kickstart.nvim

Introduction

A starting point for Neovim that is:

• Small
• Single-file
• Completely Documented

NOT a Neovim distribution, but instead a starting point for your configuration.

Installation

Install Neovim

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.

Install External Dependencies

External Requirements:

• Basic utils: git, make, unzip, C Compiler (gcc)
• ripgrep
• A Nerd Font: optional, provides various icons
  • if you have it set vim.g.have_nerd_font in init.lua to true
• Language Setup:
  • If want to write Typescript, you need npm
  • If want to write Golang, you will need go
  • etc.

Note

See Install Recipes for additional Windows and Linux specific notes and quick install snippets

Install Kickstart

Note

Backup your previous configuration (if any exists)

Neovim's configurations are located under the following paths, depending on your OS:

OS	PATH
Linux, MacOS	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim, ~/.config/nvim
Windows (cmd)	%userprofile%\AppData\Local\nvim\
Windows (powershell)	$env:USERPROFILE\AppData\Local\nvim\

Recommended Step

Fork this repo so that you have your own copy that you can modify, then install by cloning the fork to your machine using one of the commands below, depending on your OS.

Note

Your fork's url will be something like this: https://github.com/<your_github_username>/kickstart.nvim.git

Clone kickstart.nvim

Note

If following the recommended step above (i.e., forking the repo), replace nvim-lua with <your_github_username> in the commands below

Linux and Mac

git clone https://github.com/nvim-lua/kickstart.nvim.git "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}"/nvim

Windows

If you're using cmd.exe:

git clone https://github.com/nvim-lua/kickstart.nvim.git %userprofile%\AppData\Local\nvim\

If you're using powershell.exe

git clone https://github.com/nvim-lua/kickstart.nvim.git $env:USERPROFILE\AppData\Local\nvim\

Post Installation

Start Neovim

nvim

That's it! Lazy will install all the plugins you have. Use :Lazy to view current plugin status. Hit q to close the window.

Read through the init.lua file in your configuration folder for more information about extending and exploring Neovim.

Examples of adding popularly requested plugins

NOTE: You'll need to uncomment the line in the init.lua that turns on loading custom plugins.

Adding autopairs

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

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,
}

Adding a file tree plugin

This will install the tree plugin and add the command :Neotree for you. For more information, see the documentation at neo-tree.nvim.

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

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

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,
}

Getting Started

The Only Video You Need to Get Started with Neovim

FAQ

• What should I do if I already have a pre-existing neovim configuration?
  • You should back it up and then delete all associated files.
  • This includes your existing init.lua and the neovim files in ~/.local which can be deleted with rm -rf ~/.local/share/nvim/
• Can I keep my existing configuration in parallel to kickstart?
  • Yes! You can use NVIM_APPNAME=nvim-NAME to maintain multiple configurations. For example, you can install the kickstart configuration in ~/.config/nvim-kickstart and create an alias:

    alias nvim-kickstart='NVIM_APPNAME="nvim-kickstart" nvim'
    

    When you run Neovim using nvim-kickstart alias it will use the alternative config directory and the matching local directory ~/.local/share/nvim-kickstart. You can apply this approach to any Neovim distribution that you would like to try out.
• What if I want to "uninstall" this configuration:
  • See lazy.nvim uninstall information
• Why is the kickstart init.lua a single file? Wouldn't it make sense to split it into multiple files?
  • The main purpose of kickstart is to serve as a teaching tool and a reference configuration that someone can easily use to git clone as a basis for their own. As you progress in learning Neovim and Lua, you might consider splitting init.lua into smaller parts. A fork of kickstart that does this while maintaining the same functionality is available here:
    • kickstart-modular.nvim
  • Discussions on this topic can be found here:
    • Restructure the configuration
    • Reorganize init.lua into a multi-file setup

Install Recipes

Below you can find OS specific install instructions for Neovim and dependencies.

After installing all the dependencies continue with the Install Kickstart step.

Windows Installation

Windows with Microsoft C++ Build Tools and CMake

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' }

Windows with gcc/make using chocolatey

Alternatively, one can install gcc and make which don't require changing the config, the easiest way is to use choco:

1. install chocolatey either follow the instructions on the page or use winget, run in cmd as admin:

winget install --accept-source-agreements chocolatey.chocolatey

2. install all requirements using choco, exit previous cmd and open a new one so that choco path is set, and run in cmd as admin:

choco install -y neovim git ripgrep wget fd unzip gzip mingw make

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

wsl --install
wsl
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:neovim-ppa/unstable -y
sudo apt update
sudo apt install make gcc ripgrep unzip neovim

Linux Install

Ubuntu Install Steps

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:neovim-ppa/unstable -y
sudo apt update
sudo apt install make gcc ripgrep unzip git neovim

Debian Install Steps

sudo apt update
sudo apt install make gcc ripgrep unzip git
echo "deb https://deb.debian.org/debian unstable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -t unstable neovim

Fedora Install Steps

sudo dnf install -y gcc make git ripgrep fd-find unzip neovim

Arch Install Steps

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm --needed gcc make git ripgrep fd unzip neovim