A lot of people have been mapping jk or kj or kk to ESC in order to escape insert mode quickly. However, when we press the first key in these mappings, Vim will wait for timeoutlen milliseconds before writing this char to buffer. The apparent lag caused by this behaviour is annoying.

Better-escape.vim is a plugin to help Vim/Nvim users escape from insert mode quickly using their customized key combinations, without experiencing the lag.

Use your favorite plugin manager to install it:

• Use vim-plug: Plug 'jdhao/better-escape.vim'
• Use dein: call dein#add('jdhao/better-escape.vim')

The default shortcut for leaving insert mode is jk: first press j, then quickly press k, you will leave insert mode.

By default, the time interval threshold between pressing j and k is set to 150 ms. That is, if the time interval between pressing of k and j is above the threshold, jk will be inserted literally. Otherwise, we assume you want to leave insert mode. The time interval can be customized via option g:better_escape_interval:

" set time interval to 200 ms
let g:better_escape_interval = 200

If you want to use other shortcut, you can customize via option g:better_escape_shortcut:

" use jj to escape insert mode.
let g:better_escape_shortcut = 'jj'

Some people may prefer to use multiple shortcuts. This is also supported:

let g:better_escape_shortcut = ['jk', 'jj', 'kj', 'лл']

See :h better-escape.txt.

This plugin is released under the MIT License.