In an open buffer, how do you set the tabsize / tabwidth?

[chtenb]

The only thing I could find is the :indentstyle command, which let's you specify t for tabs, and a number for spaces.
But I'm looking for a way to set the width of a tab character.

[CalebLarsen]

The recommended way is via languages.toml.

Helix also supports having an .editorconfig file as a means of controlling tab width.

[chtenb]

Then it will change for all the buffers, not just the single one in which I want the tabwidth to change temporarily

[CalebLarsen]

Thank you for your patience in getting me up to speed.

I'm back at my computer and it seems that the way the code gets the tabwidth is to literally check .editorconfig, check languages.toml config, and if all else fails, set a default:

So I don't think the exact feature you've described exists at the moment.

[the-mikedavis]

Yeah this isn't possible currrently. There are a number of commands like :indent-style and :language that override config options on a document but adding commands for all options isn't practical. In the long run we need a large config refactor (#8853) to allow scoping options globally, per-language, and for individual documents

[chtenb]

Should I make an issue for this, to keep track of the request, or would that be closed in favor of a more general issue, like #8853 ?

[the-mikedavis]

I'd rather track this for all config options in #8853