cheat sheets / editors
Vim, VS Code & tmux Cheat Sheets
Shortcut references for the tools you spend the most hours in, plus the thing that actually makes Vim click: it is a grammar, not a list of keys to memorize.
You spend more hours in your editor than in any other piece of software, so shortcuts pay compound interest. Every one you internalize saves a second or two, thousands of times over. The catch is that most people try to learn them as a flat list, get overwhelmed around item forty, and give up. The references below are the good ones, and the sections after them cover the structure that makes each tool learnable in far fewer keystrokes than the sheets suggest.
01 · THE REFERENCES
Vim, VS Code & tmux
The keystrokes that make you faster. The VS Code sheet is Microsoft's own printable card, and Devhints covers the other two.
- Vim Cheat Sheet ↗Motions, operators, registers, and modes — the reference that finally makes Vim make sense.devhints.io
- VS Code Shortcuts (official PDF) ↗Microsoft's printable keyboard-shortcut reference for the most popular editor. (Windows edition; macOS and Linux versions linked alongside.)code.visualstudio.com
- tmux Cheat Sheet ↗Sessions, windows, panes, and key bindings for the terminal multiplexer that keeps your work alive across disconnects.devhints.io
02 · VIM
Vim is a grammar, not a keyboard shortcut list
This is the insight that turns Vim from intimidating into learnable. Commands compose like a sentence: an operator says what to do, and a motion says where. Delete plus word deletes a word. Change plus word changes it. The same operator combines with any motion, so learning five operators and eight motions gives you forty combinations without memorizing forty things. A count can be added in front, and text objects let you act on structures like the inside of quotes or brackets rather than raw distances.
Modes are the other half. Normal mode is the default, where keys are commands rather than text. Insert mode types characters. Visual mode selects. Most beginner frustration comes from typing in the wrong mode, and the fix is a habit rather than knowledge: return to normal mode whenever you pause. Once composition and modes are clear, a cheat sheet becomes genuinely useful, because you are looking up vocabulary for a grammar you already speak.
03 · VS CODE
One shortcut matters more than the rest
The command palette is the shortcut worth learning first, because it makes the others optional. It searches every command by name, shows the key binding beside each one, and works for things that have no binding at all. Instead of memorizing a card, you type roughly what you want and read the shortcut off the result. People who learn shortcuts this way pick them up in the order their own work demands, which is why the ones they know actually stick.
After that, the highest-value bindings are the navigation ones: jumping to a file by name, jumping to a symbol, and going to a definition and back. Editing shortcuts feel more impressive but save less time than moving around a codebase quickly does. Multi-cursor editing is the exception worth deliberate practice, because it replaces a surprising number of tasks people reach for a regular expression to do.
04 · TMUX
Work that survives a dropped connection
tmux solves a specific problem: a long-running task over SSH dies when the connection drops. With tmux the session lives on the remote machine rather than in your terminal, so you can detach deliberately, close your laptop, and reattach later with everything still running. For anyone who works on remote servers, that alone justifies learning it.
Its whole design rests on the prefix key. Almost every tmux command is the prefix followed by another key, which keeps tmux out of the way of the programs running inside it. Once that is clear, the hierarchy is simple: a session contains windows, and a window contains panes. Detaching and reattaching, creating a window, and splitting a pane cover the large majority of real use.
05 · FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Are these editor cheat sheets free?
Yes. The VS Code shortcut card is published by Microsoft, and the Vim and tmux sheets are free pages on Devhints. None of them require an account.
Is Vim still worth learning?
It is worth knowing enough to edit files confidently, because Vim is present on essentially every Unix server and is often the only editor available when you are fixing something remotely. Whether to adopt it as your main editor is a separate question of preference, and many people use Vim keybindings inside another editor instead.
What is the fastest way to learn Vim?
Learn the composition rule rather than a list of keys. Commands combine an operator with a motion, so a handful of each produces dozens of combinations without memorizing them individually. Adding the repeat command and confidence in undo covers most day-to-day editing.
Which VS Code shortcuts should I learn first?
The command palette, because it lists every command with its key binding and removes the need to memorize a card. After that, the navigation shortcuts for jumping to a file, jumping to a symbol, and going to a definition save more time than editing shortcuts do.
Why use tmux instead of just opening more terminal tabs?
Because a tmux session runs on the remote machine rather than in your local terminal, so work survives a dropped SSH connection. You can detach, close your laptop, and reattach later with long-running tasks still going, which terminal tabs cannot do.