Remap Caps Lock for the Vim-pilled.

Karabiner-Elements is a free, open-source keyboard customizer for macOS. Native macOS can map Caps Lock to Control via System Settings, but it can't do hold-vs-tap — that's the whole reason we need Karabiner. Skip the System Settings remap; Karabiner handles everything.

Download the installer from the official site and run it. You'll need to grant it Input Monitoring access on first launch (System Settings → Privacy & Security).

Open Karabiner-Elements → Complex Modifications tab → Add predefined rule → Import more rules from the Internet, or paste the rule below directly into your config file.

{
"description": "Caps Lock → Ctrl (hold) / Esc (tap)",
"manipulators": [{
  "type": "basic",
  "from": { "key_code": "caps_lock" },
  "to": [{ "key_code": "left_control" }],
  "to_if_alone": [{ "key_code": "escape" }]
}]
}

The to_if_alone field is what makes hold-vs-tap work: hold the key and Karabiner sends Control; tap and release within ~250ms and it sends Escape instead.

keyd is a small daemon that handles hold-vs-tap on every Linux display server. The package is only in official repos on bleeding-edge distros — most users will need a PPA or the source build.

# keyd is in apt only on Ubuntu 25.04+ / Debian 13+.
# For 22.04, 24.04, or Debian 12, use the maintainer PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:keyd-team/ppa
sudo apt update && sudo apt install keyd

sudo pacman -S keyd

For Fedora, openSUSE, RHEL, or any other distro without a package, follow the build-from-source instructions — it's a 30-second compile (make && sudo make install).

Create /etc/keyd/default.conf with the following content. The overload action gives you Ctrl when held and Esc when tapped — exactly what we want.

[ids]
*

[main]
capslock = overload(control, esc)

Run sudo systemctl enable --now keyd. After it starts, test it: holding Caps Lock should send Ctrl, tapping it should send Esc. Reload at any time with sudo keyd reload.

Get AutoHotkey v2 from the official site. AHK can intercept Caps Lock directly — no PowerToys needed, and unlike a *LCtrl:: hook it won't interfere with your real Ctrl key.

Save the file below as caps-vim.ahk, then press Win+R, type shell:startup, and drop the file into the Startup folder so it launches with Windows. Double-click it once to start it now without logging out.

; Caps Lock → Ctrl (hold) / Esc (tap).
*CapsLock::
{
  Send "{LCtrl Down}"
  startTime := A_TickCount
  KeyWait "CapsLock"
  Send "{LCtrl Up}"
  if (A_TickCount - startTime < 200 && A_PriorKey = "CapsLock")
      Send "{Esc}"
}

The script measures the press duration with A_TickCount — anything under 200ms counts as a tap and fires Escape on key-up; anything longer was a hold and stays as Ctrl. The CapsLock LED may still flash briefly on tap depending on your keyboard firmware; that's cosmetic, AHK has already swallowed the keypress.