# Use Skink as your $EDITOR (git, Claude Code, crontab)

> Make Skink the editor git, Claude Code, Codex, crontab and your shell open: two lines of setup, a lean mode for commit messages and rebase lists, and tabs in Skink.

Source: https://skink.cc/tools/skink-as-editor/

Two lines make Skink the editor that git, Claude Code, Codex, `crontab -e` and your shell open. When another tool hands Skink a file, it starts **lean**: just that file, open in about 2 ms.

## Set it up

1. Tell git to use Skink for commit messages, rebase lists, merges and tags:

   ```sh
   git config --global core.editor skink
   ```

2. Tell everything else, in `~/.bashrc`, `~/.zshrc` or your shell's equivalent:

   ```sh
   export EDITOR=skink VISUAL=skink
   ```

   That covers Ctrl+G in Claude Code and Codex (edit your prompt in an editor), `crontab -e`, bash and zsh `edit-command-line`, `kubectl edit` and `gh` commands that open an editor.

## The keys you need

The bottom line of a lean file shows them, so you don't have to remember anything.

| Key or command | Does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+S | Save |
| Ctrl+Q | Done. Asks first if something is unsaved |
| `:cq` (or `:cancel`) | Leave without saving and exit with status 1, so **git aborts** the commit or rebase |
| `:mode` | Say whether this is a lean file or the full editor, and why |

Commands are typed after Ctrl+E: the command line already shows the colon, so you type `cq`.

## What "lean" means

A file handed over by another tool opens with nothing else around it:

- no file tree and no project scan
- no language server and no git gutter
- no update check
- it never reads or writes your session or your recent files

So a commit message opens instantly and leaves your real editing session alone.

### Commit messages

- Rulers at 50 and 72 columns (unless you set `"rulers"` yourself).
- Lines starting with `#` are dimmed: git drops them.
- A note appears when the subject line passes 50 characters.

### Rebase lists (`git rebase -i`)

- Alt+Shift+K cycles the verb on the cursor line: pick, reword, edit, squash, fixup, drop.
- `:rebase squash` (or any verb) sets one directly.
- Alt+↑ / Alt+↓ move a commit up or down.

### Prompts and notes from AI tools

When Claude Code or Codex hands you its prompt, the file opens with Markdown colours (for `.md` files or files with no extension) and the cursor at the end, ready to type.

## How Skink decides

Skink doesn't guess from temp folders or from which program started it. It decides the way other editors do: Vim, Helix and Micro recognise git's files by name, and VS Code and Zed open a file outside any project as a single-file window. The first matching rule wins:

| Situation | Opens as |
|---|---|
| `skink --project FILE` | Full editor |
| `skink --scratch FILE` | Lean |
| git's own files: `COMMIT_EDITMSG`, `MERGE_MSG`, `TAG_EDITMSG`, `NOTES_EDITMSG`, `SQUASH_MSG` | Lean, with commit-message extras |
| `git-rebase-todo` | Lean, with rebase extras |
| `addp-hunk-edit.diff` (from `git add -p`, then `e`) | Lean, with diff colours |
| A file in no project: no `.git`, `Cargo.toml`, `package.json`, `go.mod`, `pyproject.toml` or `build.zig` above it | Lean notepad |
| A file inside a project, or a folder | Full editor |

The "file in no project" rule is what catches the temp files that AI tools, shells and `crontab` hand over.

## Inside Skink's own terminal

This is the nice part. Run `git commit` (or press Ctrl+G in Claude Code) **in a Skink terminal tab**, and the message opens as **a tab of that same Skink**, not as a second editor squeezed into the terminal.

The command waits until you close the tab, like `code --wait`, with nothing to configure:

- Ctrl+Q on the tab finishes, and the command carries on (exit 0).
- `:cq` cancels (exit 1), so git aborts.

Files that aren't handed over by a tool, like `skink notes.md` typed in that shell, open as normal tabs and the command returns at once.

**Want the old behaviour for one call?:**
Skink's terminal tabs set `SKINK_IPC` and `SKINK_IPC_TOKEN` for their shell. To edit inside the terminal instead, run `env -u SKINK_IPC skink FILE`.

## Related

- [Git in Skink](https://skink.cc/tools/git/): hunks, blame, the git panel and committing without leaving the editor.
- [AI agents](https://skink.cc/tools/ai-agents/): running Claude Code, Codex and others next to your code.
- [Every key has a typed command](https://skink.cc/editing/typed-commands/)