🦿 tabout.nvim

Supercharge your workflow and start tabbing out from parentheses, quotes, and similar contexts today.

💡 examples

📦 requirements

• nvim >= 0.5
• A tree-sitter parser for each language you would like to use this plugin with. You can install parsers with nvim-treesitter

   

💾 installation

packer

-- Lua
use {
  'abecodes/tabout.nvim',
  config = function()
    require('tabout').setup {
    tabkey = '<Tab>', -- key to trigger tabout, set to an empty string to disable
    backwards_tabkey = '<S-Tab>', -- key to trigger backwards tabout, set to an empty string to disable
    act_as_tab = true, -- shift content if tab out is not possible
    act_as_shift_tab = false, -- reverse shift content if tab out is not possible (if your keyboard/terminal supports <S-Tab>)
    default_tab = '<C-t>', -- shift default action (only at the beginning of a line, otherwise <TAB> is used)
    default_shift_tab = '<C-d>', -- reverse shift default action,
    enable_backwards = true, -- well ...
    completion = true, -- if the tabkey is used in a completion pum
    tabouts = {
      {open = "'", close = "'"},
      {open = '"', close = '"'},
      {open = '`', close = '`'},
      {open = '(', close = ')'},
      {open = '[', close = ']'},
      {open = '{', close = '}'}
    },
    ignore_beginning = true, --[[ if the cursor is at the beginning of a filled element it will rather tab out than shift the content ]]
    exclude = {} -- tabout will ignore these filetypes
}
  end,
    wants = {'nvim-treesitter'}, -- (optional) or require if not used so far
    after = {'nvim-cmp'} -- if a completion plugin is using tabs load it before
}

lazyvim

-- Lua
return {
  {
    'abecodes/tabout.nvim',
    lazy = false,
    config = function()
      require('tabout').setup {
        tabkey = '<Tab>', -- key to trigger tabout, set to an empty string to disable
        backwards_tabkey = '<S-Tab>', -- key to trigger backwards tabout, set to an empty string to disable
        act_as_tab = true, -- shift content if tab out is not possible
        act_as_shift_tab = false, -- reverse shift content if tab out is not possible (if your keyboard/terminal supports <S-Tab>)
        default_tab = '<C-t>', -- shift default action (only at the beginning of a line, otherwise <TAB> is used)
        default_shift_tab = '<C-d>', -- reverse shift default action,
        enable_backwards = true, -- well ...
        completion = false, -- if the tabkey is used in a completion pum
        tabouts = {
          { open = "'", close = "'" },
          { open = '"', close = '"' },
          { open = '`', close = '`' },
          { open = '(', close = ')' },
          { open = '[', close = ']' },
          { open = '{', close = '}' }
        },
        ignore_beginning = true, --[[ if the cursor is at the beginning of a filled element it will rather tab out than shift the content ]]
        exclude = {} -- tabout will ignore these filetypes
      }
    end,
    dependencies = { -- These are optional
      "nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter",
      "L3MON4D3/LuaSnip",
      "hrsh7th/nvim-cmp"
    },
    opt = true,  -- Set this to true if the plugin is optional
    event = 'InsertCharPre', -- Set the event to 'InsertCharPre' for better compatibility
    priority = 1000,
  },
  {
    "L3MON4D3/LuaSnip",
    keys = function()
      -- Disable default tab keybinding in LuaSnip
      return {}
    end,
  },
}

If you use another plugin manager just make sure you call tabout.nvim's setup after any completion that already uses your tabkey.

🛠️ options

tabkey

Set the key you want to use to trigger tabout.

-- default
tabkey = '<Tab>'

backwards_tabkey

Set the key you want to use to trigger tabout backwards.

-- default
backwards_tabkey = '<S-Tab>'

act_as_tab

If a tab out is not possible shift the content.

-- default
act_as_tab = true

act_as_shift_tab

If a backwards tab out is not possible reverse shift the content. (Depends on keyboard/terminal if it will work)

-- default
act_as_shift_tab = false

default_tab

If act_as_tab is set to true, a tab out is not possible, and the cursor is at the beginnig of a line, this keysignals are sent in insert mode.

-- default
default_tab = '<C-t>'

default_shift_tab

If act_as_shift_tab is set to true and a tab out is not possible, this keysignals are sent in insert mode.

-- default
default_shift_tab = '<C-d>'

enable_backwards

Disable if you just want to move forward

-- default
enable_backwards = true

completion

Consider using the Plug API and setting this to false

If you use a completion pum that also uses the tab key for a smart scroll function. Setting this to true will disable tab out when the pum is open and execute the smart scroll function instead.

