But there have been sensible bindings for doing this forever, e.g.: https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
There's no need to break normal editing behavior.
In The Rise of Whatevertpope
vim-surround
Vim Script2010–2025
tpope / vim-surround
vim-surround
surround.vim: Delete/change/add parentheses/quotes/XML-tags/much more with ease
27Distinct people
28Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
14.1KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
surround.vim: Delete/change/add parentheses/quotes/XML-tags/much more with ease
GitHub
Where it is used
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Also in these discussions
- tpope/vim-repeat · linked in 3 of the same discussions
- easymotion/vim-easymotion · linked in 2 of the same discussions
- tpope/vim-fugitive · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 2:04:58 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year28 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2010-07-04 04:51:17 UTC to 2025-07-04 18:14:48 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2010-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2011 | 2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2012 | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 12, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
surround.vim
Surround.vim is all about "surroundings": parentheses, brackets, quotes,
XML tags, and more. The plugin provides mappings to easily delete,
change and add such surroundings in pairs.
It's easiest to explain with examples. Press cs"' inside
"Hello world!"
to change it to
'Hello world!'
Now press cs'<q> to change it to
<q>Hello world!</q>
To go full circle, press cst" to get
"Hello world!"
To remove the delimiters entirely, press ds".
Hello world!
Now with the cursor on "Hello", press ysiw] (iw is a text object).
[Hello] world!
Let's make that braces and add some space (use } instead of { for no
space): cs]{
{ Hello } world!
Now wrap the entire line in parentheses with yssb or yss).
({ Hello } world!)
Revert to the original text: ds{ds)
Hello world!
Emphasize hello: ysiw<em>
<em>Hello</em> world!
Finally, let's try out visual mode. Press a capital V (for linewise
visual mode) followed by S<p class="important">.
<p class="important">
<em>Hello</em> world!
</p>
This plugin is very powerful for HTML and XML editing, a niche which
currently seems underfilled in Vim land. (As opposed to HTML/XML
inserting, for which many plugins are available). Adding, changing,
and removing pairs of tags simultaneously is a breeze.
The . command will work with ds, cs, and yss if you install
repeat.vim.
Installation
Install using your favorite package manager, or use Vim's built-in package
support:
mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/tpope/start
cd ~/.vim/pack/tpope/start
git clone https://tpope.io/vim/surround.git
vim -u NONE -c "helptags surround/doc" -c q
FAQ
How do I surround without adding a space?
Only the opening brackets—[, {, and (—add a space. Use a closing
bracket, or the b (() and B ({) aliases.
Contributing
See the contribution guidelines for
pathogen.vim.
Self-Promotion
Like surround.vim? Star the repository on
GitHub and vote for it on
vim.org.
Love surround.vim? Follow tpope on
GitHub and
Twitter.
License
Copyright (c) Tim Pope. Distributed under the same terms as Vim itself.
See :help license.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
28 sourcesI don't know what exactly you mean by pasting a function around the selection, but you can paste selections, registers or even files at specific lines with some vim-fu. If it's generic enough you could write a function or even a keyboard shortcut if it's very simple.
I have set ",',(,[,{ in visual mode to cut the selection insert the pairs then paste it back as a very hacky solution, but it gets the job done. If you want something more advanced to add or change anything around the selection tpope has solved that with vim-surround[1].
[1]: https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
In Difftastic, a structural diff tool that understands syntaxYou could use the Neovim plugin[1] which allows you to use Neovim as a backend server and access editing plugins[2][3] that way.
1. https://github.com/vscode-neovim/vscode-neovim
2. https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
3. https://github.com/andymass/vim-matchup
In The complex simplicity of my static websitesSurround.vim: Delete/change/add parentheses/quotes/XML-tags with ease (2022)
2 points · Open discussionVim can do this with the following plugin: https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
I exclusively use the visual mode commands though, because I find the normal-mode commands confusing.
