Is there a way to bind insert mode key-press to a command?

[rkshthrmsh]

I am attempting to remap [<space> in normal mode to insert space before the cursor / selection. I also want to remap add_newline_above to [n. The second part is straightforward enough, but how can the first one be done? Here's my attempt:

[keys.normal."["]
space = ["insert_mode", <???>, "normal_mode"]
n = "add_newline_above"

[the-mikedavis]

This would be covered by macro keybinding in the future: #1383. With that feature implemented, the middle command would be "@<space>" (@ meaning that the command is a macro and <space> to insert the space).

[Omnikar]

I was going to mention the workaround using :insert-output echo …, but it seems that due to a limitation in the way Helix parses shell commands, it's not really possible to pass a space as an argument, i.e. :insert-output echo -n ' ' doesn't work.

[the-mikedavis]

Looks like shellwords are eating the single quotes, you might be able to just escape them: :insert-output echo -n \' \'

[Omnikar]

Oh, that worked. But I also tried it as a keybind config and it seems it actually works as you'd expect for that. I'll make a new answer suggestion with that then.

[Omnikar]

Definitely look at what @the-mikedavis said, but here's a workaround:

space = ":insert-output echo -n ' '"

[rkshthrmsh]

@Omnikar and @the-mikedavis, (a bit late, but) it looks like :insert-output echo -n ' ' is inserting -n and a space. This is happening even from the command mode within helix.

[Omnikar]

Try :insert-output printf ' ' instead