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Editor overview

docs/guides/editor_features/overview.md

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Editor overview

This guide introduces some of marimo editor's features, including a variables panel, dependency graph viewer, table of contents, HTML export, GitHub copilot, code formatting, a feedback form, and more.

Configuration

The editor exposes of a number of settings for the current notebook, as well as user-wide configuration that will apply to all your notebooks. These settings include the option to display the current notebook in full width, to use vim keybindings, to enable GitHub copilot, and more.

To access these settings, click the gear icon in the top-right of the editor:

<div align="center"> </div>

A non-exhaustive list of settings:

Command mode

marimo distinguishes between editing cell content and working with cells at the notebook level.

Command mode lets you navigate, select, and manipulate cells rather than editing their contents.

Enter/Exit:

  • Enter command mode: Esc (from cell editor) or Ctrl+Esc/Cmd+Esc (when vim keybindings are enabled, Shift+Esc on Windows)
  • Exit command mode: Enter or click on a cell

Shortcuts:

  • ↓/↑ - navigate cells
  • Shift+↓/Shift+↑ - multi-select cells
  • Enter - edit selected cell
  • a/b - new cell above/below
  • c/v - copy/paste cells
  • s - save notebook
  • Shift+Enter - run cell and move to next
  • Ctrl/Cmd+↑ / Ctrl/Cmd+↓ - jump to top/bottom of notebook

When vim keybindings are enabled, additional shortcuts are available.

Vim keybindings

marimo supports vim keybindings that extend to notebook editing. Within cells, use standard vim modes. Press Ctrl+Esc (or Cmd+Esc on macOS, Shift+Esc on Windows) from normal mode to enter command mode for notebook navigation.

Cell editing additions:

  • gd - go to definition
  • dd - delete empty cell
  • :w - save notebook

Custom vimrc:

You can customize your vim experience by adding a .vimrc configuration in the user settings or pyproject.toml

/// tab | User config

toml
[keymap]
vimrc = "/User/absolute/path/to/.vimrc"

///

/// tab | pyproject.toml

toml
[tool.marimo.keymap]
vimrc = "relative/path/.vimrc"

///

Command mode additions:

When vim keybindings are enabled, press Ctrl+Esc (or Cmd+Esc on macOS, Shift+Esc on Windows) from normal mode to enter command mode with additional vim-specific keybindings:

  • j/k - navigate cells
  • gg/G - first/last cell
  • Shift+j/k - extend selection
  • dd - delete cell
  • yy - copy cell
  • p/P - paste below/above
  • o/O - new cell below/above
  • u - undo deletion
  • i - edit cell (i.e., return to normal mode)

Press i or Enter to return to cell editing.

marimo organizes editor tools into two areas: the sidebar on the left for everyday notebook tools (files, variables, packages, AI, documentation), and the developer panel at the bottom for debugging utilities (errors, logs, terminal, tracing).

You can customize both areas by dragging panels to reorder them or move them between sections. Toggle the sidebar with Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-S and the developer panel with Cmd/Ctrl-J.

See the Sidebar and Developer Panel guide for a complete list of available panels and customization options.

Cell actions

Click the three dots in the top right of a cell to pull up a context menu, letting you format code, hide code, send a cell to the top or bottom of the notebook, give the cell a name, and more.

Drag a cell using the vertical dots to the right of the cell.

Right-click menus

marimo supports context-sensitive right-click menus in various locations of the editor. Right-click on a cell to open a context-sensitive menu; right click on the create-cell button (the plus icon) to get options for the cell type to create.

Go-to-definition

  • Click on a variable in the editor to see where it's defined and used
  • Cmd/Ctrl-Click on a variable to jump to its definition
  • Right-click on a variable to see a context menu with options to jump to its definition

Signature hints

Signature hints show a function’s docstring above your code as you type, making it easy to recall its arguments and usage. Enable this feature under the Editor section in the Settings panel.

<div align="center"> <figure> </figure> </div>

Keyboard shortcuts

We've kept some well-known keyboard shortcuts for notebooks (Ctrl-Enter, Shift-Enter), dropped others, and added a few of our own. Hit Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-H to pull up the shortcuts.

We know keyboard shortcuts are very personal; you can remap them in the configuration.

Missing a shortcut? File a GitHub issue.

Command palette

Hit Cmd/Ctrl+K to open the command palette.

<div align="center"> <figure> <figcaption>Quickly access common commands with the command palette.</figcaption> </figure> </div>

Missing a command? File a GitHub issue.

Editor widths

You can set the width of the editor in the notebook settings:

  • Compact: A narrow width with generous margins, ideal for reading
  • Wide: A wider layout that gives more space for content
  • Full: Uses the full width of your browser window, ideal for dashboard-style notebooks
  • Multi-column: Splits your notebook into multiple columns, letting you view and edit cells side-by-side. This is only possible because marimo models your notebook as a directed acyclic graph (DAG) and the execution order is determined by the relationships between cells and their variables, not by the order of cells on the page.
<div align="center"> <figure> <figcaption>Multi-column notebook</figcaption> </figure> </div>

Share on our online playground

Get a link to share your notebook via our online playground:

<div align="center"> <figure> <video autoplay muted loop playsinline width="100%" height="100%" align="center"> <source src="/_static/share-wasm-link.mp4" type="video/mp4"> <source src="/_static/share-wasm-link.webm" type="video/webm"> </video> </figure> </div>

Our online playground uses WebAssembly. Most but not all packages on PyPI are supported. Local files are not synchronized to our playground.

Export to static HTML

Export the current view your notebook to static HTML via the notebook menu:

<div align="center"> <figure> <figcaption>Download as static HTML.</figcaption> </figure> </div>

You can also export to HTML at the command-line:

bash
marimo export html notebook.py -o notebook.html

Send feedback

The question mark icon in the panel tray opens a dialog to send anonymous feedback. We welcome any and all feedback, from the tiniest quibbles to the biggest blue-sky dreams.

<div align="center"> <figure> <figcaption>Send anonymous feedback with our feedback form.</figcaption> </figure> </div>

If you'd like your feedback to start a conversation (we'd love to talk with you!), please consider posting in our GitHub issues or Discord. But if you're in a flow state and can't context switch out, the feedback form has your back.