te is a native desktop editor written as a single C++ executable (SDL3 + OpenGL + custom editor core). It is built around a straightforward single-threaded architecture, with coroutines used for asynchronous workflows (searching, UI flows, process jobs) so behavior stays easy to reason about and debug.

The codebase includes its own:

text buffer + undo/redo engine
window/view layout system
command system + keybinding parser
fuzzy selection UI
process execution and output streaming
built-in font fallback (baked into the binary)

Highlights

VS Code-style keybindings and command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P)
Multi-cursor editing (keyboard and mouse workflows)
Fuzzy-open patterns for commands, files, and open buffers
Project-wide search (Ctrl+Shift+F) and replace-all workflow
Shell integration directly from editor input:
- :Command to run editor commands
- :Set ... to configure options and keybindings
- !cmd / !!cmd to execute shell commands
- py:... to execute Python snippets via discovered Python interpreter
Build panel integration (Ctrl+B, Alt+B, etc.) with configurable build commands
Config-driven behavior (font, colors, project commands, keymaps, paths)

Build

Linux

Requirements:

clang
cmake
libbacktrace
SDL3 (the build script can clone and install SDL when missing)

Build commands:

./build.sh           # debug build (default)
./build.sh release   # optimized build
./build.sh slow      # extra asserts/instrumentation path

Run:

./build/te
./build/te path/to/file.cpp

Windows

Use the x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for Visual Studio.

Requirements:

Visual Studio C++ toolchain (cl, msbuild)
cmake

Build commands:

build.bat
build.bat release
build.bat slow

Run:

build\te.exe
build\te.exe path\to\file.cpp

First steps in the editor

Ctrl+N: new buffer
Ctrl+O: open current file's folder / directory navigation view
Ctrl+P: fuzzy list of open buffers
Ctrl+Shift+P: all commands
Ctrl+Q or F12: open thing under caret (path / link / command)
Ctrl+F, F3, Shift+F3: in-buffer search flow
Ctrl+Shift+F: interactive search across open project buffers
Alt+Shift+Up/Down: add cursors vertically
Ctrl+B: run Build1 command (configurable)

Configuration

On startup, te loads a config file from SDL's app preference directory (config.te). You can also pass additional .te files as CLI arguments.

Useful examples:

:Set FontSize 16
:Set PathToFont '/path/to/font.ttf'
:Set Build1OnUnix 'sh build.sh release'
:Set Build1OnWindows 'build.bat release'
:Set TextColor ff202020
:Set BackgroundColor fffdf6e3

Notes on architecture

Single-threaded main loop (event/update/render)
Coroutines for async editor tasks instead of multi-threaded complexity
"Plugin" modules are integrated in the source tree and compiled in
Focus on predictable behavior and low-latency interaction