commands.md

title
Commands Overview

Commands Overview

::: tip Note This list of commands is a work in progress. :::

About Paths in Command Arguments

Some commands take paths as parameters. Among these, some support snippet-like syntax, while others don't. A command of the first kind would take a parameter like ${packages}/SomeDir/SomeFile.ext whereas a command of the second kind would take a parameter like Packages/SomeDir/SomeFile.ext.

Generally, newer commands support the snippet-like syntax.

Commands expect UNIX-style paths if not otherwise noted, including on Windows (for example, /c/Program Files/Sublime Text 3/sublime_plugin.py).

Often, relative paths in arguments to commands are assumed to start at the .

Commands

append

Inserts a string at the end of the view.

• characters (String): String to be inserted.
• force (Bool):
• scroll_to_end (Bool):

add_to_kill_ring

Add selected text to an internal buffer "kill ring" (paste it with yank).

auto_complete

Opens the auto complete list.

build

Runs a build system.

• variant (String): Optional. The name of the variant to be run.

chain

Chains multiple commands to execute together. Below are the parameters accepted by the this command.

• commands [[String, ArgsMapping]] or [[{"command": String, "args": ArgsMapping]]: The chain of commands that will be executed.

The chain command can be implemented using the below syntax:

{
  "command": "chain",
  "args": {
    "commands" : [
      ["command1", {"arg1": "value1", "arg2": "value2"}],
      ["command2", {"arg1": "value1", "arg2": "value2"}],
      ["command3", {"arg1": "value1", "arg2": "value2"}],
    ]
  }
}

The list of commands can also be replaced with an object containing the command and arguements if required demonstrated as below:

{
  "command": "chain",
  "args": {
    "commands" : [
      {"command": "command1", "args": {"arg1": "value1", "arg2": "value2"}}
      {"command": "command2", "args": {"arg1": "value1", "arg2": "value2"}}
    ]
  }
}

clear_bookmarks

If no name argument, or the name "bookmarks" is specified, it removes all bookmarks set in the current file, but not the marks. If the name "mark" is specified as an argument, it removes all marks set in the current file, but not the bookmarks.

• name (String): e.g. "mark", "bookmarks".

clear_fields

Breaks out of the active snippet field cycle.

clear_recent_files

Deletes records of recently accessed files and folders.

clear_recent_projects

Deletes records of recently accessed projects.

clone_file

Clones the current view into the same tab group, both sharing the same buffer. That means you can drag one tab to another group and every update to one view will be visible in the other one too.

close_file

Closes the active view and, under certain circumsances, the whole application.

close_folder_list

Removes all folders from the current project.

close_project

Closes the current project.

close_tag

Surrounds the current inner text with the appropiate tags.

close_window

Closes the active window.

close

Closes the active view.

commit_completion

Inserts into the buffer the item that's currently selected in the auto complete list.

context_menu

Shows the context menu.

copy

Sends the selected text to to the system clipboard.

cut

Removes the selected text and sends it to the system clipboard. Put differently, it cuts.

decrease_font_size

Decreases the font size.

delete_to_mark

Deletes the text that select_to_mark would select to an internal buffer "kill ring" (paste it with yank).

detect_indentation

Guesses the indentation from the current file.

duplicate_line

Duplicates the current line.

exec

Runs an external process asynchronously. On Windows, GUIs are supressed.

exec is the default command used by build systems, thus it provides similar functionality. However, a few options in build systems are taken care of by Sublime Text internally so they list below only contains parameters accepted by this command.

• cmd [(String)]
• shell_cmd (String): Shell command to use. If given overrides cmd and ignores shell.
• file_regex (String)
• line_regex (String)
• working_dir (String)
• encoding (String)
• env [{String: String}]
• quiet (Bool): If True no runtime information is printed if the command fails or has a non-zero exit code.
• kill (Bool): If True will simply terminate the current build process. This is invoked via Build: Cancel command from the Command Palette.
• update_phantoms_only (Bool)
• hide_phantoms_only (Bool)
• word_wrap (Bool): Whether to word-wrap the output in the build panel
• syntax (String): Syntax file used to colour output.
• path (String)
• shell (Bool)

::: info See Also exec Target options : Detailed documentation on all parameters of the exec command. :::

exit

Exits the whole application with all open windows.

expand_selection

Extends the selection up to predefined limits.

• to (Enum): Values: bol, hardbol, eol, hardeol, bof, eof, brackets, line, tag, scope, indentation.

expand_tabs

Converts tabs to spaces.

