Edit Input Fields

Overview

NeoMutt has a built-in line editor for inputting text wherever you type at a prompt — for example, email addresses in header fields, filenames, search patterns, and command lines. The key bindings follow Emacs conventions.

Key Bindings

Movement

Key	Function	Description
Ctrl-A or <Home>	<bol>	Move to the start of the line
Ctrl-E or <End>	<eol>	Move to the end of the line
Ctrl-B or <Left>	<backward-char>	Move back one character
Ctrl-F or <Right>	<forward-char>	Move forward one character
Alt-B	<backward-word>	Move back one word
Alt-F	<forward-word>	Move forward one word

Deletion

Key	Function	Description
Ctrl-D or <Delete>	<delete-char>	Delete the character under the cursor
<Backspace>	<backspace>	Delete the character before the cursor
Ctrl-K	<kill-eol>	Delete to the end of the line
Ctrl-U	<kill-line>	Delete the entire line
Ctrl-W	<kill-word>	Delete the word before the cursor
Alt-d	<kill-eow>	Delete to the end of the word

Word Case

Key	Function	Description
Alt-u	<upcase-word>	Convert word to upper case
Alt-l	<downcase-word>	Convert word to lower case
Alt-c	<capitalize-word>	Capitalize the word

Miscellaneous

Key	Function	Description
Ctrl-V	<quote-char>	Quote (escape) the next typed key
Ctrl-G	n/a	Abort the current prompt or action
<Return>	n/a	Confirm / finish editing

Tab Completion

Press <Tab> to trigger completion. What gets completed depends on context:

• Filenames — completes paths in the filesystem

• Aliases — completes known address aliases

• Labels — completes mailbox labels

Press Ctrl-T to run an address query (using $query_command) and complete from the results.

History Navigation

NeoMutt keeps a separate history list for each input category (addresses, filenames, patterns, shell commands, mailboxes, config commands, and everything else). The number of history entries is controlled by $history.

Key	Function	Description
<Up>	<history-up>	Recall the previous string from history
<Down>	<history-down>	Recall the next string from history
Ctrl-R	<history-search>	Search history using the current input

NeoMutt remembers what you were typing as you cycle through history, and wraps back to your original entry.

To make history persistent across sessions, set:

set history_file = ~/.config/neomutt/history
set save_history = 100

To remove all duplicate entries (not just consecutive ones):

set history_remove_dups

Entries starting with a space are silently ignored — useful in macros to avoid polluting history with transient values.

Remapping Editor Keys

Use the :bind command with the editor map to remap any function. For example, to make <Delete> behave like <Backspace> (deleting the character before the cursor instead of under it):

bind editor <delete> backspace

Using an External Editor

Set $editor to launch an external editor for composing message bodies:

set editor = "vim"

The built-in line editor is still used for all prompt fields (To, Subject, etc.). The external editor is invoked only for the message body when composing.