Stet

A small terminal code editor for Windows.

Version 1.1.0

Windows 10/11 x64 · Rust · UTF-8

Releases · Shortcuts · Build · Configuration

Open a file, make your changes, and get back to work. Stet brings familiar shortcuts, split panes, and syntax colors to your terminal. It runs offline, without accounts, background services, or a separate application runtime.

 stet  1.1.0      main.rs *

 OPEN FILES             │ main.rs *
 › main.rs *            │  1  fn main() {
   Cargo.toml           │  2      println!("Let it stand.");
 + Open file            │  3  }
                        │

 EDIT | Ln 2, Col 5 | Rust | UTF-8 | CRLF | Spaces:4 | Modified
 ^S Save   ^O Open   ^F Find   F2 Commands   F1 Help

Interface example. Colors follow the selected theme.

The name comes from the proofreading instruction stet: "let it stand."

Features

• Multiple files with a clickable sidebar.
• Vertical and horizontal splits, up to eight panes. Views of a file share its buffer.
• Grapheme navigation, Shift selection, mouse selection, native Windows clipboard.
• Grouped typing undo, redo, auto-indent, tabs or spaces, optional line wrapping.
• Literal find, match navigation, case sensitivity, and Replace All with one undo step.
• Syntax colors for common languages, including Rust, C/C++, Python, JS/TS, JSON, TOML, HTML/CSS, and Markdown.
• Dark, light, and terminal-color themes. File paths, pane layouts, and positions restore on restart.
• Conflict checks, read-only protection, and flushed temporary-file replacement on save.

Install

Requires Windows 10/11 x64 and an interactive console. Windows Terminal is the primary target.

Download Stet-Setup-x64.exe from Releases. Run setup, then open a new terminal for PATH changes. You can also build from source.

Setup installs into C:\Program Files\Stet, adds its directory to the machine PATH, and registers an uninstaller. Setup needs elevation; Stet does not. Settings survive upgrades and uninstall.

The installer is unsigned. Verify its SHA-256 against SHA256SUMS.txt from the same release. Windows SmartScreen may warn.

Open a file

stet
stet README.md
stet "C:\Users\Example\Documents\Financial Report.txt"
stet main.cpp bookmarks.h
stet --no-restore
stet --help
stet --version

Explicit filenames replace session restoration. A new path opens an empty buffer and is created only when saved. Use -- before filenames starting with -.

In Open File, paste one path, including quotes supplied by PowerShell or Command Prompt. Terminal drag-and-drop works when the host pastes the path. Stet does not receive native drop events or execute paths.

Shortcuts

Key	Action
Ctrl+O / Ctrl+S / Ctrl+Shift+S	Open / Save / Save As
Ctrl+N / Ctrl+W / Ctrl+Q	New / Close file / Quit
Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab	Next / previous file
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y	Undo / redo
Ctrl+A / Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X / Ctrl+V	Select all / copy / cut / paste
Ctrl+F / Ctrl+H / Ctrl+G	Find / Replace All / Go to line
F3 / Shift+F3 / Alt+C	Next match / previous match / case sensitivity
Ctrl+P	Quick open under the starting directory
F2 / Ctrl+Shift+P	Command palette
Ctrl+B / F8	Toggle sidebar / focus file list
Ctrl+\ / Ctrl+Shift+\	Vertical / horizontal split
Alt+Arrow / Alt+W / Alt+1	Focus pane / close pane / single pane
Alt+Z / F6 / F7	Wrap / theme / syntax override
Alt+I / Alt+R	Full path / reload from disk
F1 / Esc	Help / cancel prompt

F2 exposes every command when a terminal intercepts a shortcut. Help and lists scroll with Up/Down. Hold Shift while using the mouse for the terminal's own selection, where supported.

Closing a modified file offers Save, Discard, or Cancel. Quitting visits each modified buffer. A conflict prompt requires explicit confirmation before replacing changed content, and checks the revision again before saving.

Configure

Files live in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Stet:

settings.json      Theme, indentation, wrapping, sidebar, restoration
keybindings.json   Command-to-key overrides
session.json       Saved paths and pane positions, never document contents

Settings are optional. Invalid files produce a notification and stay intact.

Build

Install stable Rust with the MSVC toolchain and Visual Studio C++ Build Tools with a Windows SDK.

git clone https://github.com/peeksxx/stet-editor.git
cd stet-editor
cargo build --locked --release
./target/release/stet.exe README.md

Run the source checks:

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo clippy --locked --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings
cargo test --locked --all-targets

For an installer, install Inno Setup 6.5.2 or newer:

./scripts/package.ps1 -Compiler "C:\Program Files (x86)\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe"

Installer outputs go to release. Use -OutputDirectory to choose another folder. Packaging respects CARGO_TARGET_DIR. The build needs registry access; the installed editor works offline.

Limits

• UTF-8 with or without BOM. UTF-16, invalid UTF-8, and binary files are refused. Original LF, CRLF, CR, and mixed endings are preserved; new lines use the file's first ending.
• Files are limited to 64 MiB and lines to 128 KiB. Syntax coloring stops above 1 MiB, 20,000 lines, or a 4 KiB line. Highlighting catches up incrementally after edits.
• Find is single-line literal text, with up to 10,000 non-overlapping results. Case-insensitive matching folds ASCII only. There are no regular expressions.
• Undo history keeps up to 2,000 transactions and about 128 MiB per document; older transactions expire. A single large transaction may exceed that budget.
• Quick open scans at most 10,000 directory entries, returns up to 5,000 files, skips symbolic links and common build folders, and does not scan drive roots.
• No recovery copies of unsaved text. Forced termination or power loss can lose changes. Concurrent writers can still race between the final conflict check and filesystem replacement.
• File loading and saving are synchronous. Large files or slow drives can pause the interface.
• Custom installation directories cannot contain semicolons because setup adds the directory to PATH.

License and notices

No project license has been selected. Dependency licenses are retained in third-party notices and Rust notices.

Publish a release

The version in Cargo.toml sets the editor title, command-line output, executable metadata, installer version, and build artifact name.

After committing a release version, create and push the matching tag:

git tag v1.1.0
git push origin main v1.1.0

The release workflow builds and tests that tag, then publishes the installer and checksum to GitHub Releases. A manual workflow run from a branch uploads an Actions artifact without publishing a release.