Getting Started

Five minutes from install to editing. Let's go.

Install

Pre-release notice: Minga hasn't cut a release yet. For now, you need to build from source. Homebrew and pre-built binaries are coming soon.

From source

You'll need Erlang, Elixir, and Zig. A version manager like asdf or mise makes this painless:

# Install plugins if you don't have them
asdf plugin add erlang
asdf plugin add elixir
asdf plugin add zig

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/jsmestad/minga.git
cd minga
asdf install          # Installs pinned versions from .tool-versions
mix deps.get
mix compile           # Builds both Elixir and Zig

The first build takes a few minutes (Zig compiles tree-sitter grammars for 24 languages). After that, rebuilds are fast.

After release (coming soon)

Once releases ship, installation will be simpler:

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install jsmestad/minga/minga

# Or download a binary from GitHub Releases
# https://github.com/jsmestad/minga/releases

Launch

bin/minga                  # Empty buffer
bin/minga path/to/file     # Open a file
bin/minga lib/ test/       # Open multiple files or directories

Your first 30 seconds

Minga is a modal editor. If you've used Vim or Neovim, you're home. If you haven't, here's the short version: you're always in one of two modes.

Normal mode is for navigating and running commands. You move with h/j/k/l, delete with dd, search with /. You can't type text here.

Insert mode is for typing. Press i to enter it, Esc to leave.

That's the whole mental model. Normal mode is your command center. Insert mode is your typewriter. Everything else builds on top of these two.

The Space leader (your command menu)

Here's the trick that makes Minga discoverable: press Space in Normal mode.

A popup appears showing every command, organized by mnemonic prefix. You don't memorize anything. You read the menu, press the next key, and the popup narrows down. Space then f shows file commands. Space then b shows buffer commands.

A few to try right now:

After a few sessions, these become muscle memory. The popup is always there when you forget.

Configure it

Minga reads ~/.config/minga/init.exs on startup. It's plain Elixir:

use Minga.Config

set :theme, :catppuccin_mocha
set :relative_number, true
set :tab_width, 2

You don't need to know Elixir to write config. It's set :option, value for everything. The Configuration guide has the full list of options. Start with just a theme and line numbers; you can always add more later.

Talk to an AI agent

Minga has a built-in AI coding agent. Toggle the panel with SPC a a, or open a full-screen agent view with SPC a t.

You'll need an API key. The quickest way is to set it in the agent chat:

/auth anthropic sk-ant-your-key-here

Or add it to your config for all sessions:

# In ~/.config/minga/init.exs
set :agent_provider, :native
set :agent_model, "anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-20250514"

Type a prompt, press Enter. The agent reads, edits, and creates files in your project. You review every change as an inline diff before it hits disk.

Useful slash commands:

Where to go from here

You're up and running. Here's what to read based on what you care about:

"I want to customize things." Read the Configuration guide. It covers themes, keybindings, per-filetype options, and hooks.

"How does this thing actually work?" The Architecture doc explains the two-process design and why the BEAM matters.

"I'm coming from Neovim/Emacs." The Neovim and Emacs migration guides explain what's the same, what's different, and what's better.

"I use AI coding tools." Read For AI-Assisted Developers. It covers why Minga's architecture matters for agentic workflows and how it compares to what you're using today.

"I want to contribute." The Contributing guide has the build-from-source setup, testing, and how to add new commands and motions.