How I organize my Neovim configuration

The entry point for my Neovim Configuration is the init.lua file.

Init.lua

My entrypoint file simply requires three other files:

require 'user.plugins'
require 'user.options'
require 'user.keymaps'

The user.plugins file is where I’m using Packer to require plugins for my configuration. I will be writing other posts around some of the plugins I use soon.

The user.options file is where I set all of the Neovim settings. Things such as mapping my leader key and setting number of spaces per tab:

vim.g.mapleader = " "
vim.g.maplocalleader = " "

vim.opt.expandtab = true
vim.opt.shiftwidth = 4
vim.opt.tabstop = 4
vim.opt.softtabstop = 4

...etc...

Finally, the user.keymaps file is where I set any general keymaps that aren’t associated with any specific plugins. For example, here I am remapping the arrow keys to specific buffer-related actions:

-- Easier buffer navigation.
vim.keymap.set("n", "", ":bp", { noremap = true, silent = true })
vim.keymap.set("n", "", ":bn", { noremap = true, silent = true })
vim.keymap.set("n", "", ":bd", { noremap = true, silent = true })
vim.keymap.set("n", "", ":%bd", { noremap = true, silent = true })

In that example, the left and right keys navigate to previous and next buffers. The down key closes the current buffer and the up key is the nuclear button that closes all open buffers.

Plugin-specific setup and mappings

For any plugin-specific setup and mappings, I am using Neovim’s “after” directory.

Basically, for every plugin you install, you can add a lua file within a directory at ./after/plugin/ from the root of your Neovim configuration.

So for example, to add settings / mappings for the “vim-test” plugin, I have added a file at: ./after/plugin/vim-test.lua with the following contents:

vim.cmd([[
  let test#php#phpunit#executable = 'docker-compose exec -T laravel.test php artisan test'
  let test#php#phpunit#options = '--colors=always'
  let g:test#strategy = 'neovim'
  let test#neovim#term_position = "vert botright 85"
  let g:test#neovim#start_normal = 1
]])

vim.keymap.set('n', 'tn', ':TestNearest', { silent = false })
vim.keymap.set('n', 'tf', ':TestFile', { silent = false })
vim.keymap.set('n', 'ts', ':TestSuite', { silent = false })
vim.keymap.set('n', 'tl', ':TestLast', { silent = false })
vim.keymap.set('n', 'tv', ':TestVisit', { silent = false })

This means that these settings and bindings will only be registered after the vim-test plugin has been loaded.

I used to just have extra required files in my main init.lua file, but this feels so much more cleaner in my opinion.

Update: 9th February 2023 — when setting up Neovim on a fresh system, I notice that I get a bunch of errors from the after files as they are executing on boot, before I’ve actually installed the plugins. I will add protected calls to the plugins soon to mitigate these errors.

David Peach