Neon Vision Editor

A lightweight, modern editor focused on speed, readability, and automatic syntax highlighting.

Minimal by design: quick edits, fast file access, no IDE bloat.

Release Download: GitHub Releases

Status: active release
Latest release: v0.4.13 Platform target: macOS 26 (Tahoe) compatible with macOS Sequoia Apple Silicon: tested / Intel: not tested

Download

Prebuilt binaries are available on GitHub Releases.

• Latest release: v0.4.13
• TestFlight beta: Join here
• Architecture: Apple Silicon (Intel not tested)
• Notarization: is finally there

Getting Started (30 Seconds)

1. Install using curl or Homebrew (below), or download the latest .zip/.dmg from Releases.
2. Move Neon Vision Editor.app to /Applications.
3. Launch the app.
4. Open a file with Cmd+O.
5. Use Cmd+P for Quick Open and Cmd+F for Find & Replace.
6. Toggle Vim mode with Cmd+Shift+V if needed.

Install

Quick install (curl)

Install the latest release directly:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/h3pdesign/Neon-Vision-Editor/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Install without admin password prompts (user-local app folder):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/h3pdesign/Neon-Vision-Editor/main/scripts/install.sh | sh -s -- --appdir "$HOME/Applications"

Homebrew

brew tap h3pdesign/tap
brew install --cask neon-vision-editor

Tap repository: h3pdesign/homebrew-tap

If Homebrew asks for an admin password, it is usually because casks install into /Applications. Use this to avoid that:

brew install --cask --appdir="$HOME/Applications" neon-vision-editor

Gatekeeper (macOS 26 Tahoe)

If macOS blocks first launch:

1. Open System Settings.
2. Go to Privacy & Security.
3. In Security, find the blocked app message.
4. Click Open Anyway.
5. Confirm the dialog.

Features

• Fast loading for regular and large text files.
• Tabbed editing with per-file language support.
• Automatic syntax highlighting for many languages and formats.
• Optional support purchase flow (StoreKit 2) in Settings. (NEW in v0.4.5)
• Cross-platform theme settings panel with improved settings organization. (NEW in v0.4.5)
• Inline code completion with Tab-to-accept ghost suggestions.
• Starter templates for all languages with one-click insert.
• Document-type handling for .plist, .sh, and general text so Finder/iOS can route those files straight into the editor.
• Toolbar Map card in the welcome tour now scales to fill a taller inner frame, keeping the button cards inside the border.
• Regex Find/Replace with Replace All.
• Project tree sidebar plus Quick Open (Cmd+P).
• Optional Vim mode (basic normal/insert workflow).
• Multi-window workflow with focused-window commands.
• Native Swift/AppKit editor experience.
• No telemetry.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+N	New Window
Cmd+T	New Tab
Cmd+O	Open File
Cmd+S	Save
Cmd+W	Close Tab
Cmd+P	Quick Open
Cmd+F	Find & Replace
Cmd+Shift+V	Toggle Vim Mode
Cmd+Option+S	Toggle Sidebar
Cmd+Option+L	Toggle Line Wrap
Cmd+Shift+D	Toggle Brain Dump Mode
Tab	Accept code completion (when shown)

Changelog

v0.4.13 (summary)

• Added scripts/run_selfhosted_notarized_release.sh helper to trigger/watch the self-hosted notarized release workflow and verify uploaded assets.
• Hardened updater repository-source validation to accept both github.com/{owner}/{repo} and GitHub REST API paths (api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}).
• Improved updater behavior in local Xcode/DerivedData runs by disabling automatic install/relaunch in development runtime.
• Fixed update dialog failures caused by over-strict GitHub release-source path validation.
• Fixed startup reliability by removing eager Keychain token reads/migration on launch paths and treating missing-keychain datastore statuses as non-fatal token-missing cases.

v0.4.12 (summary)

• scripts/release_all.sh now accepts notarized as a positional alias, so scripts/release_all.sh v0.4.12 notarized works directly.
• Hosted notarized release workflow now enforces Xcode 17+ to preserve the Tahoe light/dark AppIcon.icon pipeline.
• Release asset verification now runs in strict iconstack mode to ensure published assets contain AppIcon.iconstack.
• Removed Xcode 16 fallback icon-copy path that could produce Sequoia/non-light-dark icon payloads in release assets.

v0.4.11 (summary)

• ExpressionEngine language support in the editor language set.
• Plain text drag-and-drop support so dropped string content opens correctly in the editor.
• Release/docs metadata with TestFlight beta link surfaced in project documentation and download guidance.
• Release pipeline compatibility for hosted environments with Xcode 16 fallback handling.
• Notarized release publishing now hard-fails when icon payload validation fails, preventing bad assets from being published.

Full release history: CHANGELOG.md

Known Limitations

• Intel Macs are not fully validated.
• Vim support is intentionally basic (not full Vim emulation).
• iOS/iPad editor functionality is still more limited than macOS.

Privacy & Security

• Privacy policy: PRIVACY.md.
• API keys are stored in Keychain (SecureTokenStore), not UserDefaults.
• Network traffic uses HTTPS.
• No telemetry.
• External AI requests only occur when code completion is enabled and a provider is selected.
• Security policy and reporting details: SECURITY.md.

Release Integrity

• Tag: v0.4.13
• Tagged commit: TBD
• Verify local tag target:

git rev-parse --verify v0.4.13

• Verify downloaded artifact checksum locally:

shasum -a 256 <downloaded-file>

Requirements

• macOS 26 (Tahoe)
• Xcode compatible with macOS 26 toolchain
• Apple Silicon recommended

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/h3pdesign/Neon-Vision-Editor.git
cd Neon-Vision-Editor
open "Neon Vision Editor.xcodeproj"

Git hooks

To auto-increment Xcode CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION on every commit:

scripts/install_git_hooks.sh

Support

If you want to support development:

• Patreon
• My site h3p.me

License

Neon Vision Editor is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.