A low-config, minimalistic buffer tabline Neovim plugin written in Lua, shamelessly inspired by vim-buftabline.

Install using your favorite plugin manager and call the following Lua code somewhere in your configuration:

require("buftabline").setup {}

If you're using packer.nvim, you can install and set up buftabline simultaneously:

use {
    "jose-elias-alvarez/buftabline.nvim",
    requires = {"kyazdani42/nvim-web-devicons"}, -- optional!
    config = function() require("buftabline").setup {} end
}

Buftabline shows your open buffers in your tabline with (optional) filetype icons and applies highlighting to each tab based its buffer's state. If you want, it'll also show your tabpages (:help tabpages). That's pretty much it.

For convenience, the plugin exposes a function, buftarget(number, command) which will target a buffer in the tabline with a command:

require("buftabline").buftarget(1, "rightbelow sb")

Buftabline includes a built-in buftarget command, go_to_buffer(number), which does what you'd imagine. By default, the plugin maps <Leader>0-9 to the corresponding go_to_buffer command (0 gets converted to 10), but you can disable this by setting go_to_maps to false (see Options).

To simplify the creation of custom commands, buftabline also exposes a map method. The following example will map <Leader>c1 through Leader<c9> to the corresponding bdelete command:

require("buftabline").map({ prefix = "<Leader>c", cmd = "bdelete" })

Lastly, the plugin adds the following Vim commands:

• :ToggleBuftabline (useful for smaller screens / focus sessions)

• :BufNext and :BufPrev (like :bnext and :bprev, but they correspond to bufferline indexes.

For most users, everything should work out-of-the-box, but the plugin exposes the following options (defaults shown):

local options = {
    tab_format = " #{n}: #{b}#{f} ",
    buffer_id_index = false,
    icon_colors = true,
    start_hidden = false,
    auto_hide = false,
    disable_commands = false,
    go_to_maps = true,
    flags = {
        modified = "[+]",
        not_modifiable = "[-]",
        readonly = "[RO]",
    },
    hlgroups = {
        current = "TabLineSel",
        normal = "TabLine",
        active = nil,
        spacing = nil,
        modified_current = nil,
        modified_normal = nil,
        modified_active = nil,
        tabpage_current = nil,
        tabpage_normal = nil
    },
    show_tabpages = true,
    tabpage_format = " #{n} ",
    tabpage_position = "right",
    tabpage_buffers = false
}

The tab_format string accepts the following special options and replaces them with the corresponding buffer information. The plugin won't do anything to other characters, including spaces and separators.

The tabpage_format string accepts the following option:

The hlgroups option is a table that accepts the following keys to allow setting highlight groups based on buffer state. Leaving a value empty will cause the plugin to fall back to the next available group.

Add #{i} to tab_format. For example, to keep the default format but show icons after the buffer's filename:

tab_format = " #{n}: #{b}#{f} #{i} "

• Vim support. Use vim-buftabline!
• Mouse support.
• Visual customization beyond what's available with tab_format.

Aside from these, I'm open to PRs.

Run make test from the plugin's root directory. Depends on plenary.nvim.

• vim-buftabline, the direct inspiration for this plugin and a solid plugin if you don't mind Vimscript.

• nvim-bufbar by @ojroques, who directed me to his plugin and encouraged me to use it as a starting point.

• lightline-bufferline, which gave me the idea to "target" buffers in the tabline with commands.

• nvim-bufferline and barbar.nvim, two tabline plugins that are far and away better than this one but are a little too much for my simple needs. (Thanks to barbar.nvim for its implementation of colored icons, which provided the basis for the implementation in this plugin.)