See here how to integrate tabout.vim into more complex completions with snippets.

-- default
completion = true

tabouts

Here you can add more symbols you want to tab out from.

open an close can only contain one character for now

-- default
tabouts = {
  {open = "'", close = "'"},
  {open = '"', close = '"'},
  {open = '`', close = '`'},
  {open = '(', close = ')'},
  {open = '[', close = ']'},
  {open = '{', close = '}'}
}

ignore_beginning

If set to true you can also tab out from the beginning of a string, object property, etc.

-- default
ignore_beginning = true

more complex keybindings

You can set tabkey and backwards_tabkey to empty strings and define more complex keybindings instead.

For example, to make <Tab> and <S-Tab> work with nvim-compe, vim-vsnip and this plugin:

require("tabout").setup({
  tabkey = "",
  backwards_tabkey = "",
})

local function replace_keycodes(str)
  return vim.api.nvim_replace_termcodes(str, true, true, false)
end

function _G.tab_binding()
  if vim.fn.pumvisible() ~= 0 then
    return replace_keycodes("<C-n>")
  elseif vim.fn["vsnip#available"](1) ~= 0 then
    return replace_keycodes("<Plug>(vsnip-expand-or-jump)")
  else
    return replace_keycodes("<Plug>(Tabout)")
  end
end

function _G.s_tab_binding()
  if vim.fn.pumvisible() ~= 0 then
    return replace_keycodes("<C-p>")
  elseif vim.fn["vsnip#jumpable"](-1) ~= 0 then
    return replace_keycodes("<Plug>(vsnip-jump-prev)")
  else
    return replace_keycodes("<Plug>(TaboutBack)")
  end
end

vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("i", "<Tab>", "v:lua.tab_binding()", {expr = true})
vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("i", "<S-Tab>", "v:lua.s_tab_binding()", {expr = true})

Note that some other plugins that also use <Tab> and <S-Tab> might provide already handlers to avoid clashes with tabout.nvim.

For example nvim-cmp mappings can be created using a function that accepts a callback. When the fallback is called tabout.nvim is working out of the box and there is no need for special configurations.

The example below shows nvim-cmp with luasnip mappings using the fallback function:

['<Tab>'] = function(fallback)
    if cmp.visible() then
      cmp.select_next_item()
    elseif luasnip.expand_or_jumpable() then
      vim.fn.feedkeys(vim.api.nvim_replace_termcodes('<Plug>luasnip-expand-or-jump', true, true, false), '')
    else
      fallback()
    end
  end,
  ['<S-Tab>'] = function(fallback)
    if cmp.visible() then
      cmp.select_prev_item()
    elseif luasnip.jumpable(-1) then
      vim.fn.feedkeys(vim.api.nvim_replace_termcodes('<Plug>luasnip-jump-prev', true, true, false), '')
    else
      fallback()
    end
  end,

To make <Tab> and <S-Tab> work with vim-vsnip:

["<Tab>"] = function(fallback)
  if cmp.visible() then
    -- cmp.select_next_item()
    cmp.confirm(
      {
        behavior = cmp.ConfirmBehavior.Insert,
        select = true
      }
    )
  elseif vim.fn["vsnip#available"](1) ~= 0 then
    vim.fn.feedkeys(vim.api.nvim_replace_termcodes("<Plug>(vsnip-expand-or-jump)", true, true, true), "")
  else
    fallback()
  end
end,
["<S-Tab>"] = function(fallback)
  if cmp.visible() then
    cmp.select_prev_item()
  elseif vim.fn["vsnip#available"](1) ~= 0 then
    vim.fn.feedkeys(vim.api.nvim_replace_termcodes("<Plug>(vsnip-jump-prev)", true, true, true), "")
  else
    fallback()
  end
end,

See here for more nvim-cmp examples.

🤖 plug api

multiline tabout

-- A multiline tabout setup could look like this
vim.api.nvim_set_keymap('i', '<A-x>', "<Plug>(TaboutMulti)", {silent = true})
vim.api.nvim_set_keymap('i', '<A-z>', "<Plug>(TaboutBackMulti)", {silent = true})

📋 commands

⚠️ exceptions

tabout.nvim only works with languages for which you have a tree-sitter parser installed. See for example nvim-treesitter's supported filetypes.

✅ todo

• [ ] tabout in blockcomment strings
• [x] allow multi line tabout
• [ ] support multi character tabouts