spooky.nvim

Another not-so-minimal plugin for skeleton templates, based on and extending the idea of esqueleto.nvim by Carlos Vigil-Vásquez. Thanks Carl.

Why another?

Because you can't have too many skeleton plugins! :)

spooky referenced a number of plugins for skeleton templates, in particular vim-skeletons and esqueleto.nvim, combining the best of them. It is also designed to be easy on eyes, easy to manage and easy to use.

Supported features:

• Specific or general templates
• Multiple templates (choose at creation)
• Embedding logic inside templates
• Cursor placement
• Syntax highlighting for templates (yet basic)
• Telescope preview for interpolated, syntax highlighted templates
• User command to manually invoke Spooky

Installation

Install with your favourite package manager. If you'd like to use Telescope picker for templates, add telescope.nvim as a dependency.

Configuration

option	type	desc
directory	string	Path to skeletons directory
case_sensitive	boolean	Whether to match skeletons case sensitively (e.g. should Main.py match main.py.skl?)
auto_use_only	boolean	Whether to only use auto-inserted skeletons when only 1 available
ui.select	string	UI to use for selecting templates, one of 'builtin' and 'telescope'
ui.select_full_path	boolean	Whether to show full templates paths or basenames in selection UI
ui.show_no_template	boolean	Whether to show "no template" as a possible choice
ui.prompt	string	Prompt for selecting templates
ui.previewer_prompt	string	Prompt for previewing templates (Telescope only)
ui.preview_normalised	boolean	Whether to show normalised template in preview (Telescope only)
ui.highlight_preview	boolean	Whether to highlight preview (Telescope only)
ui.no_template	string	String for show_no_template
ui.telescope_opts	table	Options to be passed to the picker, e.g. require('telescope.themes').get_ivy {} (Telescope only)

Default configuration:

require('spooky').setup
  { directory = vim.fn.stdpath('config') .. '/skeletons'
  , case_sensitive = false
  , auto_use_only = true
  , ui = { select = 'builtin'
         , select_full_path = false
         , show_no_template = true
         , prompt = 'Select template'
         , previewer_prompt = 'Preview'
         , preview_normalised = true
         , highlight_preview = true
         , no_template = '<No template>'
         , telescope_opts = {}
         }
  }

Usage

You will put your skeletons in a directory of your choice, by default vim.fn.stdpath('config') .. '/skeletons'.

skeletons
├── general
│   ├── java.skl
│   └── python.skl
└── specific
    ├── main.py.skl
    └── test.py.skl -> main.py.skl

Upon file creation, spooky will look at the file name and try to find a specific skeleton. If it can't find one, a general skeleton will be used instead by filetype. Symlink skeletons are fine.

Multiple skeletons may be defined for a single pattern, where you will be prompted to choose one. For example license:

skeletons
└── specific
    └── LICENSE
        ├── Apache.skl
        ├── GNU-v3.skl
        ├── MIT.skl
        └── Unlicense.skl

Check here for my personal skeleton files hierarchy.

Skeleton syntax

Skeleton files use .skl extension. Each template contains an optional preamble and the body. The following is a simple skeleton for Python:

def main():
    

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

The preamble comes to play when you want to use variable interpolation, useful for namespaces, author names, etc. It must start at the beginning of the template file, finished by a line containing three or more dashes.

Say you want to add a module declaration and a main function for a Haskell file, here's what you could do:

return function (buf)
  local name = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_name(buf)
  local basename = vim.fs.basename(name)
  return { module_name = basename:gsub('%.hs$', ''):gsub('^%l', string.upper)
         , _cursor = { 4, 6 }
         }
end
---
module ${module_name} where

main :: IO ()
main = 

If you haven't noticed, the preamble is just a lua function, to be evaluated right before the insertion of template. It accepts the buffer id for which the template is being inserted which should be sufficient for most information about the file, and returns a table of variables to be substituted in the template. Variables are interpolated by wrapping them in ${}.

• If you actually need ${} in your template, set a temporary variable temp = "${}" then interpolate it ${temp} in the body.

Some keys returned by the preamble function are special and will be used by spooky:

• _cursor: ({row, col}) the (1,0)-indexed cursor position after inserting the template, as passed to nvim_win_set_cursor. Within the last example, the cursor will be placed right next to the equal sign to start typing the main function.

Roadmap

spooky is currently, and might forever be in its infancy, so please do expect breaking changes. Things are still quite limited for now: no documentation, no very-fancy ui, restricted customisation, etc. Here are some of the things I would like to add later on¹ (with no order of priority):

• Greater customisation
• Improve existing user options
  • Reorganise
  • Redesign cursor placement?
• Polish on interpolation mechanism
• Project-specific templates?
• Preset templates?
• Make command more useful
• Vimdoc?

If you feel like you can help with any of these, or have better ideas, contributions are welcome; just open a PR and we'll get to work.

Footnotes

1. Those with question marks might not be implemented ↩