This post is the README from qw, synced from GitHub. Click the project card on the Projects page to open the repo.

📝 qw — Tiny Terminal Editor

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Quick Writer (qw) — a short, fast, single-file terminal text editor written in Python using prompt_toolkit. Perfect for super quick edits in the terminal! ⚡

✨ Features

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• 🐍 Single-file Python script, no extra config files
• 🖱 Mouse / trackpad scrolling supported
• 📊 Status bar always shows available shortcuts
• 💨 Super fast, minimal finger movement
• 🎢 Custom Themes and Built in ones

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

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🍠 Yaml Config

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You can use, Diffrent themes that are built in, like; Dracula, Monokai, Gruvbox, nord, and my fav Tokyo-night! Also, you can customize anything that you would like such as, Text Color, BG Color, Frame Color, Scrollbar color and even more!

Full list of Things you can Cusomize,

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     "text": "#f8f8f2",
    "text_bg": "#282a36",
    "line_numbers": "#6272a4",
    "line_numbers_bg": "#282a36",
    "cursor_line": "#44475a",
    "scrollbar_bg": "#21222c",
    "scrollbar": "#6272a4",
    "frame_border": "#6272a4",
    "frame_title": "#bd93f9",
    "status_bar": "#f8f8f2",
    "status_bar_bg": "#44475a",
    "prompt": "#50fa7b",
    "prompt_bg": "#282a36",

(Also defualt theme colors)

🚀 Usage

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New untitled buffer

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qw

Opens a new untitled file (e.g., Untitled1, Untitled2, …) 🆕 Open existing file

qw <filename>

If the file exists → opens it 📂

If the file doesn’t exist → prompts to create it ❓

Explicit open:

qw open

Same behavior as above ✅ Create a new file (explicit)

qw new <filename>

Prompts if the file already exists ⚠️

💻 Installation & 🔹 Dependencies

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``

• Python 3.7+ 🐍

• prompt_toolkit Python module ✨

• Git (optional, for cloning repo) 🛠️

🪟 Windows (Git Bash)

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`` Install [Python 3] and [Git].

`` Open Git Bash.

`` Install prompt_toolkit:

python3 -m pip install --upgrade prompt_toolkit

Put qw somewhere in your PATH, for example:

mkdir -p /c/Users/<YourName>/bin
mv qw /c/Users/<YourName>/bin/qw
chmod +x /c/Users/<YourName>/bin/qw

Run:

qw

🍎 macOS

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`` Install Python 3 (via Homebrew brew install python or python.org).

`` Install dependency:

python3 -m pip install --upgrade prompt_toolkit

Move qw into

~/.local/bin

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(or another folder in PATH):

mv ~/Downloads/qw ~/.local/bin/qw
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/qw

Ensure

~/.local/bin is in PATH:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Run:

qw

🐧 Linux (Debian/Ubuntu example)

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`` Install Python 3 if missing:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y python3 python3-pip

Install dependency:

python3 -m pip install --upgrade prompt_toolkit

Move qw into

~/.local/bin:

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mv ~/Downloads/qw ~/.local/bin/qw
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/qw

Ensure

  ~/.local/bin

is in PATH:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Run:

qw

📝 Notes & Tips

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Prompts like This file does not exist. Create it? (y/N) happen before opening the editor. Cancel with Ctrl+C.

Inside the editor: Esc or Ctrl+D exits immediately without saving.

Ctrl+S saves (asks for filename if untitled).

Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows terminals.

Single-file and portable — ideal for quick edits.

❤️ Contributing

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PRs and issues welcome! If you want UX tweaks (in-editor prompts, unsaved * indicator, config options), open an issue or PR.