A starting point for Neovim that is:
- Small
- Single-file
- Completely Documented
NOT a Neovim distribution, but instead a starting point for your configuration.
Kickstart.nvim targets only the latest 'stable' and latest 'nightly' of Neovim. If you are experiencing issues, please make sure you have the latest versions.
NOTE Backup your previous configuration (if any exists)
External Requirements:
- Basic utils:
git
,make
,unzip
, C Compiler (gcc
) - ripgrep
- Language Setup:
- If want to write Typescript, you need
npm
- If want to write Golang, you will need
go
- etc.
- If want to write Typescript, you need
NOTE See Windows Installation to double check any additional Windows notes
Neovim's configurations are located under the following paths, depending on your OS:
OS | PATH |
---|---|
Linux, MacOS | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim , ~/.config/nvim |
Windows (cmd) | %userprofile%\AppData\Local\nvim\ |
Windows (powershell) | $env:USERPROFILE\AppData\Local\nvim\ |
Clone kickstart.nvim:
Linux and Mac
git clone https://github.com/madpin/kickstart.nvim.git "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}"/nvim
Windows
If you're using cmd.exe
:
git clone https://github.com/madpin/kickstart.nvim.git %userprofile%\AppData\Local\nvim\
If you're using powershell.exe
git clone https://github.com/madpin/kickstart.nvim.git $env:USERPROFILE\AppData\Local\nvim\
Start Neovim
nvim
That's it! Lazy will install all the plugins you have. Use :Lazy
to view
current plugin status.
Read through the init.lua
file in your configuration folder for more
information about extending and exploring Neovim.
The Only Video You Need to Get Started with Neovim
Fork this repo (so that you have your own copy that you can modify) and then installing you can install to your machine using the methods above.
NOTE Your fork's url will be something like this:
https://github.com/<your_github_username>/kickstart.nvim.git
NOTE: You'll need to uncomment the line in the init.lua that turns on loading custom plugins.
Adding autopairs
This will automatically install windwp/nvim-autopairs and enable it on startup. For more information, see documentation for lazy.nvim.
In the file: lua/custom/plugins/autopairs.lua
, add:
-- File: lua/custom/plugins/autopairs.lua
return {
"windwp/nvim-autopairs",
-- Optional dependency
dependencies = { 'hrsh7th/nvim-cmp' },
config = function()
require("nvim-autopairs").setup {}
-- If you want to automatically add `(` after selecting a function or method
local cmp_autopairs = require('nvim-autopairs.completion.cmp')
local cmp = require('cmp')
cmp.event:on(
'confirm_done',
cmp_autopairs.on_confirm_done()
)
end,
}
Adding a file tree plugin
This will install the tree plugin and add the command :Neotree
for you. You can explore the documentation at neo-tree.nvim for more information.
In the file: lua/custom/plugins/filetree.lua
, add:
-- Unless you are still migrating, remove the deprecated commands from v1.x
vim.cmd([[ let g:neo_tree_remove_legacy_commands = 1 ]])
return {
"nvim-neo-tree/neo-tree.nvim",
version = "*",
dependencies = {
"nvim-lua/plenary.nvim",
"nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons", -- not strictly required, but recommended
"MunifTanjim/nui.nvim",
},
config = function ()
require('neo-tree').setup {}
end,
}
- What should I do if I already have a pre-existing neovim configuration?
- You should back it up, then delete all files associated with it.
- This includes your existing init.lua and the neovim files in
~/.local
which can be deleted withrm -rf ~/.local/share/nvim/
- Can I keep my existing configuration in parallel to kickstart?
- Yes! You can use NVIM_APPNAME
=nvim-NAME
to maintain multiple configurations. For example you can install the kickstart configuration in~/.config/nvim-kickstart
and create an alias:When you run Neovim usingalias nvim-kickstart='NVIM_APPNAME="nvim-kickstart" nvim'
nvim-kickstart
alias it will use the alternative config directory and the matching local directory~/.local/share/nvim-kickstart
. You can apply this approach to any Neovim distribution that you would like to try out.
- Yes! You can use NVIM_APPNAME
- What if I want to "uninstall" this configuration:
- See lazy.nvim uninstall information
- Why is the kickstart
init.lua
a single file? Wouldn't it make sense to split it into multiple files?- The main purpose of kickstart is to serve as a teaching tool and a reference
configuration that someone can easily
git clone
as a basis for their own. As you progress in learning Neovim and Lua, you might consider splittinginit.lua
into smaller parts. A fork of kickstart that does this while maintaining the exact same functionality is available here: - Discussions on this topic can be found here:
- The main purpose of kickstart is to serve as a teaching tool and a reference
configuration that someone can easily
Installation may require installing build tools, and updating the run command for telescope-fzf-native
See telescope-fzf-native
documentation for more details
This requires:
- Install CMake, and the Microsoft C++ Build Tools on Windows
{'nvim-telescope/telescope-fzf-native.nvim', build = 'cmake -S. -Bbuild -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release && cmake --build build --config Release && cmake --install build --prefix build' }
Alternatively one can install gcc and make which don't require changing the config, the easiest way is to use choco:
- install chocolatey either follow the instructions on the page or use winget, run in cmd as admin:
winget install --accept-source-agreements chocolatey.chocolatey
- install all requirements using choco, exit previous cmd and open a new one so that choco path is set, run in cmd as admin:
choco install -y neovim git ripgrep wget fd unzip gzip mingw make
Then continue with the Install Kickstart step.