Tools

bspwm window manager

Tiling with nothing extra: nine desktops, a 2-pixel border, no gaps, focus by keyboard only — the mouse doesn't steal a window just because you move the pointer across it.

##Main settings
bspc config border_width         2
bspc config window_gap           0
bspc config split_ratio          0.50
bspc config borderless_monocle   true
bspc config gapless_monocle      true
bspc config single_monocle       false
bspc config focus_follows_pointer false

Some windows live on pinned desktops in monocle layout — no need to hunt for them, they are always where you left them:

bspc rule -a 'KeePassXC:*:*' -o desktop='^4' & bspc desktop '^4' -l monocle &
bspc rule -a 'Telegram:*:*'  -o desktop='^6' & bspc desktop '^6' -l monocle &
bspc rule -a 'signal:*:*'    -o desktop='^9' & bspc desktop '^9' -l monocle &

On a cold start (when the tree holds no windows at all) the session brings up the browser on the first desktop and a terminal on the second, plus the network, bluetooth and syncthing applets. The keyboard layout is set in the same place: us,ru, switched with Alt+Shift, and Caps Lock given over to Ctrl.

setxkbmap -layout "us,ru" -option "grp:alt_shift_toggle,ctrl:nocaps"

sxhkd hotkeys

One daemon for every key, both window and system ones. 194 lines, half of which are written as ranges like super + {_,shift + }{h,j,k,l} — which is why the table below is shorter than the config.

Windows and desktops

Launching and system

One small thing on the side — disable paste on middle click, so a stray click doesn't drop the buffer into the text:

# disable paste clipboard on middle mouse click
~button2
    echo -n | xsel -in

neovim editor

Config in lua, lazy.nvim as the plugin manager, a five-line entry point:

require("mappings")
require("lazy-loader")
require("configs")
require("langmap")
require("autocmd")

Leader is space. Plugins: telescope with fzf-native, neo-tree, harpoon, treesitter, nvim-cmp with LuaSnip, lspconfig under mason, conform for formatting, nvim-dap with its ui and the python adapter, neotest, gitsigns, lazygit, hop, mini.nvim, snacks and noice. The colorscheme is nightfox, the statusline is lualine.

Cyrillic layout inside vim

The most useful piece here is langmap. Commands work in Cyrillic too, so there is no need to switch the keyboard layout just to press dd:

local en = [[`qwertyuiop[]asdfghjkl;'zxcvbnm]]
local ru = [[ёйцукенгшщзхъфывапролджэячсмить]]

vim.opt.langnoremap = true
vim.opt.langmap = vim.fn.join({ ... }, ',')

On top of that sits langmapper.nvim, which fixes plugin hotkeys with the same trick.

Small habits baked into the fingers

A nice touch on the side: qmk.nvim is wired up for devicetree files and formats the ZMK keymap on a 12×3+6 grid — so the keyboard from the next section is edited right here, and the binding table aligns itself to the physical keys.

Corne split keyboard 42 keys, ZMK

A 42-key split keyboard: two halves, wireless, running ZMK. The firmware is built by GitHub Actions straight from the config repository — you edit corne.keymap, push, and pick the uf2 up from the artifacts.

Layers

Home row mods

The whole home row is mod-tap: tap for the letter, hold for the modifier. The layout mirrors across the two halves: the index finger holds shift, the middle one ctrl, the ring finger alt and the pinky gui. So F and J are shift, D and K are ctrl, and so on.

quick_tap_ms = 220 is there so that repeating a letter doesn't turn into a held Ctrl:

&lt { quick_tap_ms = <220>; };
&mt { quick_tap_ms = <220>; };

Combos

Brackets are not on a layer — they are pressing two neighbouring keys at once. A 50 ms window plus 125 ms of required idle time before the combo, otherwise fast typing would trigger them by accident.

combo_paren_l { bindings = <&kp LPAR>; key-positions = <26 27>; };
combo_paren_r { bindings = <&kp RPAR>; key-positions = <27 28>; };
combo_bracket_l { bindings = <&kp LBKT>; key-positions = <31 32>; };
combo_brace_l   { bindings = <&kp LBRC>; key-positions = <7 8>; };
…
COMBO_TIMEOUT      = 50 ms
COMBO_IDLE_TIMEOUT = 125 ms

Thumbs and macros

Six thumb keys, all of them layer-tap or mod-tap: tab/numeric, space/shift, enter/fn on the left, esc/fn, bspc/shift, del/numeric on the right.

Two macros survive: accent adds a stress mark to the previous letter (combining U+0301 via Ctrl+Shift+U), and shiftalt fires Alt+Shift with a single key to switch layouts in X. There are no dedicated shift and alt keys in the keymap — both modifiers exist only as the hold half of a mod-tap, and pressing the two on their own, without typing anything, is awkward.

The display and layer status are on, RGB is not, sleep is disabled: CONFIG_ZMK_DISPLAY=y, CONFIG_ZMK_SLEEP=n. The keymap can also be edited visually, through keymap-editor.