#Stenography (Plover HID)

RMK supports Plover stenography over USB HID. When the steno feature is enabled, the keyboard registers as a stenography machine that Plover (v5.1+) connects to via the plover-machine-hid plugin, without serial emulation.

Steno keys are mapped in your layout like any other key. RMK sends the live state of all held steno keys to the host on every key press and release, matching the Plover HID protocol. Chord detection happens entirely in Plover: by default chords fire when all keys are released, but Plover's "first-up chord send" and "auto-repeat" options also work because the firmware reports every state change.

#Setup

#1. Enable the feature

Add the steno feature to your Cargo.toml:

rmk = { version = "...", features = ["steno"] }

#2. Map steno keys in your layout

#keyboard.toml

Use STN(key) in your layer keys:

[[layer]]
keys = [
    "STN(NUM1)",  "STN(NUM1)",  "STN(NUM1)",  "STN(NUM1)",  "STN(NUM1)",   "STN(NUM1)",  "STN(NUM1)",  "STN(NUM1)",  "STN(NUM1)",  "STN(NUM1)",
    "STN(S1)",    "STN(T)",     "STN(P)",     "STN(H)",     "STN(STAR1)",  "STN(STAR1)", "STN(RF)",    "STN(RP)",    "STN(RL)",    "STN(RT)",
    "STN(S1)",    "STN(K)",     "STN(W)",     "STN(R)",     "STN(STAR1)",  "STN(STAR1)", "STN(RR)",    "STN(RB)",    "STN(RG)",    "STN(RS)",
    "STN(A)",     "STN(O)",     "_",          "_",          "_",           "_",          "_",          "_",          "STN(RE)",    "STN(RU)",
]

#Rust API

Use the steno! macro:

use rmk::{a, steno};

let keymap = [
    steno!(NUM1), steno!(NUM1), steno!(NUM1), steno!(NUM1), steno!(NUM1),  steno!(NUM1), steno!(NUM1), steno!(NUM1), steno!(NUM1), steno!(NUM1),
    steno!(S1),   steno!(T),    steno!(P),    steno!(H),    steno!(STAR1), steno!(STAR1),steno!(RF),   steno!(RP),   steno!(RL),   steno!(RT),
    steno!(S1),   steno!(K),    steno!(W),    steno!(R),    steno!(STAR1), steno!(STAR1),steno!(RR),   steno!(RB),   steno!(RG),   steno!(RS),
    steno!(A),    steno!(O),    a!(No),       a!(No),       a!(No),        a!(No),       a!(No),       a!(No),       steno!(RE),   steno!(RU),
];

#Connecting Plover

1. Flash your keyboard with the steno feature enabled.
2. Open Plover and go to Configure > Machine.
3. Select Plover HID as the machine type.
4. Click Connect. Plover finds your keyboard by its HID usage page (0xFF50).
5. Test a chord with Plover paper tape.

#Limitations

• USB only. BLE does not support steno because the standard HID-over-GATT service has no stenography characteristic.
• No dictionary on the keyboard. RMK sends raw steno chords to the host; translation to text happens in Plover.