Show HN: Grass – a zero-config terminal text editor with no plugins

A calm, zero-config terminal code editor.

Nano starts instantly but stays plain. Vim and Helix are powerful, but they ask you to learn an editing language first. Grass sits between them: one mode, one theme, syntax highlighting, and about 1,700 lines of Python you can read in an afternoon.

It is not a Vim replacement. No plugins, no LSP, no mouse. One file at a time, on purpose.

pipx install grass-editor

No pipx? pip install grass-editor also works. On Windows, install curses support first:

pip install windows-curses pip install grass-editor

Python 3.9 or newer.

grass hello.py

With no file, grass opens the splash. grass --version prints the version.

Splash Ctrl-P finder

One theme, Meadow: warm off-white text, green keywords, gold functions, a dark status bar. It assumes a dark 256-color terminal; basic colors fall back.

Key Action

type edit

arrows, Home, End, PageUp, PageDown move

Enter new line, with auto-indent

Tab indent to the next tab stop

Backspace, Delete delete

Ctrl-F find as you type

Ctrl-P fuzzy file finder

Ctrl-O open by path

Ctrl-K cut line

Ctrl-U paste line

Ctrl-S save (asks for a name if new)

Ctrl-Z undo

Ctrl-R redo

Ctrl-Q quit

Notes

Always in typing mode, like nano.

Tabs are preserved and shown at 4-column stops.

A file without a trailing newline stays that way. The status bar says no newline.

Large files re-highlight fully on every edit. Normal files stay fast.

Wide characters (CJK) and long wrapped lines are not fully supported yet.

Development

git clone https://github.com/mukundzha/grass.git cd grass pip install -e . python tests/run_tests.py

Tests are plain functions with a small custom runner. CI runs on Python 3.9 through 3.13.