Minimal Neovim Config

A super-minimal Neovim configuration contained in a single init.lua.

It keeps Neovim close to the defaults while adding only the essentials: sensible editor options, syntax highlighting, language-server support, fast file search, image support, and a few practical keymaps. There is no configuration framework, completion engine, statusline, dashboard, or file explorer.

Requirements

• Neovim 0.12+ for the built-in vim.pack package manager
• Git for downloading plugins
• A Nerd Font is recommended for file icons
• A terminal supporting the Kitty graphics protocol for images, such as Kitty, Ghostty, or WezTerm
• ImageMagick for converting non-PNG images
• The language-server executables you want to use; this configuration does not install them

Installation

Back up an existing configuration, then clone this repository:

mv ~/.config/nvim ~/.config/nvim.bak
git clone <repository-url> ~/.config/nvim
nvim

On first launch, Neovim installs the plugins and Tree-sitter parsers automatically. FFF downloads a prebuilt search binary, or builds one when necessary.

Replace <repository-url> with this repository's Git URL.

What is included

Plugins

Plugins are installed with Neovim's native vim.pack.add() API.

Plugin	Purpose
nvim-treesitter	Fast, accurate syntax highlighting
fff	Fuzzy file finding and live grep
nvim-web-devicons	File-type icons used by plugins
snacks.nvim	Inline terminal image rendering
lean.nvim	Lean language support and mappings
nvim-lspconfig	Language-server configurations

Tree-sitter parsers are installed for Lua, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, JSON, Bash, Zig, Odin, Go, Go templates, C, C++, and Rust.

The PackChanged autocommand performs plugin-specific setup after installs and updates:

• Downloads or builds the FFF native binary.
• Runs TSUpdate for Tree-sitter parsers.

Plugin revisions are recorded in nvim-pack-lock.json for reproducible installs. Do not edit this file manually.

Language servers

Neovim's built-in LSP client is enabled for:

• Python (pyrefly)
• Go and Go templates (gopls)
• Rust (rust_analyzer)
• JavaScript and TypeScript (tsc)
• JSON (jsonls)
• HTML (html)
• CSS (cssls)
• Lua (lua_ls)

gopls recognizes .gotmpl and .gohtml template files. lua_ls is configured for Neovim's LuaJIT runtime unless the workspace supplies its own .luarc.json or .luarc.jsonc.

Editor behavior

The configuration enables:

• Absolute and relative line numbers
• System clipboard integration
• Cursor-line highlighting
• Four-space indentation with spaces
• Persistent undo in ~/.cache/nvim/undodir
• Visible whitespace characters
• Recursive file lookup through path=**
• True-color support and Neovim's built-in retrobox colorscheme

Line wrapping, swap files, and backup files are disabled.

Keymaps

The leader key is Space.

Mode	Key	Action
Normal	<Space>ff	Find files with FFF
Normal	<Space>fg	Live grep with FFF
Normal/Visual	<Space>fw	Grep the word under the cursor or selected text
Normal	Alt-h	Open a terminal below the current window
Terminal	Esc	Return to Normal mode
Visual	J	Move the selected lines down
Visual	K	Move the selected lines up

Plugin updates

Run the native package update UI from Neovim:

:lua vim.pack.update()

Review and confirm the changes. The lockfile and plugin-specific setup hooks are updated automatically.

Repository layout

.
├── init.lua             # Complete Neovim configuration
├── nvim-pack-lock.json  # Locked plugin revisions
└── README.md

Minimal by design

This config provides a small editing foundation rather than a complete IDE. It includes language-server integration, but formatting, linting, debugging, snippets, and autocompletion are intentionally left out. Add only the tools you actually need and keep the setup understandable.