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

git commit in a Skink terminal opens the message as a tab.

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

Section titled “Set it up”

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

    Terminal window
    git config --global core.editor skink

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

    Terminal window
    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

Section titled “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

Section titled “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

Section titled “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)

Section titled “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

Section titled “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

Section titled “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

Section titled “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.

Section titled “Related”