nvim-config

This is a minimal Neovim configuration I use for work. It does not rely on plugin managers and does not execute untrusted code from the internet.

If you want to learn more about this approach, there are plenty of videos and channels on YouTube.

Clone this repository:

git clone git@github.com:bkircher/nvim-config.git ~/.config/nvim

Plugins

You can manage plugins manually in Neovim; see :help packages. In this setup, I use Git submodules to install, update, and track plugins inside the Neovim config directory (~/.config/nvim), and a symlink exposes them on the runtime path:

~/.local/share/nvim/site/pack/plugins → ~/.config/nvim/plugins

Installing new plugins

Create the necessary directories and symlink first:

$ mkdir -p ~/.local/share/nvim/site/pack/
$ cd ~/.local/share/nvim/site/pack

Create a symlink into your Neovim config directory:

$ ln -s ~/.config/nvim/plugins plugins

Then clone the plugin of your choice into your ~/.config/nvim/plugins/start directory. For example, you would install nvim-treesitter as follows:

$ cd ~/.config/nvim
$ git submodule add git@github.com:nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter.git \
    plugins/start/nvim-treesitter

This adds a Git submodule to your source tree, which you can inspect and manage with Git. For example, git submodule lists installed plugins and their pinned revisions. Example output:

$ git submodule
 b03a03148c8b34c24c96960b93da9c8883d11f54 plugins/start/everforest (v0.3.0-116-gb03a031)
 4916d6592ede8c07973490d9322f187e07dfefac plugins/start/nvim-treesitter (v0.9.3-804-g4916d659)
 b9fd5226c2f76c951fc8ed5923d85e4de065e509 plugins/start/plenary.nvim (v0.1.4-38-gb9fd522)
 cfb85dcf7f822b79224e9e6aef9e8c794211b20b plugins/start/telescope.nvim (nvim-0.5.1-665-gcfb85dc)

Updating plugins

To update a plugin, such as nvim-treesitter, navigate to the plugin directory and pull the latest changes:

$ cd ~/.config/nvim/plugins/start/nvim-treesitter
$ git pull

Then reopen Neovim and run :TSUpdate to update parsers if needed.

Defaults and keymaps

• The leader key is \; the local leader is ,.
• The color scheme is Everforest (dark/hard) with a transparent background.
• Tree-sitter is used for highlighting, indentation, and folding in selected file types.
• Quality-of-life keymaps:
  • <C-h/j/k/l> to move between splits
  • <leader>h to clear search highlighting
  • <leader>s to save the buffer if it has changed
  • <leader>l to toggle whitespace indicators
  • <leader>d to open the current word in macOS Dictionary
• Telescope fuzzy finder:
  • <leader>fb to list buffers
  • <leader>ff to find files
  • <leader>fg to live grep (requires ripgrep)
  • <leader>fh to search help tags
• Deno formatting: <leader>f formats the current buffer with deno fmt if deno is installed and the file type or extension is supported.
• Journal helper: <leader>j and :JournalEntry open today's journal file under ~/journal/YYYY/MM/DD.md and append a time heading.
• Commit messages: :CommitMsg generates a commit message from staged changes with pi (requires pi and seatbelt).
• Lua formatting: run stylua init.lua lua/ from the repo root to automatically format Lua code.

Spelling

This config uses a personal word list located at:

~/.config/spelling/en.utf-8.add

• Neovim options set spellfile to that path and set spelllang to en_us and de_de.
• Spell checking is enabled automatically for markdown, gitcommit, and text. Toggle it with <leader>ss in any buffer.
• Add words from inside Neovim with zg (appends to en.utf-8.add).

Recompile after dictionary changes

Recompilation is optional but recommended after large edits to the dictionary file.

From inside Neovim:

:mkspell! ~/.config/spelling/en.utf-8.add

From the shell:

$ nvim -n -u NONE -c "silent mkspell! ~/.config/spelling/en.utf-8.add" -c 'qa'

Note: adding words with zg writes directly to en.utf-8.add, and Neovim uses them immediately.

About vim.pack

Neovim 0.12.0 adds a built-in plugin manager. This config currently uses Git submodules under plugins/start/: four plugins are managed as submodules and loaded through Neovim's native package system (pack/*/start/*) via a symlink ¹.

What vim.pack is

vim.pack is a built-in plugin manager added in Neovim 0.12 (:help vim.pack):

• It is still marked experimental.
• It uses Git under the hood. It clones repositories into site/pack/core/opt/ (the standard data path, not the config directory).
• It provides vim.pack.add(), .update(), .del(), and .get().
• It generates a lockfile (nvim-pack-lock.json) in the config directory to pin revisions.
• vim.pack.add() auto-installs missing plugins on first run, then calls :packadd to load them.
• Updates happen interactively through vim.pack.update() with a confirmation buffer.

Should I switch?

I would not switch yet. Here's why:

1. vim.pack is experimental. The help explicitly warns that it may change, while the submodule approach is stable and well understood.
2. It follows a different philosophy. vim.pack manages plugins in the data directory (~/.local/share/nvim/site/pack/core/opt/), not in the config directory under ~/.config/nvim/plugins/start/. With vim.pack, plugin sources live outside the config and are tracked through a lockfile.
3. The current approach already works well. Submodules provide pinned revisions, reproducible clones (--recurse-submodules), and no dependency on a Neovim API that may still change.
4. It does not address a current pain point. vim.pack mainly helps people who do not want to manage submodules manually, and that workflow is already in place here.

If I were starting from scratch today on 0.12+, vim.pack would be a reasonable choice. It removes the need for the symlink and manual submodule commands. However, migrating a working setup to an experimental API offers little benefit.

TODO

• Add minimal built-in LSP startup that only activates when servers are present (no plugins, no downloads).
• Switch from manual submodules to built-in vim.pack when it becomes stable.

Links

• Neovim home: https://neovim.io/
• Neovim docs: https://neovim.io/doc/
• Neovimcraft: https://neovimcraft.com/
• nvim-treesitter plugin docs: https://github.com/nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter?tab=readme-ov-file#nvim-treesitter
• A vim.pack guide: https://echasnovski.com/blog/2026-03-13-a-guide-to-vim-pack.html

Footnotes

1. The pcall(require, "nvim-treesitter") in lua/user/plugins.lua just ensures the module is available. The plugin itself is already on the runtime path from the start/ directory. ↩