Flash motions

Flash motions (inspired by flash.nvim) enhance Vim’s built-in f, F, t, and T character search commands. When you press f{char} and multiple matches are visible, jump labels appear on every match. Press a label key to jump directly — no need to repeat ; to reach distant targets.

When only one match exists, flash behaves identically to stock Vim: the cursor jumps immediately without showing labels.

How it works

1. Press f (or F, t, T) followed by a search character.
2. If one match exists → cursor jumps directly (stock Vim behavior).
3. If a count prefix is given (e.g., 3f{char}) → jumps directly to the Nth match without labels. When the count exceeds available matches, the last match is used (Neovim parity).
4. If two or more matches exist (no count) → labels appear on all matches. Press a label key to jump.
5. Press Escape to cancel without moving.

Multi-line search

By default, flash searches the entire visible viewport — not just the current line. This means f{char} can jump to matches on other lines.

To restrict f/F/t/T to the current line (stock Vim behavior), disable multi-line in Settings → Vim Motions → Jump navigation → Flash multi-line, or:

set noflashmultiline

vim.opt.flashmultiline = false

Operator-pending mode

Flash works with operators. df{char} deletes from cursor to the target — either by autojump (single match) or label selection (multiple matches).

• df{char}{label} — delete to labeled target
• cf{char}{label} — change to labeled target
• yf{char}{label} — yank to labeled target

Info

Operator-pending flash requires the bundled fork mode (Obsidian’s built-in Vim mode disabled). With built-in Vim mode, flash works for navigation but operator-pending falls back to stock behavior.

Visual mode

vf{char}{label} extends the visual selection to the labeled target.

Repeat with ; and ,

After a flash jump, ; repeats the search forward and , repeats backward — the same as stock Vim’s character search repeat.

Jump mode (s)

Flash provides a bidirectional incremental search, bound to a configurable key (default: s). Press s then type characters — matches narrow incrementally as you type. Labels appear on matches and update in real-time. Press a label key to jump, or Enter to jump to the nearest match.

The incremental search also supports Backspace (remove last char, widen matches) and Escape (cancel).

Jump mode is disabled by default because s overrides substitute (cl) in normal mode. Enable it in Settings → Vim Motions → Jump navigation → Flash jump mode, or:

set flashjump
set flashjumpkey=s   " default key

vim.opt.flashjump = true
vim.opt.flashjumpkey = 's'

Tip

Jump mode only overrides the key in normal mode. In visual mode, s retains its default c (change selection) behavior.

Surround coexistence

When s is the jump key, it shares a key with surround operations (cs, ys, ds) in operator-pending mode. The operator-prefix shadow resolver handles this automatically: when you type c then s, the resolver waits for the next character to disambiguate between surround (cs") and flash (c + s-motion). If no key arrives within operatorshadowtimeout (default 1000ms), the flash motion executes as fallback. Set operatorshadowtimeout=0 to disable the resolver and always execute the motion immediately.

Two-character labels

When the number of matches exceeds the available label characters (default: 27), some targets receive two-character labels. Typing the first character of a two-char label narrows the displayed labels to those matching the prefix. Typing the second character completes the jump. Single-character labels still jump immediately on the first keystroke.

Clever-f

When clever-f is enabled, pressing f{char} where {char} matches the last flash search character falls through to the stock f behavior — effectively repeating the search as ; would. This avoids showing labels when you’re just continuing a search sequence.

set flashcleverf     " enable
set noflashcleverf   " disable (default)

vim.opt.flashcleverf = true

Highlight and label rendering

Flash renders two visual layers when labels are visible:

1. Match highlights — colored rectangles behind each matched text, sized to the actual character dimensions (adapts to proportional fonts, CJK, and different font sizes).
2. Labels — jump hint characters positioned immediately after the matched text, matching flash.nvim’s default behavior.

During label narrowing (typing a label prefix), match highlights persist for all targets while only labels narrow to remaining candidates. Pressing Backspace restores all labels.

Coexistence with EasyMotion

Flash and EasyMotion are independent features that work simultaneously:

• f{char} → flash (enhanced built-in motion)
• <leader><leader>f{char} → EasyMotion (explicit label-based jump)

Both share the same label characters setting.

Configuration

Configure flash in Settings → Vim Motions → Jump navigation:

Setting	Default	Description
Flash-style f/F/t/T	true	Enable flash labels on character motions.
Flash multi-line	true	Search beyond the current line.
Flash jump mode (s)	false	Bidirectional character jump with configurable key.
Flash jump key	s	Key to trigger flash jump mode.
Flash clever-f	false	Repeating f{same-char} falls through to stock f.
Flash min pattern length	1	Minimum chars before labels appear in jump mode (0 = immediate).
Flash search labels	true	Show labels on search matches after committing / or ?.
EasyMotion label characters	asdghklqwertyuiopzxcvbnmfj	Shared label characters for flash and EasyMotion.
EasyMotion dimming	true	Dim non-target text during flash and EasyMotion.
Scale labels to line height	false	Scale label font to match line font size (e.g., larger on headings).

Vimrc

set flash              " enable (default)
set noflash            " disable
set flashmultiline     " multi-line search (default)
set noflashmultiline   " current line only
set flashjump          " enable jump mode
set flashjumpkey=s     " jump mode key (default: s)
set flashcleverf       " enable clever-f
set flashminpatternlength=2  " require 2 chars before labels
set labelmatchfontsize       " scale labels to line font size
set flashsearch        " labels on /? search matches (default)

Lua

vim.opt.flash = true
vim.opt.flashmultiline = true
vim.opt.flashjump = true
vim.opt.flashjumpkey = 's'
vim.opt.flashcleverf = true
vim.opt.flashminpatternlength = 2
vim.opt.flashsearch = true
vim.opt.labelmatchfontsize = true

Search mode (/ and ?)

After committing a search with /pattern + Enter, flash labels appear on all visible matches. Press a label key to jump directly to that match — no need to cycle with n/N.

Labels auto-clear when you press any non-label key, Escape, or n/N. This means the search dialog works exactly as expected during typing; labels only appear after you commit. Two-character labels are supported — typing the first character narrows the label set instead of dismissing labels.

Disable with set noflashsearch or in Settings → Vim Motions → Jump navigation → Flash search labels.

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See also: EasyMotion for the <leader><leader> label-based motions.