<div align="center"> <img src="assets/neru-appicon.png" alt="Neru Logo" width="100" />

練る · Neru

Navigate your entire screen without touching the mouse.

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Neru (練る — "to refine through practice") puts your cursor anywhere on screen using only your keyboard. Click, scroll, drag — all without leaving the home row.

It's a free, open-source alternative to Homerow, Mouseless, and Wooshy. No paywalls, no subscriptions, fully configurable.

See how the author uses Neru day-to-day → HOW-I-USE-NERU.md

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Navigation modes

<table> <tr> <td align="center" width="33%"> <img src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0d46fa7c-345a-45ee-ad44-7a601c2b7cb1" alt="Recursive Grid Mode" /><br/> _{<b>Recursive Grid</b> · recommended} </td> <td align="center" width="33%"> <img src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d452f972-ce23-4798-955b-6dbfa8435504" alt="Grid Mode" /><br/> _<b>Grid</b> </td> <td align="center" width="33%"> <img src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/71b13850-1b87-40b5-9ac0-93cff1f2e89b" alt="Hints Mode" /><br/> _<b>Hints</b> </td> </tr> </table>

| Mode | How it works | Best for | | --------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | | Recursive Grid ⭐ | Divide screen into cells, narrow recursively with u/i/j/k | Everything — works in any app, any window | | Grid | Coordinate grid, jump by row + column label | Quick, coarse navigation | | Hints | Labels appear on every clickable UI element | Standard macOS apps with accessibility support | | Scroll | Vim-style j/k, gg/G, d/u | Scrolling without lifting your hands |

Recursive Grid is the recommended daily driver. It's precise, predictable, and requires no per-app setup — it just works everywhere.

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Features

• All mouse actions — left, right, and middle click; drag & drop; all key-bound
• Sticky modifiers — tap Shift or Cmd once to apply to your next click, no holding
• Per-app exclusions — opt specific apps out by bundle ID
• CLI & scripting — full IPC-based CLI for shell scripts and hotkey managers
• TOML config — every keybinding, color, and behavior in one file you can version-control

Works in native macOS apps, Electron apps (VS Code, Slack, Obsidian), all major browsers, creative tools (Figma, Illustrator), and system UI (Dock, Menubar, Mission Control). Grid and Recursive Grid need no accessibility support — they work universally.

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Installation

[!NOTE] The homebrew tap is maintained in another repo: y3owk1n/homebrew-tap If there's a problem with the tap, please open an issue in that repo or even better, a PR.

# Homebrew (recommended — gets you auto-updates)
brew tap y3owk1n/tap
brew install --cask y3owk1n/tap/neru

# Nix Flake
# inputs.neru.url = "github:y3owk1n/neru";
# See docs/INSTALLATION.md for nix-darwin / home-manager setup

# Build from source
git clone https://github.com/y3owk1n/neru.git
cd neru && just release

Then grant accessibility access: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → enable Neru.

open -a Neru              # launch
neru services install     # auto-start on login

Full walkthrough: Installation Guide →

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Default hotkeys

| Hotkey | Action | | ----------------- | ----------------- | | Cmd+Shift+C | Recursive Grid ⭐ | | Cmd+Shift+G | Grid | | Cmd+Shift+Space | Hints | | Cmd+Shift+S | Scroll | | Shift+L | Left click | | Shift+R | Right click |

All hotkeys are remappable. See Configuration Reference →

Note: Adding any custom hotkey replaces all defaults. Re-declare every hotkey you want to keep.

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Configuration

Everything lives in ~/.config/neru/config.toml — one file, plain text, dotfile-friendly.

neru config init      # generate a commented starter config
neru config validate  # check for errors
neru config reload    # hot-reload into a running daemon

Version-control it, share it, script against it. No settings GUI, no hidden state.

Full reference: Configuration Docs → · Community configs: Config Showcases →

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How Neru compares

macOS

| Tool | Approach | Price | Open Source | | -------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | -------- | ------------------ | | Neru | Hints + Grid + Recursive Grid + Scroll | Free | ✅ | | Homerow | Hints (fuzzy search + labels) | Paid | ❌ | | Wooshy | Hints (search-to-click) | Paid | ❌ | | Mouseless | Grid-based pointer control | Paid | ❌ | | Scoot | Hints + Grid + Freestyle | Free | ✅ | | Vimac | Hints + Grid | Free | ✅ ⚠️ unmaintained | | warpd | Hints + Grid + Normal | Free | ✅ ⚠️ low activity | | Shortcat | Hints (fuzzy search) | Free | ❌ discontinued |

Browser extensions

| Tool | Approach | | --------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------- | | Vimium | Hints-based link navigation | | Vimium C | Extended Vimium | | Tridactyl | Full Vim emulation in Firefox |

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Platform support

macOS is fully supported. Linux and Windows currently expose the shared architecture, ports, and stubs, but still need native implementations for core functionality. neru doctor now reports these runtime capability gaps explicitly.

| Platform | Status | | ----------- | ----------------------- | | macOS | ✅ Stable, all features | | Linux | 🔲 Foundations only | | Windows | 🔲 Foundations only |

Interested in porting? Check cross-platform issues or join the Linux discussion.

<details> <summary>Full compatibility matrix & roadmap</summary>

| Capability | macOS | Linux | Windows | | :------------------------ | :---: | :---: | :-----: | | Recursive Grid | ✅ | 🔲 | 🔲 | | Grid | ✅ | 🔲 | 🔲 | | Hints | ✅ | 🔲 | 🔲 | | Vim-Style Scrolling | ✅ | 🔲 | 🔲 | | Direct Mouse Actions | ✅ | 🔲 | 🔲 | | Global Hotkeys | ✅ | 🔲 | 🔲 | | Accessibility Integration | ✅ | 🔲 | 🔲 | | Native Overlays | ✅ | 🔲 | 🔲 |

Roadmap

• Phase 1 — macOS ✅
  • [x] Stable core architecture
  • [x] High-performance native bridge
  • [x] Full feature set
• Phase 2 — Linux
  • [ ] AT-SPI accessibility integration
  • [ ] X11/Wayland event capture
  • [ ] Native overlays
• Phase 3 — Windows
  • [ ] UI Automation (UIA) integration
  • [ ] Windows Hooks for event capture
  • [ ] Win32/WinUI overlays

</details>

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Documentation

| Guide | Contents | | ------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------- | | Installation | Homebrew, Nix, source builds | | Configuration | Every TOML option | | CLI | IPC commands and scripting | | Troubleshooting | Common issues, app-specific fixes | | Development | Architecture and build instructions | | Architecture | Porting guide and system design | | Roadmap | Current priorities and milestones |

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Contributing

The project is small and the codebase is approachable. PRs welcome.

git checkout -b feature/your-idea
just test && just lint
# open a PR

Keep PRs focused on a single change. See Coding Standards and Development Guide.

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Sponsoring

Neru is free and built entirely in my spare time. If it's replaced a paid tool in your workflow, consider sponsoring — it helps justify