hardtime.nvim

July 21, 2025 · View on GitHub

hardtime.nvim

Break bad habits, master Vim motions

Busted Neovim version

FeaturesInstallationUsageConfiguration

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3cc1bcdd-1ace-40f0-b295-f84a78051d6a

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1c120fe5-c57d-4cb3-8313-25f2395e95fa

✨ Features

  • Block repeated keys within a short period of time
  • Provide hints for faster Vim motion
  • Get report of your most common bad habits

Instead of only relying on hjkl, arrow keys and mouse, you should:

  1. Use relative jump (eg: 5j 12-) for vertical movement within the screen.
  2. Use CTRL-U CTRL-D CTRL-B CTRL-F gg G for vertical movement outside the screen.
  3. Use word-motion (w W b B e E ge gE) for short-distance horizontal movement.
  4. Use f F t T , ; 0 ^ $ for medium to long-distance horizontal movement.
  5. Use operator + motion/text-object (eg: ci{ y5j dap) whenever possible.
  6. Use % and square bracket commands (see :h [) to jump between brackets.

Learn more in this blog post

⚡ Requirements

📦 Installation

  1. Install via your favorite package manager.
{
   "m4xshen/hardtime.nvim",
   lazy = false,
   dependencies = { "MunifTanjim/nui.nvim" },
   opts = {},
},
  1. Setup the plugin in your init.lua. This step is not needed with lazy.nvim if opts is set as above.
require("hardtime").setup()

If you want to see the hint messages in insert and visual mode, set the 'showmode' to false.

But if you want to see both the hint message and current mode you can setup with one of the following methods:

  • Display the mode on status line and set 'showmode' to false. You can do this with some statusline plugin such as lualine.nvim.
  • Set the 'cmdheight' to 2 so that the hint message won't be replaced by mode message.
  • Use nvim-notify to display hint messages on the right top corner instead of commandline.

🚀 Usage

Hardtime is enabled by default. You can change its state with the following commands:

  • :Hardtime enable enable Hardtime
  • :Hardtime disable disable Hardtime
  • :Hardtime toggle toggle Hardtime

You can view the most frequently seen hints with :Hardtime report.

Your log file is at ~/.local/state/nvim/hardtime.nvim.log.

🔧 Configuration

You can pass your config table into the setup() function or opts if you use lazy.nvim.

If the option is a table (key = value pair), you can set value to false to disable the default value.

Examples:

disabled_keys = {
   ["<Up>"] = false, -- Allow <Up> key
   ["<Space>"] = { "n", "x" }, -- Disable <Space> key in normal and visual mode
},
disabled_filetypes = { 
   lazy = false, -- Enable Hardtime in lazy filetype
   ["dapui*"] = false, -- Enable Hardtime in filetype starting with dapui
},

Options

Option NameTypeDefault ValueMeaning
max_timenumber1000Maximum time (in milliseconds) to consider key presses as repeated.
max_countnumber3Maximum count of repeated key presses allowed within the max_time period.
disable_mousebooleantrueDisable mouse support.
hintbooleantrueEnable hint messages for better commands.
notificationbooleantrueEnable notification messages for restricted and disabled keys.
timeoutnumber or boolean3000Time to show notification in milliseconds, set to false to disable timeout.
allow_different_keybooleantrueAllow different keys to reset the count.
enabledbooleantrueWhether the plugin is enabled by default or not.
resetting_keystableSee ConfigKeys in what modes that reset the count.
restricted_keystableSee ConfigKeys in what modes triggering the count mechanism.
restriction_modestring ("block" or "hint")"block"The behavior when restricted_keys trigger count mechanism.
disabled_keystableSee ConfigKeys in what modes are disabled.
disabled_filetypestableSee ConfigHardtime is disabled under these filetypes.
hintstableSee Configkey is a string pattern you want to match, value is a table of hint message and pattern length. Learn more about Lua string pattern.
callbackfunction(text)vim.notifycallback function can be used to override the default notification behavior.
force_exit_insert_modebooleanfalseEnable forcing exit Insert mode if user is inactive in Insert mode.
max_insert_idle_msnumber5000Maximum amount of idle time, in milliseconds, allowed in Insert mode.
uitable of strings/table pairSee ConfigAn option to customize the popup for the Hardtime report.

hints example

These are two default hints:

hints = {
   ["k%^"] = {
      message = function()
         return "Use - instead of k^" -- return the hint message you want to display
      end,
      length = 2, -- the length of actual key strokes that matches this pattern
   },
   ["d[tTfF].i"] = { -- this matches d + {t/T/f/F} + {any character} + i
      message = function(keys) -- keys is a string of key strokes that matches the pattern
         return "Use " .. "c" .. keys:sub(2, 3) .. " instead of " .. keys
         -- example: Use ct( instead of dt(i
      end,
      length = 4,
   },
}

Check out some examples of custom hint in discussion!

Default config

⭐ Star History

Star History Chart

🦾 Contributing

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md.

👥 Contributors