if i enter paredit mode i can't get an invalid structure. is there another way to do that?

@drewverlee Copy paste is the best way to get an invalid structure. Was an invalid structure what you wanted ?

If you toggle of safe structural editing off, then you can also create an invalid structure in Evil style editing (although I have only tried that with smartparens in strict mode

I wasn't clear. I'm saying, I'm using lisp state, but when I exit that I can still mess up the structure. What's the best way to disallow that globally.

https://practicalli.github.io/spacemacs/install-spacemacs/evil-structural-editing.html Have safe structural editing switched on

Actually, evil cleaver parens should help with that. Maybe I didn't have it on.

dotspacemacs-smartparens-strict-mode

, T s

M-x check-parens helps too

Ok, thanks I'm looking at the right tools. I must not have enabled it correctly.

This is how I set up smart parens in .spacemacs https://practicalli.github.io/spacemacs/install-spacemacs/smartparens.html

sometimes you need to enter unbalanced paren intentionally, then you can do in Spacemacs in insert mode C-v and then insert a paren. In vanilla Emacs that’s bound to C-q