove all multiple cursors
Ctrl+e	Open command bar (run commands)
Ctrl+w	Cycle between splits

Tip: Run micro -plugin list or open the command bar with Ctrl+e and type help for the full built-in reference.

Opening/closing the file tree (filemanager plugin):

• Open: Ctrl+e then type tree
• Close: focus the tree pane (Ctrl+w cycles focus into it), then Ctrl+e tree again — don't use Ctrl+q on it

Recommended Plugins for Developers

Run micro -plugin list in your terminal to get the installed plugins.
Install with micro -plugin install <name> or via the command bar (Ctrl+e) with plugin install <name>.

Note: comment (comment/uncomment) and vcs (git change markers in gutter) are already built into micro by default — no install needed.

Plugin	Why it's useful
filemanager	Sidebar file tree for browsing/opening files in a project
fzf	Fuzzy file finder integration (needs fzf installed)
lsp	Basic LSP client — diagnostics, go-to-definition, etc.
editorconfig	Respects .editorconfig settings automatically
detectindent	Auto-detects tabs vs spaces and indent width per file
snippets	Code snippet expansion
bookmark	Bookmark lines and jump between them
jump	Jump to a function/class/heading with F4
run	F5 to run file, F9/F12 to make project
quickfix	VIM-style quickfix pane for build errors
misspell	Flags commonly misspelled words

Install all recommended plugins at once:

for p in filemanager fzf lsp editorconfig detectindent snippets bookmark jump run quickfix misspell; do
  micro -plugin install "$p"
done

Managing plugins:

Command (via Ctrl+e)	Action
plugin list	List installed plugins
plugin available	List all available plugins
plugin install <name>	Install a plugin
plugin update	Update all plugins
plugin remove <name>	Remove a plugin

Unofficial Plugin Channels

By default micro only searches the official channel. Community channels exist with extra plugins (some official-channel plugins go stale/unmaintained, so these fill the gap):

• micro-garden/unofficial-plugin-channel
• Neko-Box-Coder/unofficial-plugin-channel (actively maintained fork)
• sum01/micro-channel

To add one: edit ~/.config/micro/settings.json and append the channel's URL to pluginchannels (keep the official URL too, or you lose access to it):

{
  "pluginchannels": [
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/micro-editor/plugin-channel/master/channel.json",
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Neko-Box-Coder/unofficial-plugin-channel/main/channel.json"
  ]
}

Restart micro, then plugin search <name> / plugin install <name> will include plugins from all listed channels.

Caution: these are maintained by individual community members, not the core micro team — review a plugin before installing it.