How do I quickly navigate quickfix entries, buffers, and toggle options with bracket keys?

Explanation

The vim-unimpaired plugin by Tim Pope provides pairs of bracket mappings for common navigation and toggling tasks. Instead of typing :cnext or :cprev to navigate quickfix items, you simply press ]q and [q. The convention is consistent: ] goes forward/next and [ goes backward/previous.

How it works

Navigation pairs:

• [q / ]q — previous/next quickfix entry (:cprevious / :cnext)
• [Q / ]Q — first/last quickfix entry (:cfirst / :clast)
• [b / ]b — previous/next buffer (:bprevious / :bnext)
• [l / ]l — previous/next location list entry (:lprevious / :lnext)
• [a / ]a — previous/next argument (:previous / :next)
• [t / ]t — previous/next tag (:tprevious / :tnext)

Option toggling with yo prefix:

• yoh — toggle hlsearch
• yon — toggle number
• yow — toggle wrap
• yos — toggle spell

Example

After running :vimgrep /TODO/ **/*.js to populate the quickfix list, navigate results with:

]q    → jump to next TODO match
[q    → jump to previous TODO match
]Q    → jump to last TODO match
[Q    → jump to first TODO match

Tips

• Install with any plugin manager: Plug 'tpope/vim-unimpaired'
• Line manipulation mappings are also included: [e / ]e to move lines up/down, [<Space> / ]<Space> to add blank lines
• The bracket convention is easy to remember: [ always means previous/up, ] always means next/down