Editing items

Creating an item

Press a in the list. A small menu asks for the type: l login, n secure note, c card, i identity or s SSH key. The new item starts in the folder you are looking at.

Opening the editor

e (or i) on an item opens it in the editor. The form replaces the list and detail panes. On a wide terminal it has two columns: credentials and options on the left, websites, custom fields and notes on the right.

The editor works like Vim, with two modes.

In NORMAL mode you move between fields:

• j and k go down and up. They walk the whole left column first, then the right one.
• h and l jump to the other column, to the field at the same height.
• gg and G go to the first and last field.

In INSERT mode you type into the field under the cursor:

• i starts typing at the cursor, a after it, I at the start and A at the end.
• cc (or S) clears the field and starts typing.
• Esc goes back to NORMAL.
• Tab and Shift-Tab move to the next and previous field without leaving INSERT.

Inside a field you have the usual editing keys: Backspace, Delete, the arrows, Home, End, Ctrl-w to delete a word and Ctrl-u to delete to the start. Pasting works as well.

Fields with choices

Some fields offer a fixed set of values, like the folder, a card’s brand or a website’s match type. Ctrl-a and Ctrl-x step through the choices, and Enter opens a list to pick from. Checkboxes such as Favorite toggle with Enter.

Lists of websites and custom fields

On a website or custom field, o adds a new one below and O above, and dd removes it. The “+ Add website” and “+ Add custom field” rows do the same with Enter.

Generating a password

Ctrl-g opens the password generator over the form. Adjust the options as on the generator tab, press r for another password, then Enter to put it in the password field, or Esc to cancel. If the cursor is on another hidden field, the password goes there instead.

Using your own editor

Ctrl-e opens the notes in $VISUAL or $EDITOR (or the command in editor.command). Save and quit the editor to bring the text back into the form. On an SSH key’s private key field, Ctrl-e edits the key instead, and lazybw checks that what you saved is a valid key.

gE opens the whole item as JSON, for changes the form cannot make.

The text is written to a temporary file in $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/lazybw, readable only by you, and lazybw overwrites and deletes it as soon as the editor exits. For Vim, Neovim, Emacs and micro, lazybw also switches off swap, undo, backup and history files, so no copy of the secret is left elsewhere on disk.

Saving and closing

When there are unsaved changes, closing asks “Save changes to …?”. Answer y to save, n to discard or c to stay in the editor. The title shows [+] while the item has unsaved changes.

u undoes the last change and Ctrl-r redoes it. As in Vim, everything you type between i and Esc counts as one change. When you undo back to the last saved state, the [+] disappears. :e! reloads the item as it is on the server.

Each save is also one step in the vault’s undo history: after closing the editor, u in the list puts the item back as it was before the save.

If someone changes the same item elsewhere (in the browser extension, for instance) while you edit it, lazybw shows a banner. Saving then keeps your version.