# Kakoune GUI inspired by Neovide

**URL:** <https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/kakoune-gui-inspired-by-neovide/2939>\
**Category:** Plugins\
**Tags:** plugins\
**Created:** [July 5, 2026, 7:59pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/kakoune-gui-inspired-by-neovide/2939 "2026-07-05T19:59:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![xlii](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/xlii/32/1608_2.png) [@xlii](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/xlii)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2026, 7:59pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/kakoune-gui-inspired-by-neovide/2939/1 "2026-07-05T19:59:53Z")

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Hi,

For some time I was **very** annoyed that I need to switch to other editor when for “Edit with…”. Couple weeks later I took Neovide (Neovim’s GUI) as architecture inspiration (i.e. cell rendering through GL) and `kak -ui json` as backend and went to see how far I can push. Not exactly smoothly but got quite far.

I’m on macOS, so most features are macOS focused (like Menubar integration and file registration) but in general it’s just a terminal Kakoune without terminal.

I don’t plan many features for it outside of being drop-in GUI editor. For eye-candies I’m considering doing smooth scrolling and overlays with shadows, maybe some stuff around line glyph renders.

On usable features side I was thinking about window splits and maybe sending Cmd key as additional binding or Ctrl+Alt+Shift, I’ll see how Kakoune backend reacts, but nothing else.

Main feature is that I can double-click a file and Kakoune appears 😄

Repo at GH: exlee/kakvide

I screwed up with CI setup, and no releases yet, but artifacts are here for download:  
github @ exlee/kakvide/actions/runs/28752325328 (can’t post a link to GH for some reason)

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**Author:** ![alexblanc1](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/alexblanc1/32/1662_2.png) [@alexblanc1](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/alexblanc1)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 1:48pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/kakoune-gui-inspired-by-neovide/2939/2 "2026-08-19T13:48:47Z")

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I starred your repo some days ago but i didn’t understand how to use it but now i know so thanks!