micro-editor/micro · error

Error reading bindings.json: %s

Error message

Error reading bindings.json: %s

What it means

Returned by TryBindKey (internal/action/bindings.go:289) when the contents of bindings.json cannot be parsed as JSON5. Micro uses the json5 library, so comments, unquoted keys and trailing commas are legal; the error fires only on genuinely broken syntax such as unbalanced braces, unterminated strings, or a stray single quote inside a double-quoted value. The json5 error text (with line/column) is appended.

Source

Thrown at internal/action/bindings.go:289

}

// TryBindKey tries to bind a key by writing to config.ConfigDir/bindings.json
// Returns true if the keybinding already existed or is binded successfully and a possible error
func TryBindKey(k, v string, overwrite bool, writeToFile bool) (bool, error) {
	var e error
	var parsed map[string]any

	filename := filepath.Join(config.ConfigDir, "bindings.json")
	createBindingsIfNotExist(filename)
	if _, e = os.Stat(filename); e == nil {
		input, err := os.ReadFile(filename)
		if err != nil {
			return false, errors.New("Error reading bindings.json file: " + err.Error())
		}

		err = json5.Unmarshal(input, &parsed)
		if err != nil {
			return false, errors.New("Error reading bindings.json: " + err.Error())
		}

		key, err := findEvent(k)
		if err != nil {
			return false, err
		}

		found := false
		var ev string
		for ev = range parsed {
			if e, err := findEvent(ev); err == nil {
				if eventsEqual(e, key) {
					found = true
					break
				}
			}
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 1c8b82b32e)

Solutions

1. Open the json5 error text: it names the position — jump to that line in bindings.json and fix the brace/quote/comma
2. Validate before retrying: python3 -c "import json,sys; json.load(sys.stdin)" < bindings.json (after stripping // lines) or any JSON5 linter
3. Fall back to the well-known-good default: mv bindings.json bindings.json.bak, restart micro (fresh '{}' created), re-add bindings incrementally
4. Avoid unescaped double quotes inside values or switch those strings to single quotes, which JSON5 accepts

Example fix

// before: ~/.config/micro/bindings.json (missing comma)
"CtrlS": "Save"
"CtrlQ": "QuitAll"

// after
"CtrlS": "Save",
"CtrlQ": "QuitAll",

// Pre-validate JSON5 syntax before invoking bind (uses the same lib micro uses)
import "github.com/micro-editor/json5"

func bindingsParse(path string) error {
    data, err := os.ReadFile(path)
    if err != nil { return err }
    var m map[string]any
    return json5.Unmarshal(data, &m)
}

if _, err := action.TryBindKey(k, v, true, true); err != nil {
    if strings.HasPrefix(err.Error(), "Error reading bindings.json:") {
        // parse error: parse the appended position, offer to restore last good copy
        return restoreLastGoodBindings(err)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running > bind or > default after hand-editing bindings.json and leaving a syntax error: missing comma creating an invalid token, unescaped quote in an action name, a dangling '}' — json5.Unmarshal fails and the error wraps the parser message.

Common situations: Editing bindings.json while micro is open, then the editor auto-writing the file on the next bind command; merging config snippets by hand; smart-quote substitution when pasting through a chat app.

Related errors

• Invalid event %s
• %s is not a bindable event
• Error reading settings.json: %s
• Error reading bindings.json file: %s
• Color-link statement is not valid: %s

AI-assisted analysis of micro-editor/micro@1c8b82b32e (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/97eb197a7d6ffa01. Report an issue: GitHub.