• set_translate_tabs (Bool)

find_all_under

Finds all occurrences of the current selection or the current word.

find_next

Finds the next occurrence of the current search term.

find_prev

Finds the previous occurrence of the current search term.

find_under_expand_skip

Adds a new selection based on the current selection or expands the selection to the current word while removing the current selection.

find_under_expand

Adds a new selection based on the current selection or expands the selection to the current word.

find_under_prev

Finds the previous occurrence of the current selection or the current word.

find_under

Finds the next occurrence of the current selection or the current word.

focus_group

Gives focus to the top-most file in the specified group.

• group (Int): The group index to focus. This is determined by the order of cells items from the current layout (see Window.set_layout).

fold_by_level

Scans the whole file and folds everything with an indentation level of level or higher. This does not unfold already folded regions if you first fold by level 2 and then by 3, for example. Sections with cursors are not folded.

• level (Int): The level of indentation that should be folded. 0 is equivalent to running #### unfold_all.

fold_tag_attributes

Folds all tag attributes in XML files, only leaving the tag's name and the closing bracket visible.

fold

Folds the current selection and displays … instead. Unfold arrows are added to the lines where a region has been folded.

hide_auto_complete

Hides the auto complete list.

hide_overlay

Hides the active overlay. Show the overlay using the show_overlay command.

hide_panel

Hides the active panel.

• cancel (Bool): Notifies the panel to restore the selection to what it was when the panel was opened. (Only incremental find panel.)

increase_font_size

Increases the font size.

indent

Increments indentation of selection.

insert_best_completion

Inserts the best completion that can be inferred from the current context.

• default (String): String to insert failing a best completion.

insert_snippet

Inserts a snippet from a string or .sublime-snippet file.

• contents (String): Snippet as a string to be inserted. Remember that backslashes \ have to be escaped, like in every other JSON string.
• name (String): Relative path to the .sublime-snippet file to be inserted.

::: info See Also Snippets

Documentation on snippets and their variable features. :::

insert

Inserts a string.

• characters (String): String to be inserted.

join_lines

Joins the current line with the next one.

left_delete

Deletes the character right before the caret.

lower_case

Makes the selection lower case.

move_to_group

Moves the current file to the specified group.

• group (Int): The group index to focus. See #### focus_group command.

move_to

Advances the caret to predefined locations.

• to (Enum): Values: bol, eol, bof, eof, brackets.
• extend (Bool): Whether to extend the selection. Defaults to false.

move

Advances the caret by predefined units.

• by (Enum): Values: characters, words, word_ends, subwords, subword_ends, lines, pages, stops.
• forward (Bool): Whether to advance or reverse in the buffer.
• word_begin (Bool)
• empty_line (Bool)
• punct_begin (Bool)
• separators (Bool)
• extend (Bool): Whether to extend the selection. Defaults to false.

new_build_system

Creates a new buffer and inserts a build system template.

new_plugin

Creates a new buffer and inserts a plugin template (a text command).

new_snippet

Creates a new buffer and inserts a snippet template.

new_window

Opens a new window.

next_bookmark

Select the next bookmarked region.

next_field

Advances the caret to the text snippet field in the current snippet field cycle.

next_misspelling

Advance to the next misspelling

next_result

Advance to the next captured result.

next_view_in_stack

Switches to the most recently active view.

next_view

Switches to the next view.

open_dir

Opens the specified directory with the default file manager.

• dir (String): The directory to open.

open_file_settings

Opens the syntax-specific user settings file for the current syntax.

open_file

Opens the specified file. Will dynamically open resource files from sublime-package archives as read-only if the specified override file does not exist.

• file (String): Absolute or relative path to the file to be opened. Relative paths will originate from the recently

  Expands snippet-like variables, such as $platform and $packages.

• contents (String): This string will be written to the new buffer if the file does not exist. accessed directory (e.g. the directory of the currently opened file).

open_recent_file

Opens a recently closed file.

• index (Int)

open_recent_folder

Opens a recently closed folder.

• index (Int)

open_recent_project

Opens a recently closed project.

• index (Int)

open_url

Opens the specified url with the default browser.

• url (String)

paste_and_indent

Inserts the clipboard contents after the caret and indents contextually.

paste

Inserts the clipboard contents after the caret.

