Using Neru

A tour of every mode, from moving the cursor to clicking, dragging and scrolling. It takes about ten minutes. Neru should be running with its permissions granted, see Getting started.

The hotkeys below are the macOS and Windows defaults. On Linux, bind them first as in Getting started, or run the command shown next to each one, such as neru hints.

Every mode works the same way

1. Press a hotkey. An overlay appears, and Neru reads every key until you leave.
2. Type keys to pick a point. The cursor moves there.
3. Act on it. Shift+L left-clicks, Shift+R right-clicks, Shift+M middle-clicks.
4. Press Escape to leave the mode.

In hints, the grids and scroll, the arrow keys nudge the cursor 10 px, so you can correct a near miss before you click.

Hints

Primary+Shift+Space, or neru hints.

1. Press the hotkey. Every clickable element in the focused window gets a short label such as as or f.
2. Type a label. The cursor moves to that element, and fresh labels appear so you can pick again.
3. Press Shift+L to click it.

If you mistype, press Backspace. To find an element by its text instead of its label, press / and type. The [hints] default hotkeys list every key hints mode answers.

Hints read the app’s accessibility tree, so they suit native apps, browsers and Electron. If an app shows few or no hints, use a grid mode, or try another hint strategy.

Click on select. Most people want hints to click as soon as the label is typed, like Vimium. Bind hints --action left_click, as in Recipes.

Recursive grid

Primary+Shift+C, or neru recursive_grid.

1. Press the hotkey. The screen splits into a 3x3 grid, one key per cell (r t y, f g h, v b n by default).
2. Press the key for the cell that holds your target. The cursor jumps to its center and that cell splits again.
3. Repeat until the cursor is on the target, usually two or three presses.
4. Press Shift+L to click.

Backspace goes back one level, and Space starts over. Recursive grid needs nothing from the app, so it works in canvases, games and remote desktops.

Bisect

Primary+Shift+B, or neru bisect.

Bisect halves the screen instead of splitting it into cells, so there are no labels to read.

1. Press the hotkey. Neru splits the screen into four quadrants.
2. Press h, j, k or l to keep the left, bottom, top or right half, or y, u, b or n to keep a quadrant. The cursor moves to the center of what you kept.
3. Repeat until the cursor is on the target, then press Shift+L.

Backspace undoes the last cut, and Space starts over.

Grid

Primary+Shift+G, or neru grid.

1. Press the hotkey. The screen fills with labeled cells.
2. Type a cell’s label. A 3x3 subgrid opens inside it.
3. Type a subgrid key. The cursor moves there.
4. Press Shift+L to click.

Grid suits coarse jumps across large monitors. Space starts over.

Scroll

Primary+Shift+S, or neru scroll.

1. Move the cursor over the pane you want to scroll, with any mode.
2. Press the hotkey.
3. Press j and k to scroll down and up, then Escape when you are done.

The [scroll] default hotkeys list the keys for paging, jumping to the top and scrolling sideways.

More than a left click

These work in every mode except monitor select, which only picks a display.

Double and triple click. Bind a chain, such as "Ctrl+Enter" = "action left_click,left_click". See Recipes.

Drag. Move to the start point, press Shift+I to hold the left button, move to the end point with the same mode or the arrow keys, then press Shift+U to release. Leaving the mode releases any held button. Right and middle drag are in Recipes.

Sticky modifiers. Tap Cmd, Ctrl, Alt or Shift on its own inside a mode. It stays held, shown next to the cursor, for every following click and scroll, so Cmd then Shift+L is a Cmd-click. Tap it again to release it. See [sticky_modifiers].

Glide. With [held_repeat] enabled = true, holding an arrow key glides the cursor smoothly instead of stepping, and accel_enabled = true speeds it up the longer you hold. See [held_repeat].

Several monitors

Hints and grids draw on the monitor under the cursor. To jump to another monitor, enable monitor select and bind it:

[monitor_select]
enabled = true

[hotkeys]
"Primary+Shift+M" = "monitor_select"

Each display shows a number. Type one and the cursor moves there.

Next steps

• Configuring Neru: where the config lives and how to apply changes.
• Recipes: ready-made bindings, such as click on select and restoring the cursor after a click.
• How bindings work: what a binding can run, and which one wins inside a mode.