Vikey

Vietnamese typing for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android that switches between Vietnamese and English for you.

Made by Tony Dinh (Đinh Quang Trung, @trungdq88). Free and open source under GPL-3.0; based on OpenKey by Tuyen Mai.

Type Telex as usual. When you type an English word in Vietnamese mode, or a Vietnamese word in English mode, Vikey fixes the word and switches the language. No more pressing the switch key every few words.

Features

• Telex with modern or classic tone placement (hoà / hòa), spell checking, and keeping your keys as typed when a word isn't Vietnamese.
• Auto switch:
  • more → stays English;
  • treen → trên;
  • truowfng, truongwf, truwownfg → trường;
  • this makes sense comes out right in Vietnamese mode, because ambiguous words are fixed once the context is clear.
• Programming-aware:
  • var, const, git push, obj.dir and my_var are left alone.
• Undo: press Delete right after an automatic fix to undo it.
• Remembers the language for each app, and for each website in Chrome, Safari, Arc, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi and Opera.
• Switch hotkey: a key with modifiers, or modifiers alone (⌃⇧), with an optional beep.
• Works with Dvorak and other layouts: Vikey steps aside automatically for other input languages (Japanese, Chinese…).

Build

Requires Xcode and XcodeGen.

xcodegen generate
xcodebuild -project Vikey.xcodeproj -scheme Vikey -configuration Release build

Vikey needs Accessibility permission (to read and rewrite keystrokes). On first launch it walks you through granting it.

Debug typing log

For tuning auto switch, turn on Gỡ lỗi → Ghi nhật ký gõ in the menu bar. It counts manual vs automatic switches and (optionally) records the keys of each word to ~/Library/Application Support/Vikey/typing-log.jsonl, never in password fields, password managers or terminals. Off by default. Analyze with Tools/autoswitch/analyze_log.py.

Engine tests

Every typing rule is locked down by tests: rule-tagged cases, golden snapshots of typing a mixed Vietnamese/English corpus, and every Vietnamese syllable.

Tools/autoswitch/check.sh

See DECISIONS.md for every rule and why it exists.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome, AI-written code included. Show the problem with a screenshot or video, describe the before and after, and add test cases. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License and credits

Vikey is based on OpenKey by Tuyen Mai, and is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE.