⚠️ This is a pre-release version.

Highlights on CotEditor 7.0

Smarter syntax, sharper editing: More accurate highlighting, smarter commenting, and improved editor behavior, all powered by a redesigned syntax engine and definition format.
Powered by tree-sitter, where it matters most: Many major built-in syntaxes now use tree-sitter, a modern structure-based parser that enables deeper and more reliable language awareness.
Outline with depth: Icons make structure easier to scan, and tree-sitter–based syntaxes now support collapsible outlines that reflect hierarchy.

CotEditor 7.0.0-rc.2

release: 2026-04-18

beta: Fix an issue where importing legacy YAML syntax definitions from the Format settings could fail.

release: 2026-04-15

Improve word selection and related editing actions to treat commas as word delimiters.
trivial: Improve stability when handling file change conflicts.
beta: Improve syntax highlighting for JavaScript, Ruby, and TypeScript.
beta: Update outline extraction algorithms for C, C#, C++, and JavaScript.
beta: Update tree-sitter-c-sharp to 0.23.5.
beta trivial: Update the document icon for the CotEditor Syntax document.

Fix issues in the file browser where items could point to the wrong location after being moved or renamed.
Fix an issue in the file browser where replacing a file with a folder, or vice versa, could leave the displayed state outdated.
Fix an issue in the file browser where newly created or duplicated items could fail to become selected immediately in some folders.
Fix an issue where line reordering commands could insert extra blank lines in documents using CRLF line endings.
Fix an issue where TSV multiple replace definitions could not import empty replacement strings.
trivial: Fix some typos in localizations and user guides.
beta: Fix the outline extraction algorithms for Java, Kotlin, PHP, Python, and TypeScript.

release: 2026-04-09

Fix an issue where AppleScript could return an unclear error when a folder document had no current document.
Fix an issue where requesting a zero-length text range via AppleScript could return an unintended character.
Fix an issue where some decimal setting values could use the wrong number format and be reset unexpectedly in certain locale configurations.
beta: Fix the HTML outline extraction to include headings with nested elements.

release: 2026-04-02

Fix an issue where re-importing a TSV file to overwrite an existing multiple replace definition could fail.
beta: Fix outline extraction in the LaTeX and Swift syntaxes.

release: 2026-03-28

This version contains some specific changes that may require manual migration by users. See Important changes on CotEditor 7.0 for details.

Introduce CotEditor Syntax, a new syntax definition format. The legacy YAML-based syntax definition format is now deprecated, and user-created syntaxes are automatically migrated on first launch.

Adopt smarter syntax parsing powered by tree-sitter for multiple built-in syntaxes, improving syntax highlighting and outline extraction in C, C#, C++, CSS, Go, HTML, Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, LaTeX, Lua, Makefile, Markdown (outline extraction only), PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, Scala, Shell Script, SQL, Swift, and TypeScript.
Display symbolic icons next to outline items.
Allow collapsing outline items in the Outline inspector for tree-sitter-based and structured document syntaxes.
Add the “Wrap Lines” option to the Outline inspector.
Make smart indentation aware of the current syntax.
Expand comment delimiter settings in syntax definitions, allowing multiple delimiters and related options.
Add detailed delimiter settings for strings, characters, and indentation to syntax definitions.
Add the Multiline option to highlighting rules in syntax definitions so matches can span multiple lines.
Show the current position in search results in the Find field while navigating between matches, for example, “2/5”.
Add CurrentLine and ReplaceCurrentLine to the UNIX script input/output keywords for editing the current line in the editor.
Add Bulgarian localization (thanks to Miroslav Dragoev!).

Improve the syntax-highlighting algorithm for legacy regex-based parsing.
Update built-in syntaxes.
Use the user’s window size setting for the Zoom action, if available.
Improve general text-editing performance.
Hide line numbers in the window titlebar area when the navigation bar is hidden on macOS Tahoe 26.
trivial: Adjust the About CotEditor window.
trivial: Rename the Recolor All command to “Reset Syntax Analysis” and move it to the Format menu.
trivial: Remove the Restore Defaults button in the syntax editor.
trivial: Tweak colors of the default Anura theme.

Fix incorrect syntax parsing in some built-in syntaxes.
Fix an issue where the default file extension in the Save dialog was .txt for syntaxes with a file extension not registered in the system.