neovim: config and enhance

July 29, 2025

Preface #

I believe the reason why people choose to use neovim is person to person. As for me, neovim give me a lightweight and fast edit environment in terminal which i used to connect to my nixOS server.

The more detail about the architecture about neovim you can check DESOSA 2017¹.

And there are some material maybe you can use during the configuration:

Lua tutorial: Learn Lua in Y minutes²

Basic Configuration #

On the very beginning, you’d better follow the official guide³ to install neovim, and then create the config directory located in ~/.config/nvim on Unix-like systems.

And the best practice about the organization of config files is put them separately⁴⁵. Therefore, The article will do such thing as well but more simple and easy to debug.

.
├── init.lua // the entry file for neovim
└── lua // the directory for lua files using to configure neovim separately
    ├── keymaps.lua
    ├── options.lua
    ├── pluginator.lua
    ├── ...
    └── ...

Neovim behavior #

We put the basic behavior configuration of neovim into options.lua including these features:

using osc52 to copy to system clipboard
fix the tab behavior
enhance ui logic and search behavior

-- system
vim.opt.clipboard = 'unnamedplus' -- uses the + register to cooperate with system
vim.g.clipboard = 'osc52'         -- copy to the system clipboard using OSC 52
vim.opt.mouse = 'a'               -- allow the mouse to be used in Nvim

-- Tab
vim.opt.tabstop = 4      -- number of visual spaces per TAB
vim.opt.softtabstop = 4  -- number of spacesin tab when editing
vim.opt.shiftwidth = 4   -- insert 4 spaces on a tab
vim.opt.expandtab = true -- tabs are spaces, mainly because of python

-- UI config
vim.opt.number = true         -- show absolute number
vim.opt.relativenumber = true -- add numbers to each line on the left side
vim.opt.cursorline = true     -- highlight cursor line underneath the cursor horizontally
vim.opt.splitbelow = true     -- open new vertical split bottom
vim.opt.splitright = true     -- open new horizontal splits right
vim.opt.termguicolors = true  -- enabl 24-bit RGB color in the TUI

-- Searching
vim.opt.incsearch = true  -- search as characters are entered
vim.opt.ignorecase = true -- ignore case in searches by default
vim.opt.hlsearch = true   -- highlight all matches
vim.opt.smartcase = true  -- make it case sensitive if an uppercase is entered

and then we can load this file in the init.lua:

require('options') -- load the options file

Neovim keymaps #

create a new lua file named keymaps.lua in the lua directory, and put the following configuration in it which is including these features:

resize windows with arrows
move cursor word-by-word
exit terminal mode with Esc
enter command-line mode with Option + P
set leader key to space

local opts = {
    noremap = true, -- non-recursive
    silent = true,  -- do not show message
}

vim.g.mapleader = ' '

-- Resize windows size with arrows
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader><Up>', ':resize +2<CR>', opts)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader><Down>', ':resize -2<CR>', opts)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader><Left>', ':vertical resize -2<CR>', opts)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader><Right>', ':vertical resize +2<CR>', opts)

-- Cursor movement
-- Meta/Alt/Option + Left/Right/Up/Down: Move word-by-word
vim.keymap.set('n', '<M-Left>', 'b', opts)       -- Previous word
vim.keymap.set('n', '<M-Right>', 'w', opts)      -- Next word
vim.keymap.set('i', '<M-Left>', '<C-o>b', opts)  -- Previous word in insert mode
vim.keymap.set('i', '<M-Right>', '<C-o>w', opts) -- Next word in insert mode

-- Terminal mode
vim.keymap.set('t', '<Esc>', '<C-\\><C-n>', opts) -- Exit terminal mode with Esc

-- Command-line mode
vim.keymap.set('n', '<M-p>', ':', opts) -- Option + P to enter command-line mode

and then we can load this file in the init.lua as well:

require('keymaps') -- load the keymaps file

Plugins Manager #

i choose to use lazy.nvim as the plugins manager. You can follow the official guide⁶ to install it, and then create a new lua file named pluginator.lua in the lua directory.

-- Bootstrap lazy.nvim
local lazypath = vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/lazy/lazy.nvim"
if not (vim.uv or vim.loop).fs_stat(lazypath) then
  local lazyrepo = "https://github.com/folke/lazy.nvim.git"
  local out = vim.fn.system({ "git", "clone", "--filter=blob:none", "--branch=stable", lazyrepo, lazypath })
  if vim.v.shell_error ~= 0 then
    vim.api.nvim_echo({
      { "Failed to clone lazy.nvim:\n", "ErrorMsg" },
      { out, "WarningMsg" },
      { "\nPress any key to exit..." },
    }, true, {})
    vim.fn.getchar()
    os.exit(1)
  end
end
vim.opt.rtp:prepend(lazypath)

-- Setup lazy.nvim
require("lazy").setup({
  spec = {
    -- import your plugins
    { import = "plugins" },
  },
  install = { colorscheme = { "catppuccin" } },
  checker = { enabled = true },
})

Neovim themes #

we can create a new lua file named colorscheme.lua in the lua directory to configure neovim theme. It is referred to MartinLwx’s blog⁷.

-- define your colorscheme here
local colorscheme = 'catppuccin'

local is_ok, _ = pcall(vim.cmd, "colorscheme " .. colorscheme)
if not is_ok then
    vim.notify('colorscheme ' .. colorscheme .. ' not found!')
    return
end

And then we add catppuccin theme to lazy vim in plugins/catppuccin.lua.

return {
    "catppuccin/nvim",
    name = "catppuccin",
    priority = 1000
}

Advanced Neovim Plugins #

There is more plugins you can add to the plugins directory to enhance your neovim experience.

blink.cmp: completion plugin with support for LSPs, cmdline, signature help, and snippets.
mason-lspconfig: bridge mason.nvim(LSP manager) with the lspconfig plugin - making it easier to use both plugins together.
nvim-treesitter: provide a simple and easy way to use the interface for tree-sitter in Neovim and to provide some basic functionality such as highlighting based on it.
ui
- bufferline.nvim: tabbar for Neovim at the top.
- lualine.nvim: statusline for Neovim at the bottom.
- neo-tree.nvim: file explorer tree for neovim.
- noice.nvim: completely replaces the UI for messages, cmdline and the popupmenu.

Delft Students on Software Architecture about Neovim, 2017. ↩︎
Learn Lua in Y minutes, a certain year. ↩︎
Neovim official guide to install, a certain year. ↩︎
The config file tree about LazyVim, a certain year. ↩︎
The config file tree about AstroNvim, a certain year. ↩︎
Lazy.nvim official guide to install, a certain year. ↩︎
MartinLwx’s blog about neovim config, 06 27, 2025. ↩︎