nvim-light

Lightweight configuration focused on providing "basic features" with little boilerplate. It includes better syntax highlight, a fuzzy finder and IDE-like features powered by Neovim's LSP client.

Requirements

Neovim v0.10 or greater.
git.
A C compiler. Can be gcc, tcc or zig.
A language server. Required to actually enable the "IDE-like" features.
(optional) ripgrep. Improves project wide search speed.
(optional) fd. Improves file search speed.

Note for windows users

If you need a C compiler then zig is the easiest to install. It's available on winget, scoop and chocolatey. You can also find some links in the zig download page.

If you experience performance issues with the plugin Telescope then you might want to try an alternative like fzf.lua.

Installation

Backup your existing configuration if you have one.
Create an init.lua file in your system. Use this command in your terminal if you don't know the specific location of Neovim's configuration folder.
```
nvim --headless -c 'call mkdir(stdpath("config"), "p") | exe "edit" stdpath("config") . "/init.lua" | write | quit'
```
To check the file was created you can use this command.
```
nvim --headless -c 'echo $MYVIMRC' -c 'quit'
```
This will show you the path of your init.lua
Copy the content of init.lua of this github repository into your own init.lua.
Open Neovim, use the command nvim in your terminal. When Neovim starts all plugins will be downloaded automatically.

Learn how to use Neovim as a text editor

Neovim comes with an interactive tutorial that teaches the basics of the editor. The estimated time of this tutorial is around 45 minutes. It will show you how to move around text, how to execute commands and of course how to quit Neovim. You can access the tutorial by executing this command in your terminal.

nvim +Tutor

Note there is also a book inside Neovim's documentation, this is called the user manual. You can find it online here:

Learn the basics of lua and Neovim's api

This configuration was created using a scripting language called lua, I highly recommend that you learn the syntax of this language. Learn just enough to know what is valid. Here are a couple resources:

Next step is to get familiar with Neovim's lua api, so you can create your own keybindings and commands. Here are a couple of guides you can read:

About language servers

They are external programs that provide IDE-like features to Neovim. If you want to know more about language servers watch this wonderful 5 minutes video: LSP explained.

To know what language servers are supported you need to go to nvim-lspconfig's documentation, in configs.md you'll find links and instruction on how to install them.

Once you have a language server available in your system you need to add its setup function to your config.

For example, if you installed the typescript language server you need to add this.

require('lspconfig').ts_ls.setup({})

If you install the language server for lua, add this:

require('lspconfig').lua_ls.setup({})

Tip

Copy the content of .luarc.json of this github repository into your own .luarc.json. This file should be located next to your init.lua. With it the language server for lua will provide basic support for Neovim's lua api.

About syntax highlight

To get a more accurate syntax highlight for your favorite language you need to download something called a "treesitter parser". These will be downloaded automatically by the plugin nvim-treesitter.

You can also instruct Neovim to download a treesitter parser by adding a name to the property ensure_installed located in the setup function of nvim-treesitter.configs.

Learn more about the plugin manager

lazy.nvim is the plugin manager used in this configuration. Here are a few resources that will help you understand some of it's features:

Lazy.nvim: plugin configuration. Here you'll learn about the "plugin spec" and how to split your plugin setup into multiple files.
Lazy.nvim: how to revert a plugin back to a previous version. Learn how to recover from a bad plugin update.

Plugins directory

Your plugins will be installed in a separate directory from your configuration. The location of this directory depends on your operating system and environment variables, so you'll need to execute this command to know where that is.

nvim --headless -c 'echo stdpath("data") . "/lazy/lazy.nvim" | quit'

Keybindings

Leader key: Space.

Mode	Key	Action
Normal	`gy`	Copy text to clipboard.
Normal	`gp`	Paste text from clipboard.
Normal	`K`	Displays hover information about the symbol under the cursor.
Normal	`gd`	Jump to the definition.
Normal	`gD`	Jump to declaration.
Normal	`gi`	Lists all the implementations for the symbol under the cursor.
Normal	`go`	Jumps to the definition of the type symbol
Normal	`gr`	Lists all the references.
Normal	`gs`	Displays a function's signature information.
Normal	`<F2>`	Renames all references to the symbol under the cursor.
Normal	`<F3>`	Format code in current buffer.
Normal	`<F4>`	Selects a code action available at the current cursor position.
Normal	`<Ctrl-w>d`	Show diagnostics in a floating window.
Normal	`[d`	Move to the previous diagnostic.
Normal	`]d`	Move to the next diagnostic.
Normal	`gcc`	Toggle comment in current line.
Operator	`gc`	Toggle comment in text.
Operator	`sa`	Add surrounding.
Normal	`sd`	Delete surrounding.
Normal	`sr`	Surround replace.
Normal	`sf`	Find surrounding.
Normal	`<leader>e`	Toggle file explorer.
Normal	`<leader>E`	Open file explorer in current folder.
Normal	`<leader>bc`	Close current buffer and preserve window layout.
Normal	`<leader>?`	Search oldfiles history.
Normal	`<leader><space>`	Search open buffers.
Normal	`<leader>ff`	Find file in current working directory.
Normal	`<leader>fg`	Search pattern in current working directory. Interactive "grep search".
Normal	`<leader>fd`	Search diagnostics in current file.
Normal	`<leader>fs`	Search pattern in current file.

Autocomplete keybindings

Mode	Key	Action
Insert	`<Ctrl-y>`	Confirm completion.
Insert	`<Enter>`	Confirm completion.
Insert	`<Ctrl-e>`	Cancel completion.
Insert	`<Ctrl-p>`	Move to previous item.
Insert	`<Ctrl-n>`	Move to next item.
Insert	`<Ctrl-u>`	Scroll up in documentation window.
Insert	`<Ctrl-d>`	Scroll down in documentation window.
Insert	`<Ctrl-b>`	Jump to the previous snippet placeholder.
Insert	`<Ctrl-f>`	Jump to the next snippet placeholder.
Insert	`<Ctrl-Space>`	Trigger completion.

Plugin list

Name	Description
lazy.nvim	Plugin manager.
tokyonight.nvim	Collection of colorscheme for Neovim.
which-key.nvim	Provide clues for keymaps.
lualine.nvim	Pretty statusline.
mini.nvim	Collection of independent lua modules that enhance Neovim's features.
plenary.nvim	Collection of lua modules. It helps plugin authors solve common problems.
telescope.nvim	Fuzzy finder.
telescope-zf-native.nvim	A faster sorting algorithm for telescope.
nvim-treesitter	Configures treesitter parsers. Provides modules to manipulate code.
nvim-lspconfig	Quickstart configs for Neovim's LSP client.
nvim-cmp	Autocompletion engine.
cmp-nvim-lsp	nvim-cmp source. Show suggestions based on LSP servers queries.
cmp-buffer	nvim-cmp source. Suggest words in the current buffer.

VonHeikemen/nvim-light