kickstart.nvim

Introduction

A starting point for Neovim that is:

• Small
• Single-file (with examples of moving to multi-file)
• Documented
• Modular

This repo is meant to be used as by YOU to begin your Neovim journey; remove the things you don't use and add what you miss.

Kickstart.nvim targets only the latest 'stable' and latest 'nightly' of Neovim. If you are experiencing issues, please make sure you have the latest versions.

Distribution Alternatives:

• LazyVim: A delightful distribution maintained by @folke (the author of lazy.nvim, the package manager used here)

Installation

• Backup your previous configuration (if any exists)

Archive Installation

• On the home/landing page for the project find the blue "<> CODE" button click it and select Local > Download ZIP.
• Extract the archive to: ~/.config/nvim (Linux) ~/.config/nvim (MacOS) %userprofile%\AppData\Local\nvim-data\ (Windows)
• Ensure your extraction method did not extract with a parent folder. For example in ~/.config/nvim you should have init.lua not another folder called kickstart.nvim.

Git Clone Installation

• From a terminal cd/dir to: ~/.config/nvim (Linux) ~/.config/nvim (MacOS) %userprofile%\AppData\Local\nvim\ (Windows)

• run: git clone https://github.com/nvim-lua/kickstart.nvim.git ~/.config/nvim OR: gh repo clone nvim-lua/kickstart.nvim

• Run Neovim (from terminal or shortcut) and allow lazy.nvim to download files and set up the basics.

• Once the setup is complete, restart Neovim.

• You're ready to go!

• (Recommended/Optional) Fork this repo (so that you have your own copy that you can modify).

• Clone the kickstart repo into $HOME/.config/nvim/ (Linux/Mac) or %userprofile%\AppData\Local\nvim-data\ (Windows)

  • If you don't want to include it as a git repo, you can just clone it and then move the files to this location

Additional system requirements:

• Make sure to review the readmes of the plugins if you are experiencing errors. In particular:
  • ripgrep is required for multiple telescope pickers.
• See Windows Installation if you have trouble with telescope-fzf-native

Configuration And Extension

• Inside of your copy, feel free to modify any file you like! It's your copy!
• Feel free to change any of the default options in init.lua to better suit your needs.
• For adding plugins, there are 3 primary options:
  • Add new configuration in lua/custom/plugins/* files, which will be auto sourced using lazy.nvim
  • Modify init.lua with additional plugins.
  • Include the lua/kickstart/plugins/* files in your configuration.

You can also merge updates/changes from the repo back into your fork, to keep up-to-date with any changes for the default configuration.

Example: Adding an autopairs plugin

In the file: lua/custom/plugins/autopairs.lua, add:

-- File: lua/custom/plugins/autopairs.lua

return {
  "windwp/nvim-autopairs",
  -- Optional dependency
  dependencies = { 'hrsh7th/nvim-cmp' },
  config = function()
    require("nvim-autopairs").setup {}
    -- If you want to automatically add `(` after selecting a function or method
    local cmp_autopairs = require('nvim-autopairs.completion.cmp')
    local cmp = require('cmp')
    cmp.event:on(
      'confirm_done',
      cmp_autopairs.on_confirm_done()
    )
  end,
}

This will automatically install windwp/nvim-autopairs and enable it on startup. For more information, see documentation for lazy.nvim.

Example: Adding a file tree plugin

In the file: lua/custom/plugins/filetree.lua, add:

-- Unless you are still migrating, remove the deprecated commands from v1.x
vim.cmd([[ let g:neo_tree_remove_legacy_commands = 1 ]])

return {
  "nvim-neo-tree/neo-tree.nvim",
  version = "*",
  dependencies = {
    "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim",
    "nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons", -- not strictly required, but recommended
    "MunifTanjim/nui.nvim",
  },
  config = function ()
    require('neo-tree').setup {}
  end,
}

This will install the tree plugin and add the command :Neotree for you. You can explore the documentation at neo-tree.nvim for more information.

Contribution

Pull-requests are welcome. The goal of this repo is not to create a Neovim configuration framework, but to offer a starting template that shows, by example, available features in Neovim. Some things that will not be included:

• Custom language server configuration (null-ls templates)
• Theming beyond a default colorscheme necessary for LSP highlight groups

Each PR, especially those which increase the line count, should have a description as to why the PR is necessary.

FAQ

• What should I do if I already have a pre-existing neovim configuration?
  • You should back it up, then delete all files associated with it.
  • This includes your existing init.lua and the neovim files in ~/.local which can be deleted with rm -rf ~/.local/share/nvim/
  • You may also want to look at the migration guide for lazy.nvim
• What if I want to "uninstall" this configuration:
  • See lazy.nvim uninstall information
• Are there any cool videos about this plugin?
  • Current iteration of kickstart (coming soon)
  • Here is one about the previous iteration of kickstart: video introduction to Kickstart.nvim. Note the install via init.lua no longer works as specified. Please follow the install instructions in this file instead as they're up to date.

Windows Installation

Installation may require installing build tools, and updating the run command for telescope-fzf-native

See telescope-fzf-native documentation for more details

This requires:

• Install CMake, and the Microsoft C++ Build Tools on Windows

{'nvim-telescope/telescope-fzf-native.nvim', build = 'cmake -S. -Bbuild -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release && cmake --build build --config Release && cmake --install build --prefix build' }