Add Option to Clear Text Selection After Copying in Editor

[lemorage]

Summary

Add a configuration option to automatically clear the text selection in the editor after copying it to the clipboard, similar to the keep_selection_on_copy setting available for the terminal.

Description

Currently, when selecting text in the editor and copying it (e.g., via Cmd+C), the selection remains highlighted. This can feel confusing sometimes.

This is particularly common in Vim-emulation modes, such as VSCodeVim or IdeaVim, where yanking (copying) in visual mode typically exits the mode and clears the selection.

For reference:

• In VSCode with the VSCodeVim extension, copying in visual mode clears the selection by default.
• JetBrains IDEs with IdeaVim exhibit similar behavior in Vim mode, where visual selections are cleared after yanking.

Adding a setting like "editor.keep_selection_on_copy": true (default) or "editor.clear_selection_on_copy": false would allow users to customize this.

Happy to hear more discussions on this, thanks!

[notpeter]

Given that VSCode, JetBrains and XCode do not have this behavior, this is unlikely to be Zed's default behavior. Is this something that is optionally supported by those via preference.

Could you edit your description above to make it more of a feature request and include references to the feature name / setting in other apps that implement this?

[lemorage]

Updated! Thanks for clarifying!

[jiacai2050]

As a Emacs user, I'm sure this feature is the default behavior for Emacs too.

If the selection is still on after copy action, I wonder how could user know the text is already copied?