QMK Userspace

This is chris' collection of keyboard layouts with my own user code to augment the capabilities of QMK for my needs and taste.

Main features

My keyboard layout of choice is the HHKB, though I don't mind using larger keyboards they are all made as extensions of the HHKB keyboard (or subset for <60% keyboards). Another important element is that as a (n)vim user I use the typical shortcuts of vim for moving around the screen. In particular when it comes to mapping arrows I will prefer to opt for hjkl keys even if the keyboard has dedicated arrow keys.

I am also using macOS as my main operating system, but I also use Windows for my day work, and at times Linux as well. Thus my keyboards must be able to support the three layouts.

Finally, when the board allows it, I like to use backlighting to indicate if caps lock is on, and if colors are available I like to indicate which layer I am activating temporarily. There are only two cases when the keyboard lighting stays on: for caps lock, as indicated earlier, and when the keyboard is in exclusive mouse mode (requires a double tap of the left shift), other than that colors are only transient.

Howto configure your build targets

1. Run the normal qmk setup procedure if you haven't already done so -- see QMK Docs for details.
2. Fork this repository
3. Clone your fork to your local machine
4. Enable userspace in QMK config using qmk config user.overlay_dir="$(realpath qmk_userspace)"
5. Add a new keymap for your board using qmk new-keymap
   • This will create a new keymap in the keyboards directory, in the same location that would normally be used in the main QMK repository. For example, if you wanted to add a keymap for the Planck, it will be created in keyboards/planck/keymaps/<your keymap name>
   • You can also create a new keymap using qmk new-keymap -kb <your_keyboard> -km <your_keymap>
   • Alternatively, add your keymap manually by placing it in the location specified above.
   • layouts/<layout name>/<your keymap name>/keymap.* is also supported if you prefer the layout system
6. Add your keymap(s) to the build by running qmk userspace-add -kb <your_keyboard> -km <your_keymap>
   • This will automatically update your qmk.json file
   • Corresponding qmk userspace-remove -kb <your_keyboard> -km <your_keymap> will delete it
   • Listing the build targets can be done with qmk userspace-list
7. Commit your changes

Howto build with GitHub

1. In the GitHub Actions tab, enable workflows
2. Push your changes above to your forked GitHub repository
3. Look at the GitHub Actions for a new actions run
4. Wait for the actions run to complete
5. Inspect the Releases tab on your repository for the latest firmware build

Howto build locally

1. Run the normal qmk setup procedure if you haven't already done so -- see QMK Docs for details.
2. Fork this repository
3. Clone your fork to your local machine
4. cd into this repository's clone directory
5. Set global userspace path: qmk config user.overlay_dir="$(realpath .)" -- you MUST be located in the cloned userspace location for this to work correctly
   • This will be automatically detected if you've cded into your userspace repository, but the above makes your userspace available regardless of your shell location.
6. Compile normally: qmk compile -kb your_keyboard -km your_keymap or make your_keyboard:your_keymap

Alternatively, if you configured your build targets above, you can use qmk userspace-compile to build all of your userspace targets at once.

Extra info

If you wish to point GitHub actions to a different repository, a different branch, or even a different keymap name, you can modify .github/workflows/build_binaries.yml to suit your needs.

To override the build job, you can change the following parameters to use a different QMK repository or branch:

    with:
      qmk_repo: qmk/qmk_firmware
      qmk_ref: master

If you wish to manually manage qmk_firmware using git within the userspace repository, you can add qmk_firmware as a submodule in the userspace directory instead. GitHub Actions will automatically use the submodule at the pinned revision if it exists, otherwise it will use the default latest revision of qmk_firmware from the main repository.

This can also be used to control which fork is used, though only upstream qmk_firmware will have support for external userspace until other manufacturers update their forks.

1. (First time only) git submodule add https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware.git
2. (To update) git submodule update --init --recursive
3. Commit your changes to your userspace repository