• clipboard (String): May be selection. XXX what other values are allowed?

permute_lines

XXX

• operation (Enum): reverse, unique, shuffle ...?

permute_selection

XXX

• operation (Enum): reverse, unique, shuffle ...?

prev_bookmark

Select the previous bookmarked region.

prev_field

Moves the caret to the previous snippet field in the current snippet field cycle.

prev_misspelling

Move to the previous misspelling.

prev_result

Move to the previous captured result.

prev_view_in_stack

Switches to the view that was active before the most recently active view.

prev_view

Switches to the previous view.

prompt_add_folder

Prompts for a folder to add to the current project.

prompt_open_project

Prompts for a project file to open as a project.

prompt_save_as

Prompts for a new file name and saves the active file.

prompt_select_project

Opens a popup with recently accessed projects where you can fuzzy-search.

redo_or_repeat

Performs the latest action again.

redo

Reapplies the latest undone action.

refresh_folder_list

Reloads all folders in the current project and updates the side bar.

reindent

Corrects indentation of the selection with regular expressions set in the syntax's preferences. The base indentation will be that of the line before the first selected line. Sometimes does not work as expected.

reopen_last_file

Reopens the last closed file.

reopen

Reopens the current file.

• encoding (String): The file encoding the file should be reopened with.

replace_completion_with_auto_complete

XXX

replace_completion_with_next_completion

reset_font_size

Resets the font size to the default

Note: This essentially removes the entry from your User settings, there might be other places where this has been "changed".

revert

Undoes all unsaved changes to the file.

right_delete

Deletes the character right after the caret.

run_macro_file

Runs a .sublime-macro file.

• file (String): Relative path to the macro file.

run_macro

Runs the macro stored in the macro buffer.

save_all

Saves all open files.

save_macro

Prompts for a file path to save the macro in the macro buffer to.

save_project_as

Prompts for a new file name and saves the current project.

save

Saves the active file.

• encoding (String): The file encoding to save as.

scroll_lines

Scrolls lines in the view.

amount [Float]: Positive values scroll lines down (view up) and negative values scroll lines up (view down).

select_all_bookmarks

Selects all bookmarked regions.

select_all

Select the view's content.

select_bookmark

Selects a bookmarked region in the current file.

• index (Int)

select_by_index

Focuses a certain tab in the current group.

• index (Int): The tab index to focus.

select_lines

Adds a line to the current selection.

• forward (Bool): Whether to add the next or previous line. Defaults to true.

select_to_mark

Selects the text between the current position of each one of the current carets and the marked position. Each caret is matched with each mark in order of occurrence, and is moved to the beginning of its selection.

If any number of selections overlap, they are joined and, of all the carets corresponding to each one of the joined selections, only the one occurring first in the file is preserved.

If the number of current carets is less or equal to the number of marks, the remaining marks in order are ignored. Conversely, if currently there are more carets than marks, the first relevant selections are produced. Of all extra marks, those contained in the selections are removed, and the rest of them are left where they are, without triggering a selection from their position.

set_build_system

Changes the current build system.

• file (String): Path to the build system. If empty, Sublime Text tries to automatically find an appropriate build systems from specified selectors.
• index (Int): Used in the Tools | Build System menu but otherwise probably not useful.

set_layout

Changes the group layout of the current window. This command uses the same pattern as Window.set_layout, see there for a list and explanation of parameters.

set_line_ending

Changes the line endings of the current file.

• type (Enum): windows, unix, cr

set_mark

Marks the position of each caret in the current file. If any marks have already been set in that file, they are removed.

set_setting

Set the value of a setting. This value is view-specific.

• setting (String): The name of the setting to changed.
• value (*): The value to set to.

show_about_window

I think you know what this does.

show_at_center

Scrolls the view to show the selected line in the middle of the view and adjusts the horizontal scrolling if necessary.

show_overlay

Shows the requested overlay. Use the #### hide_overlay command to hide it.

• overlay (Enum): The type of overlay to show. Possible values:

  • goto: Show the Goto Anything overlay.
  • command_palette: Show the Command Palette.

• show_files (Bool): If using the goto overlay, start by displaying files rather than an empty widget.

• text (String): The initial contents to put in the overlay.

show_panel

Shows a panel.

