Neovim Configuration

A minimal Neovim configuration built from scratch. Prioritizes native Neovim features over plugins.

Requirements

• Neovim 0.12+ (uses vim.pack for plugin management)
• Terminal with true color support
• Nerd Font recommended (for diagnostic signs)
• curl required for the first markdown-preview.nvim launch
• Rust toolchain (cargo) to build blink.cmp

Installation

• Backup your old config before

mv ~/.config/nvim ~/.config/nvim-backup

• Remove state & cache files (or backup at your choice)

rm -rf ~/.local/share/nvim \
       ~/.cache/nvim \
       ~/.local/state/nvim

• Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/johu/nvim.git ~/.config/nvim

Structure

init.lua
lua/
  vim-pack.lua       # vim.pack plugin manager setup
  config/
    init.lua         # Loads core config modules
    options.lua      # Editor options and settings
    keymaps.lua      # Key mappings
    ui.lua           # Builtin ui2 and native UI loader
    dashboard.lua    # Native startup dashboard
    statusline.lua   # Native statusline and git cache
    tabline.lua      # Native buffer tabline with colored icons
    diagnostics.lua  # Diagnostic display configuration
    autocmds.lua     # Auto commands
  plugins/
    init.lua         # Loads plugin modules
    base.lua         # Shared foundations (mini.nvim)
    colorscheme.lua  # TokyoNight color scheme (moon accent)
    completion.lua   # blink.cmp and mini.snippets support
    editor.lua       # mini.nvim editing helpers
    formatting.lua   # conform.nvim formatter integration
    lsp.lua          # Mason and LSP tool installation
    markdown.lua     # Markdown rendering and browser preview
    navigation.lua   # Harpoon, Oil, fzf-lua
    syntax.lua       # Tree-sitter and autotag support
    ui.lua           # mini.clue, tabline, notifications, and cmdline
    util.lua         # session workflow helpers
nvim-pack-lock.json  # Plugin lock file (commit required)

init.lua stays minimal and delegates to lua/config/init.lua and lua/plugins/init.lua. Plugin setup via vim-pack.lua using native vim.pack.

Features

Color Scheme

• TokyoNight (moon accent) — soft purple/blue tones on dark background
• Transparent background enabled

Editor Settings

• Line numbers (absolute and relative)
• Tab/space handling (2 spaces, expandtab)
• Search settings (ignorecase, smartcase, live substitute preview)
• Terminal true colors with dark background
• Undo files enabled
• Mouse support enabled
• System clipboard integration (except in SSH sessions)
• Compact built-in command-line UI with message history
• Cursorline shown only in the active window

Editing

• Native keymaps auto-close pairs while typing
• New lines do not continue comment leaders automatically
• mini.surround adds, changes, and deletes surroundings
• mini.jump2d provides single-character jump labels on <leader>j in normal, visual, and operator-pending modes
• grug-far provides a focused search-and-replace UI on <leader>sr

Key Mappings

Leader key: Space

Mappings use desc metadata, so native :map output stays readable and mini.clue can surface grouped hints from same descriptions.

Window Management

Mapping	Description
<leader>wv	Split window vertically
<leader>wh	Split window horizontally
<leader>we	Make splits equal size
<leader>wx	Close current split

Tab Management

Mapping	Description
<leader><tab><tab>	New tab
<leader><tab>d	Close tab
<leader><tab>f	First tab
<leader><tab>j	Next tab
<leader><tab>k	Previous tab
<leader><tab>l	Last tab
<leader><tab>o	Close other tabs

Editing

Mapping	Description
<leader>+	Increment number
<leader>-	Decrement number
J (visual)	Move lines down
K (visual)	Move lines up
<leader>p (visual)	Paste without overwriting register
<leader>d	Delete without yanking
<leader>j	Jump with mini.jump2d (n/x/o)
<leader>Y	Yank to system clipboard
[u / ]u	Older/newer undo state
<leader>ut	Open undo tree

Navigation

Mapping	Description
<C-d>	Move down with cursor centered
<C-u>	Move up with cursor centered
n / N	Search next/prev with centering

File Navigation

Mapping	Description
-	Open file explorer
<leader>ff	Find files
<leader>fg	Git files
<leader>fb	Buffers
<leader>fu	Builtin pickers
<leader><leader>	Find files (alt)
<leader>,	Switch buffer (MRU)

Harpoon (Fast Navigation)

Mapping	Description
<leader>H	Add file to harpoon
<leader>h	Toggle harpoon menu
<A-h>	Go to harpoon file 1
<A-j>	Go to harpoon file 2
<A-k>	Go to harpoon file 3
<A-l>	Go to harpoon file 4

