@xyproto/orbiton

orbiton

A snappy and configuration-free text editor and IDE for the terminal

Demo

Terminal preview

orbiton

Overview

A snappy and configuration-free text editor and IDE for the terminal

Snappy and configuration-free text editor/IDE for the terminal. Suitable for writing git commit messages, editing Markdown, config files, source code, man pages and for quick edit-format-compile cycles when programming. Has syntax highlighting, jump-to-error, rainbow parentheses, macros, cut/paste portals, LSP support and a simple gdb+dlv frontend.

Featured

Editor’s pick

Orbiton stands out by prioritizing minimal configuration and productive defaults. Instead of asking users to build an editor setup first, it ships Markdown editing, code editing, file browsing, book mode, LSP support, and debug helpers as built-in workflows.

Orbiton is a configuration-free terminal editor and simple IDE designed to stay out of the way. It targets quick editing sessions, commit messages, Markdown, source files, man pages, and fast edit-format-compile cycles with built-in syntax highlighting, file browsing, LSP support, and debug tooling.

Origin story

Editors on Linux are timeconsuming to configure, especially for quick edit-format-compile cycles with LSP and debug support.

First workflow

Open /tmp/main.c, press ctrl-w and then 2x ctrl-space.

Design choice

Configuration free, apart from selecting a theme. Built in Markdown, code editing, file browser and book editing mode.

Roadmap

Additional IDE-like features like project-wide variable renaming.

Latest Release

Orbiton 2.74.4

Released: Jun 18, 2026

Programming related

Improve Tab completion support for C (by using clangd).
Improve the support for C3.
Improve the support for Algol 68.
Add breadcrumb navigation to the top bar when jumping to symbols.
Disable the "automatically add missing imports" feature for Java and Kotlin, for now. It did not always work and it was annoying.
Improve error handling for Java.
Let ctrl-b be the main keypress for building things (and 2x ctrl-b for running things) on macOS.
Let ctrl-r jump between brackets or rename things, and only toggle portals when pressed twice.
Improve the Tab key behavior.
Fix the debug path error when debugging Rust, ref #27 (thanks for reporting @seantiz).
Support F5 for "continue", F10 for "step over" and F9 for "toggle breakpoint", for some terminal emulators.
When using the -o flag, improve how Ollama can describe functions when editing source code.

Various improvements

Improve comment toggling.
Improve the "find matching brace" feature.
Improve how ctrl-x can be used to cut a whole function.
Improve the description and use of the -r/--release flag.
Improve Nano-mode behavior when ctrl-p is pressed.
Improve how and when line highlights are cleared.
Introduce a new element in the little built-in game.
Let the "book mode" use a light yellow background color by default.
Fix the right arrow key behavior when pressed at the end of the last line.
Improve file loading wrt blank trailing lines.
Improve handling of binary files.
Let backspace do nothing if a file is read-only.
Use prettier bullet point symbols when rendering Markdown.
Improve the look and text flow of the "function description" text boxes.
Improve the -g/--glob flag.

Code quality and performance

Some refactoring.
Improve the performance when browsing large files.
Detect more platforms at compile time instead of using the runtime package.

General

Update documentation.
Update dependencies.

Discussions

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