Scribe
Vim-flavoured modal editor with the parts a writer actually needs and a few features vim never had. Single static binary, sub-10 ms startup, soft-wrap by default, Claude Code in the editor, syntax highlighting, hunspell spellcheck, Goyo-style reading mode, persistent registers...
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source (Unlicense)
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- Rust
Features
Properties
- Privacy focused
Features
- Works Offline
- Syntax Highlighting
- Ad-free
- Spell Checking
- No registration required
- Full-Text Search
- No Tracking
- Modal editor
- Support for Keyboard Shortcuts
Claude Integration- Reading mode
- Integrated Search
- Text Wrapping
- Vim Key Mapping
- Keyboard Navigation
Scribe News & Activities
Recent activities
POX added Scribe as alternative to Notepad++, Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text and Neovim- POX updated Scribe
- POX added Scribe
Scribe information
Developed by
Geir Isene Licensing
Open Source (Unlicense) and Free product.Written in
Alternatives
51 alternatives listedSupported Languages
- English
AlternativeTo Categories
Office & Productivity, OS & Utilities, Development, AI Tools & ServicesGitHub repository
- 39 Stars
- 0 Forks
- 0 Open Issues
- Updated
What is Scribe?
Vim-flavoured modal editor with the parts a writer actually needs and a few features vim never had. Single static binary, sub-10 ms startup, soft-wrap by default, Claude Code in the editor, syntax highlighting, hunspell spellcheck, Goyo-style reading mode, persistent registers shared across sessions.
Why scribe (and not vim)?
Vim has a thousand features. A writer needs about thirty of them. Scribe is "vim minus 90 % minus the programming subsystem, plus a handful of writer-first niceties":
- Modal core — hjkl, motions, operators, text-objects, registers, marks, macros, dot-repeat, undo tree.
- Soft-wrap by default — long prose lines wrap at the pane edge with a continuation indicator. Live resize via SIGWINCH.
- Claude integration in the prompt — :claude {prompt} runs claude -p over your selection / paragraph / buffer and splices the response back. One u reverses an entire turn. :chat for full interactive sessions.
- Reading mode — :read (or zr) for Goyo-style centered text, optional Limelight-style paragraph dim. Prose without chrome.
- Email-mode rendering — .eml files and kastrup compose tempfiles get header / quote-level / signature colors that match kastrup's right pane 1-for-1. Inline email addresses + URLs highlighted everywhere.
- Syntax highlighting for ~18 source languages plus dedicated HyperList / Markdown / LaTeX renderers via the shared highlight crate. Multi-line block comments and string literals keep their color across line breaks.
- Spellcheck via hunspell — auto-on for email mode, opt-in elsewhere via :set spell. Configurable language and underline color. ]s / [s navigation, z= suggestions, zg to add to personal dict.
- Persistent registers — yanks and macros live in ~/.config/scribe/registers.json and update on every yank, so they survive restarts AND share live across concurrent scribe sessions.
- No LSP / debugger / quickfix / :make — writers don't compile.
- Block paste that actually pastes a block — Ctrl-v selection lays each row at the same column on consecutive lines. One u reverses the whole thing.