Helix Text Editor: Opening through Thunar file manager

14th Nov 2025
2 min read
Tags:
software

While I am still using the Micro text editor, I have also been testing out the Helix editor as an easier introduction (for me) to vim and Neovim.

INFO

You can use any terminal with helix, however, I am using kitty so be aware that some of the guidance below relates to kitty. I am on Sway and Hyprland.

As with the Micro text editor a couple of problems I came across were:

Right-clicking in the file manager Thunar to open a file in the Helix editor, I would get an error message "Unable to find terminal required for application".
Copying text from Helix into another application.

SOLUTION: Opening a file from Thunar into Helix

Find where helix is installed with this command:
```
sudo find /usr -type f -name hx 2>/dev/null
```
For me the file location was at /usr/lib/helix/hx
Edit the system-wide desktop entry using the text editor of your choice, e.g. nano
```
sudo nano /usr/share/applications/helix.desktop
```
Within the file find the line that starts Exec= and edit it so that it now contains the following:
```
Exec=kitty -e /usr/lib/helix/hx %F
```
NOTE
You mat need to change /usr/lib/helix/hx depending on the file location of helix.

When you have saved the file (ctrl+O and ctrl+x to exit) you can then update the desktop database:
```
sudo update-desktop-database /usr/share/applications
```
If you then reload thunar and then right-click a file → Open With → Helix, kitty should open correctly and run /usr/lib/helix/hx.

SOLUTION: Copying a piece of text from Helix into another application

As I am using Sway and Hyprland you need to ensure that wl-clipboard is installed:
```
sudo pacman -S wl-clipboard`
```
Helix uses a clipboard configuration in ~/.config/helix/config.toml. Update the file by adding the following:
```
[editor]
clipboard = "wl-clipboard"
```
This tells Helix to use wl-copy and wl-paste for clipboard operations.

The copy and paste function should now be working in Helix.