Search and Diagnostics

Mapping	Description
<leader>sg	Grep (live)
<leader>sw	Grep current word
<leader>sW	Grep current WORD
<leader>sR	Resume last picker
<leader>st	Search todos/fixes
<leader>sb	Search buffer
<leader>cd	Diagnostic float
]d / [d	Next/prev diagnostic
]e / [e	Next/prev error
]w / [w	Next/prev warning
<leader>sd	Diagnostics (document)
<leader>sD	Diagnostics (workspace)
<leader>/	Grep (alt)
<leader>:	Command history
<leader>fk	Keymaps
<leader>fh	Help tags
<leader>fr	Recent files
<leader>ec	Neovim config files
<leader>ep	Plugin packages

LSP

Mapping	Description
grn	Rename symbol
gra	Code actions
grr	References (fzf)
gri	Implementation (fzf)
grd	Definition (fzf)
grD	Declaration
grt	Type definition (fzf)
gO	Document symbols (fzf)
gW	Workspace symbols (fzf)

Git

Mapping	Description
<leader>gc	Git commits
<leader>gs	Git status

Sessions

Mapping	Description
<leader>qs	Restore current session
<leader>qS	Select session
<leader>ql	Restore last session
<leader>qd	Detach current session

Other

Mapping	Description
<ESC>	Clear search highlight
<leader>cx	Source current file
<leader>cp	Markdown preview
<leader>pc	Cleanup plugins
<leader>pu	Update plugins
<leader>qq	Quit all

Diagnostics

• Virtual lines enabled for diagnostics
• Rounded borders on diagnostic floats
• Custom signs for each severity level
• Underline only for errors
• Virtual text shows source when multiple sources
• Line highlighting for each severity (ERROR, WARN, INFO, HINT)
• DAP breakpoint sign definition for debugger support
• Navigation keymaps: ]d/[d (all), ]e/[e (errors), ]w/[w (warnings), <leader>cd (float)

UI

• A native startup dashboard shows selected shortcuts and startup stats when Neovim opens without files
• mini.clue shows grouped key hints for leader keys, windows, registers, marks, and built-in motions
• TokyoNight-themed native statusline shows colored mode/git/LSP capsules, icons, diff/diagnostic counts, filename, encoding, file format, filetype, progress, and cursor location
• Native buffer tabline with colored icons, click-to-switch, and fill background matching the editor background
• mini.notify handles notifications
• Built-in ui2 provides the compact command-line and message UI
• q: opens command-line history, :messages/g< open message history, and :undolist shows undo history
• tiny-cmdline.nvim keeps the command line usable with cmdheight=0

Sessions

• mini.sessions handles save, restore, and session selection flows
• Sessions autowrite by default, and <leader>qd detaches current session before write

Auto Commands & User Commands

Auto Commands:

• Highlight on yank — visual feedback when copying
• Checktime — reload file if changed externally (FocusGained, TermClose, TermLeave)
• Restore cursor position — resume at last edit location on BufReadPost
• Resize splits — auto-equalize on VimResized
• Help vertical split — open help pages in vertical split
• Man unlisted — mark man pages as unlisted
• Close with q — quick exit for 40+ filetypes (help, qf, lspinfo, checkhealth, gitsigns-blame, etc.)
• Wrap and spell — enabled for text/markdown/plaintex/typst/gitcommit
• JSON conceal — conceallevel=0 to prevent quote hiding
• Auto-create dirs — mkdir -p parent on buffer write
• Filetype detection — .env/.env.* (sh), .toml (toml), .ejs/.ejs.t (embedded_template), .code-snippets (json)
• Markdown — textwidth=80, formatoptions for prose
• PackChanged hooks — auto-run TSUpdate on treesitter install/update, build markdown-preview.nvim

User Commands:

• PackUpdate — PackUpdate or PackUpdate! pkg1 pkg2 for update with force
• PackClean — remove inactive plugins from disk

Navigation

• Harpoon 2 for fast file jumping with Alt+hjkl shortcuts, using a small in-repo compatibility layer instead of plenary.nvim
• Oil.nvim for file explorer with - keymap
• fzf-lua for fuzzy find across files, buffers, git, diagnostics, and more

Search and Replace

• grug-far adds scoped search-and-replace with a transient UI that defaults to the current file extension on <leader>sr

Markdown

• render-markdown.nvim improves in-editor Markdown rendering
• markdown-preview.nvim toggles a browser preview with <leader>cp

Syntax and Completion

• Tree-sitter for syntax-aware parsing
• nvim-treesitter-textobjects provides textobjects and parameter swapping
• Tree-sitter incremental selection uses <Enter> to expand and <BS> to shrink
• nvim-ts-autotag for paired tag editing in markup/component files
• blink.cmp with mini.snippets and friendly-snippets

LSP

• Built-in vim.lsp config with Mason-managed installs for lua_ls, gopls, and marksman
• gr* mappings use fzf-backed references, definitions, implementations, type definitions, rename, and code actions on attach
• LSP document highlights and inlay hint toggling are enabled

Formatting

• conform.nvim for format-on-save and manual formatting
• StyLua configured via .stylua.toml
• Additional formatters can be used when installed on the system