tern-omp-vimnav

Vim-style keyboard navigation of the omp chat thread in the Tern terminal.

Press Alt+K in omp and a cursor appears on the transcript itself: move block by block, open a block as text with a row and column caret, select and copy text or whole blocks, quote into the prompt, search with /, and jump to links, code blocks and buttons with Vimium-style f hints. Nothing is drawn in a separate pane, and the transcript's own layout never shifts when the cursor moves.

It works only in Tern, where omp renders its transcript natively. In any other terminal /vimnav says so and does nothing.

Requirements

• omp 18.6 or later (tested with 18.6.1)
• Tern 0.4 or later (tested with 0.4.5), with omp running directly in a Tern pane, not inside tmux, zellij or another multiplexer

Install

The repository holds two parts: the omp extension (the repository root) and a small Tern plugin (tern/) that ships the stylesheet and a palette command.

git clone https://github.com/DinMon/tern-omp-vimnav.git
omp plugin link ./tern-omp-vimnav
tern plugin install ./tern-omp-vimnav/tern

Use tern plugin link ./tern-omp-vimnav/tern instead of install to load the Tern plugin from the clone while you work on it. Then restart omp and turn vimnav on:

/vimnav on

The choice is saved in ~/.omp/agent/vimnav.json. While vimnav is on, Tern's prompt shows a quiet VIMNAV label.

Use

Key	Does
Alt+K, or /vimnav	open the navigator; Alt+K again switches between it and the prompt
j k, gg G	next / previous block, first / last
]] [[, ]t [t	your prompts, tool blocks
Ctrl+D Ctrl+U, Ctrl+F Ctrl+B	5 blocks, 10 blocks
V	select blocks
l	expand the block's hidden output, then open it as text (TEXT)
h j k l, w b e, 0 ^ $	move in TEXT
h h at a line start	back to the block view; h there collapses the block again
v or Space, V	select text, select lines; o swaps the ends
y	copy the selected text, or the selected blocks
Enter	in TEXT: copy; in the block view: expand / collapse
c	quote into the prompt
f, F	hints: jump to a block, open a link, copy code, press a button; F copies instead
/, n N	search, next / previous match; matches show in TEXT as you type, Esc goes back to where you were
?	in the block view: every key; in TEXT: search backward
za or Tab, zR zM	expand / collapse, all
zz zt	scroll the cursor block into view / to the top
i	type in the prompt while vimnav stays open; Esc comes back
Esc, q	back one step, close

Counts work on movements (5j).

Search covers the text that the TEXT view shows; lines hidden in collapsed tool output (the "57 earlier lines" kind) are searched once that block is expanded (za, or zR for all).

Tern palette

The Tern plugin adds "vimnav: open thread navigator" to the command palette (action plugin.vimnav.open). In an omp pane it also replaces Tern's built-in "Open scrollback in editor" (open_scrollback): its key or palette row opens vimnav instead, since vimnav is the way to browse omp's thread. Other panes keep the built-in.

Uninstall

omp plugin uninstall tern-omp-vimnav
tern plugin remove vimnav   # or: tern plugin unlink vimnav

How it works

omp describes each transcript block to Tern as a native node tree, and rebuilds a finished block from scratch whenever its description changes, which Tern can draw as an empty gap. vimnav therefore never rewrites omp's blocks. It overrides the transcript's block list to add invisible marker nodes next to them, and the stylesheet draws the cursor, range and scroll margins through those markers. The TEXT view is vimnav's own node, placed next to the block it shows, which is kept laid out at zero height so Tern keeps its content mounted. Hint labels are the one change made inside blocks, and only while hints are up.

License

MIT