• panel (Enum): Values: incremental_find, find, replace, find_in_files, console or output.<panel_name>.
• pattern (String): The search string/pattern to add to the Find: field. (ST 4123+)
• replace_pattern (String): The replacement string to add to the Replace: field. (ST 4123+)
• reverse (Bool): Whether to search backwards in the buffer.
• toggle (Bool): Whether to hide the panel if it's already visible.
• highlight (Bool): Whether to highlight find results. (ST 4107+)
• in_selection (Bool): Whether to search within current selection only. (ST 4107+)
• preserve_case (Bool): Whether to preserve original casing when replacing text. (ST 4107+)
• regex (Bool): Whether to perform regular expression matching. (ST 4107+)
• use_gitignore (Bool): Whether to exclude git-ignored files from find_in_files search run. (ST4107+)
• whole_word (Bool): Whether to search for whole words only. (ST4107+)
• wrap (Bool): Whether to continue search at the beginning of a document if end of file is reached. (ST4107+)

show_scope_name

Shows the name for the caret's scope in the status bar.

single_selection

Collapses multiple selections into a single selection.

slurp_find_string

Copies the current selection or word into the "find" field of the find panel.

slurp_replace_string

Copies the current selection or word into the "replace" field of the find and replace panel.

soft_redo

Redoes each action stepping through granular edits.

soft_undo

Undoes each action stepping through granular edits.

sort_lines

Sorts lines.

• case_sensitive (Bool): Whether the sort should be case sensitive.

sort_selection

Sorts lines in selection.

• case_sensitive (Bool): Whether the sort should be case sensitive.

split_selection_into_lines

Splits the selection into multiple selections, one on each line.

swap_case

Swaps the case of each character in the selection.

swap_line_down

Swaps the current line with the line below.

swap_line_up

Swaps the current line with the line above.

swap_with_mark

Marks all the current carets' positions, removes those carets, and sets new carets at the previously marked positions, if any.

switch_file

Switches between two files with the same name and different extensions.

• extensions (String): Extensions (without leading dot) for which switching will be enabled.

title_case

Capitalizes the selection's first character and turns the rest into lower case.

toggle_bookmark

Sets or unsets a bookmark for the active region(s). (Bookmarks can be accessed via the regions API using "bookmarks" as the key.)

toggle_comment

Comments or uncomments the active lines, if available.

• block (Bool): Whether to insert a block comment.

toggle_distraction_free

Toggles distraction free mode on or off.

toggle_full_screen

Toggles full screen mode on or off.

toggle_minimap

Shows or hides the minimap.

toggle_overwrite

Toggles overwriting on or off.

toggle_record_macro

Starts or stops the macro recorder.

toggle_save_all_on_build

Toggles whether all open files should be saved before starting the build.

toggle_setting

Toggles the value of a boolean setting. This value is view-specific.

• setting (String): The name of the setting to be toggled.

toggle_show_open_files

Shows ot hides the open files in the sidebar.

toggle_side_bar

Shows or hides the sidebar.

toggle_status_bar

Shows or hides the status bar.

toggle_tabs

Shows or hides the tab bar.

transpose

Makes selections or characters swap places.

With selection: The contents of the selected regions are circulated. Without selection: Swaps adjacent characters and moves the caret forward by 1.

undo

Undoes the latest action.

unexpand_tabs

Converts spaces in indentation to tabs.

• set_translate_tabs (Bool)

unfold_all

Unfolds all folded regions.

unfold

Unfolds all folded regions in the selection or the current line if there is none.

unindent

Unindents selection.

upper_case

Makes the selection upper case.

wrap_lines

Wraps lines. By default, it wraps lines at the first ruler's column.

• width (Int): Specifies the column at which lines should be wrapped.

yank

Paste text from the "kill ring" (added with add_to_kill_ring or delete_to_mark).

Discovering Commands

There are several ways to discover a command's name in order to use it as a key binding, in a macro, as a menu entry or in a plugin.

• Browsing the default key bindings at Preferences | Key Bindings - Default. If you know the key binding whose command you want to inspect, you can just search for it using the search panel. This, of course, also works in the opposite direction.

• sublime.log_commands(True)

  Running the above in the will tell Sublime Text to print the command's name in the console whenever a command is run. You can practically just enter this, do whatever is needed to run the command you want to inspect and then look at the console. It will also print the passed arguments so you can basically get all the information you need from it. When you are done, just run the function again with False as parameter.

• Inspecting .sublime-menu files. If your command is run by a menu item, browse the default menu file at Packages/Default/Main.sublime-menu. You will find them quick enough once you take a look at it, or see the menu documentation.

• Similar to menus, you can do exactly the same with .sublime-command files. See completions for some documentation on completion files.