In Ask HN: Text Editor with “add prefix/suffix around selected text” feature?Surround is a plugin which adds more text objects: https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
cs"': change surrounding quotes, e.g. "foo" -> 'foo'
cs([: change surrounding brackets, e.g. (foo) -> [ foo ]
( cs]) would omit the spaces)
ci": change in quotes, e.g. "foo" -> "" (in insert mode between the quotes)
ca": change around quotes, e.g. x"foo"y -> xy (in insert mode between x and y
viWS<tag>: add tag around current word using visual mode, e.g. foo -> <tag>foo</tag>
dst: delete surrounding tag, e.g. <tag>foo</tag> -> foo
It's really good. I'm not familiar with argument.
In Ask HN: Is Vim still worth learning?I use vim-surround. https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
In A Vim Guide for Advanced UsersThis is vim-surround by tpope[1]. It does way more than just basic brackets!
[1]: https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
In Show HN: I built an online interactive course that helps you learn Vim fasterysiwb yank-surround-in-word-brackets also does it. If you have https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround/ installed.
In Show HN: I built an online interactive course that helps you learn Vim fasterI hopped on the Vim train about 2-3 years ago and haven't looked back. That said, I do use VSCode with Vim key bindings more than anything. It doesn't have everything Vim does, but it does have Tim Pope's almighty surround plugin, out-of-the-box. https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
ys2w) will put brackets around the next 2 words. That is a beautiful thing.
In I Still Use VimBelow are some various things I actually use... and not all of the junk in my vimrc I don't actually use.
Plugins:
https://github.com/tmhedberg/matchit
https://github.com/tpope/vim-sleuth
https://github.com/tpope/vim-repeat
https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.vim
(also see https://jesseleite.com/posts/2/its-dangerous-to-vim-alone-ta... )
Some snippets:
https://github.com/mhinz/vim-galore#change-cursor-style-depe...
https://github.com/mhinz/vim-galore#saner-behavior-of-n-and-...
and a similar snippet:
" consistent direction regardless of initial charsearch direction for ; and ,
nnoremap <expr> ; ',;'[getcharsearch().forward]
nnoremap <expr> , ';,'[getcharsearch().forward]
I use my arrow keys for buffer navigation in normal mode:
nnoremap <up> :Buffers<cr>
nnoremap <down> :b#<cr>
nn
Read the rest
oremap <left> :bp<cr>
nnoremap <right> :bn<cr>
...and disable them in insert mode:
inoremap <down> <nop>
inoremap <left> <nop>
inoremap <right> <nop>
inoremap <up> <nop>
Vim-surround is a nice solution for this. It’s developed by the same developer who wrote vim-fugitive. It is also available non the vim plugin for VSCode by turning on a setting.
https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
In Relearning to TypePeople seem to swear by NerdTree, but I personally don't see the purpose of it. Sure it may be nice to see your file structure sometimes, but having a terminal open or even just the actual folder window open solves that. Everything else can be done with the built-in :Ex command, which lets you navigate to open files, create new files, rename, delete, mostly everything you want.
As for other plug-ins, there are a few I would recommend (can you tell I'm a Tim Pope fan?):
- vim-commentary: Gives bindings for commenting out code quickly: https://github.com/tpope/vim-commentary
- vim-surround: Easily surround selected text with symbols: https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
- vim-unimpared: Adds bindings for some misc. commands, like enabling relative line numbers and spellcheck: https://github.com/tpope/vim-unimpaired
- vim-repeat: Allows man
Read the rest
y more commands to be repeated with . : https://github.com/tpope/vim-repeat
- VimCompletesMe: A much more bare-bones auto-completion tool than YouCompleteMe, hitting tab gives you matches from your previously typed text. It's also all in vimscript so it's much easier to install and manage: https://github.com/ajh17/VimCompletesMe
- Pathogen: A plug-in manager, if you can call it that. It simply re-adjusts the file paths so you can centralize your plugin directory. Some plug-in managers will auto-update, but I never liked that, just run git pull if you wish to update a plugin: https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen
There are some other cosmetic ones I like as well, like airline, and vim-highlightyank, but that's a personal preference.
Isn't this part of vim-surround?
http://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
In Ten Years of VimShowing the 15 most recent of 28 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.