Neovim Configuration

A custom Neovim setup I use on a daily basis. This repository mainly serves as my personal reference for the setup steps.

Features

This section lists the plugins used in this Neovim configuration to enhance functionality and development experience.

• alpha: Add a Dashboard to Neovim. Link
• catppuccin: pastel theme Link
• copilot: AI-powered code completion. Link
• copilot chat: AI-powered chat. Link
• devicons: Provides Nerd Font icons for use by Neovim plugins Link
• diffview: Cycle through all diffs for all modified files. Link
• fugitive: Git integration for Neovim. Link
• gitsigns: Displays Git signs in the gutter and provides Git-related utilities. Link
• lazy: Plugin Manager Link
• lualine: Customizable status line for Neovim. Link
• modicator: Changes the color of your cursor's line number based on the current Vim mode Link
• oil: File explorer, to edit filesystem like a buffer Link
• telescope: Fuzzy finder for files, buffers, and more. Link
• todo: Highlights and manages TODO comments. Link
• toggleterm: Persist and toggle multiple terminals Link
• treesitter: Syntax highlighting and code parsing. Link

Requirements

The following tools are required to use this Neovim configuration:

• Neovim >= 0.12.0: The core editor. Link
• tar and curl in your PATH: Required for downloading and extracting Tree-sitter grammars.
  • tar is used to extract parser archives
  • curl is used to fetch grammar repositories
  • On Windows 10/11 usually already available via C:\Windows\System32
• npm: Needed for dependencies Link
  • Biome: Install via npm:

    npm install -g @biomejs/biome

  • Intelephense: Install via npm:

    npm install -g intelephense

  • tree-sitter-cli: Install via npm:

    npm install -g tree-sitter-cli 

  • tree-sitter-cli: Install via npm:

    npm install -g typescript-language-server typescript

• Environment Variables:
  • MinGW64: Download MinGW64 and add the mingw64\bin folder to your PATH, e.g., C:\env_vars\mingw64\bin.
  • Ripgrep: Download Ripgrep and add its folder to your PATH, e.g., C:\env_vars\ripgrep.
  • Lua Language Server: (optional, but recommended): Download Lua Language Server and add its folder to your PATH, e.g., C:\env_vars\lls.
  • marksman: (optional, for Zettelkasten system): Download Marksman add the .exe to a folder and add this folder to your PATH, e.g., C:\env_vars\marksman.
  • Make sure to add npm global packages to your PATH. You can find the path by running:

    npm config get prefix

• Nerd Fonts: Download and install the Nerd Font of your choice and set it as the font in your terminal for proper icon rendering.

Shortcuts

The following table lists key mappings for this Neovim configuration:

Shortcut	Mode	Description
<C-a>	Normal	Select all text in the current buffer
<C-u>	Normal	Redo last change
<leader>q	Normal	Exit current file
<leader>s	Normal	Replace current word in file
<leader>n	Normal	Jump to next diagnostic error
<leader>N	Normal	Jump to previous diagnostic error
<leader>v	Normal	Open or close vertical split and move focus
<leader>h	Normal	Move focus to the left window
<leader>l	Normal	Move focus to the right window
<leader>i	Normal	Select inside parentheses
<leader>o	Normal	Select inside braces
<leader>w	Normal	Format current buffer
<leader>d	Normal	Jump to definition
<leader>^	Normal	Jump to previous buffer
<leader>u	Normal	Toggle Undotree
<leader>p	Normal	Toggle Dashboard
<leader>g	Normal	Toggle DiffView
<leader>r	Normal	Toggle Fugitive
<leader>f	Normal	Telescope: Find file
<leader>e	Normal	Telescope: Grep string
<leader>c	Normal/Terminal	Toggle Termninal
#	Visual	Comment highlighted lines
J	Visual	Move highlighted line down
K	Visual	Move highlighted line up
<leader>p	Visual	Paste without overwriting clipboard

Installation

1. Clone the Repository

Windows

If you already use Neovim, delete or rename the nvim and nvim-data folders.
If not, create an nvim directory.

Clone this repository into your Neovim config folder:

git clone https://github.com/Collabo93/init.git %LOCALAPPDATA%/nvim

Linux

Clone into the Neovim config directory:

git clone https://github.com/Collabo93/init.git ~/.config/nvim

2. (Optional) Place parsers in the correct location

Only required if you are not an administrator on your machine and cannot install parsers. Place the parser and parser-info folders from nvim-parsers into the following location so Tree-sitter can detect them:

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\nvim-data\site
• Linux: ~/.config/nvim-data/site

3. Start Neovim

Open Neovim:

nvim

Wait until lazy automatically installs all plugins.

4. Customize Your Settings

You can customize the configuration files to fit your preferences:

4.1 Directory Setup

Set your root directory, of all your projects, in the alpha.lua file:

• Windows and Linux: %LOCALAPPDATA%\nvim\lua\plugins\alpha.lua or ~/.config/nvim/lua/plugins/alpha.lua

  -- Add your project root directory here --
  local projects_root = vim.fn.expand("~/Documents/repos/")

4.2 copilot

If you want to use GitHub Copilot, invoke the command :Copilot setup in Neovim to set up your GitHub account.

4.3 Background Image

By default, this setup has a transparent background to support a terminal background image. You have two options:

a) Set a background image
Example images are in this directory:

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\nvim\dashboard_img\
• Linux: ~/.config/nvim/dashboard_img

b) Deactivate the transparent background

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\nvim\lua\plugins\catppuccin.lua
• Linux: ~/.config/nvim/lua/plugins/catppuccin.lua

Comment or delete this line:

transparent_background = true,

5. Project-Specific Configuration

Copy the following configuration files into each of your projects to ensure consistent code formatting:

• biome.json

Done!

Restart Neovim, and you're done!