# ardagnir/athame

Full vim for your shell (bash, zsh, gdb, python, etc)

Repository: https://github.com/ardagnir/athame
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/athame
Language: C
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: vim-mode, readline, zsh
Last push: 2023-11-01T19:01:17+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4308, "days_push": 1036, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1654, forks 37 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:17.767524+00:00)

## What it is
Athame patches readline and zsh to route shell keystrokes through a real Vim process, giving full Vim editing in bash, gdb, python, and other readline-based programs. It is written in C and requires Vim 8+ or Neovim.

## Use cases
- use full vim keybindings in my bash shell
- edit shell commands with real vim instead of vi-mode
- get vim editing in gdb and python REPL
- patch zsh with full vim support
- make readline use an actual vim process

## When to choose
- you are a heavy Vim user who wants complete modal editing in the shell
- you want vim editing across many readline-based programs like gdb and python
- you find built-in shell vi-mode too limited

## When to avoid
- you only need basic vi-mode keybindings
- you use Windows without WSL or a non-GNU/Linux primary environment
- you cannot install patched readline/zsh or lack Vim 8+/Neovim

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: developer-tools, terminal-ui, plugin-system
- domain: developer-tools, text-editors
- platform: cli, c
- tags: vim, readline, zsh, shell, modal-editing, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- ardagnir/athame (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:17.767524+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:44:55.014505+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ardagnir/athame (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:17.767524+00:00, sha 56c29246b680)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.