- Quick set up tutorial (by @Vimjoyer)
- Nixvim: How to configure Neovim with the power of Nix (NeovimConf 2023 talk by @GaetanLepage)
NixVim is a Neovim distribution built around Nix modules. It is distributed as a Nix flake, and configured through Nix, all while leaving room for your plugins and your vimrc.
Here is a simple configuration that uses catppuccin as the colorscheme and uses the lualine plugin:
{
programs.nixvim = {
enable = true;
colorschemes.catppuccin.enable = true;
plugins.lualine.enable = true;
};
}When we do this, lualine will be set up to a sensible default, and will use catppuccin as the colorscheme, no extra configuration required!
Check out this list of real world nixvim configs!
When you build the module (probably using home-manager), it will install all your plugins and generate a lua config for NeoVim with all the options specified. Because it uses lua, this ensures that your configuration will load as fast as possible.
Since everything is disabled by default, it will be as snappy as you want it to be.
Most plugins have a settings option, which accepts any nix attribute set
and translate it into a lua table. This is then passed to the plugin's setup
function. In practice this means if a plugin has a settings option, any plugin
option can be configured, even if we don't explicitly have a corresponding nix
option.
If you just want to add additional lines of lua to your init.lua, you can use
extraConfigLua, extraConfigLuaPre, and extraConfigLuaPost.
If you want to assign lua code to an option that'd normally accept another type
(string, int, etc), you can use nixvim's "raw type", { __raw = "lua code"; }.
Example
This nix code:
{
some_option.__raw = "function() print('hello, world!') end";
}Will produce the following lua:
{
['some_option'] = function() print('hello, world!') end,
}If you have any question, please use the discussions page! Alternatively, join the Matrix channel at #nixvim:matrix.org!
Warning
NixVim needs to be installed with a compatible nixpkgs version.
This means that the main branch of NixVim requires to be installed with nixos-unstable.
If you want to use NixVim with nixpkgs 24.11 you should use the nixos-24.11 branch.
For more detail, see the Installation section of our documentation.
Without flakes
NixVim now ships with flake-compat, which makes it usable from any system.
To install it, edit your home-manager (or NixOS) configuration:
{ pkgs, lib, ... }:
let
nixvim = import (builtins.fetchGit {
url = "https://github.com/nix-community/nixvim";
# If you are not running an unstable channel of nixpkgs, select the corresponding branch of nixvim.
# ref = "nixos-24.11";
});
in
{
imports = [
# For home-manager
nixvim.homeManagerModules.nixvim
# For NixOS
nixvim.nixosModules.nixvim
# For nix-darwin
nixvim.nixDarwinModules.nixvim
];
programs.nixvim.enable = true;
}Using flakes
This is the recommended method if you are already using flakes to manage your
system. To enable flakes, add this to /etc/nixos/configuration.nix
{ pkgs, lib, ... }:
{
nix = {
settings.experimental-features = [ "nix-command" "flakes" ];
};
}Now, you need to import the module. If your system is already configured using flakes, just add the nixvim input:
{
# ...
inputs.nixvim = {
url = "github:nix-community/nixvim";
# If you are not running an unstable channel of nixpkgs, select the corresponding branch of nixvim.
# url = "github:nix-community/nixvim/nixos-24.11";
inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
};
}You can now access the module using inputs.nixvim.homeManagerModules.nixvim,
for a home-manager installation, inputs.nixvim.nixosModules.nixvim, for NixOS,
and inputs.nixvim.nixDarwinModules.nixvim for nix-darwin.
NixVim can be used in four ways: through the home-manager, nix-darwin, NixOS modules,
and standalone through the makeNixvim function. To use the modules, just import the
nixvim.homeManagerModules.nixvim, nixvim.nixDarwinModules.nixvim, and
nixvim.nixosModules.nixvim modules, depending on which system
you're using.
For more detail, see the Usage section of our documentation.
If you want to use it standalone, you can use the makeNixvim function:
{ pkgs, nixvim, ... }: {
environment.systemPackages = [
(nixvim.legacyPackages."${pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system}".makeNixvim {
colorschemes.gruvbox.enable = true;
})
];
}To get started with a standalone configuration, you can use the template by running the following command in an empty directory (recommended):
nix flake init --template github:nix-community/nixvim
Alternatively, if you want a minimal flake to allow building a custom neovim you can use the following:
Minimal flake configuration
{
description = "A very basic flake";
inputs.nixvim.url = "github:nix-community/nixvim";
outputs = {
self,
nixvim,
flake-parts,
} @ inputs: let
config = {
colorschemes.gruvbox.enable = true;
};
in
flake-parts.lib.mkFlake {inherit inputs;} {
systems = [
"aarch64-darwin"
"aarch64-linux"
"x86_64-darwin"
"x86_64-linux"
];
perSystem = {
pkgs,
system,
...
}: let
nixvim' = nixvim.legacyPackages."${system}";
nvim = nixvim'.makeNixvim config;
in {
packages = {
inherit nvim;
default = nvim;
};
};
};
}You can then run neovim using nix run .# -- <file>. This can be useful to test
config changes easily.
You may want more control over the nixvim modules, like:
- Splitting your configuration in multiple files
- Adding custom nix modules to enhance nixvim
- Change the nixpkgs used by nixvim
In this case, you can use the makeNixvimWithModule function.
It takes a set with the following keys:
pkgs: The nixpkgs to use (defaults to the nixpkgs pointed at by the nixvim flake)module: The nix module definition used to extend nixvim. This is useful to pass additional module machinery likeoptionsorimports.extraSpecialArgs: Extra arguments to pass to the modules when using functions. Can beselfin a flake, for example.
For more detail, see the Standalone Usage section of our documentation.
You can also use nixvim to define an instance which will only be available inside a Nix devShell:
devShell configuration
let
nvim = nixvim.legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.makeNixvim {
plugins.lsp.enable = true;
};
in pkgs.mkShell {
buildInputs = [nvim];
};Documentation is available on this project's GitHub Pages page: https://nix-community.github.io/nixvim
The stable documentation is also available at https://nix-community.github.io/nixvim/24.11.
If the option enableMan is set to true (by default it is), man pages will also
be installed containing the same information, they can be viewed with man nixvim.
After you have installed NixVim, you will no doubt want to enable some plugins. Plugins are based on a modules system, similarly to NixOS and Home Manager.
So, to enable some supported plugin, all you have to do is enable its module:
{
programs.nixvim = {
plugins.lightline.enable = true;
};
}Of course, if that was everything, there wouldn't be much point to NixVim, you'd just use a regular plugin manager. All options for supported plugins are exposed as options of that module. For now, there is no documentation yet, but there are detailed explanations in the source code. Detailed documentation for every module is planned.
Not all plugins will have modules, so you might still want to fetch some. This
is not a problem, just use the extraPlugins option:
{
programs.nixvim = {
extraPlugins = with pkgs.vimPlugins; [
vim-nix
];
};
}However, if you find yourself doing this a lot, please consider contributing or requesting a module!
Colorschemes are provided within a different scope:
{
programs.nixvim = {
# Enable gruvbox
colorschemes.gruvbox.enable = true;
};
}Just like with normal plugins, extra colorscheme options are provided as part of its module.
If your colorscheme isn't provided as a module, install it using
extraPlugins and set it using the colorscheme option:
{
programs.nixvim = {
extraPlugins = [ pkgs.vimPlugins.gruvbox ];
colorscheme = "gruvbox";
};
}All NixVim supported plugins will, by default, use the main colorscheme you set, though this can be overridden on a per-plugin basis.
NeoVim has a lot of configuration options. You can find a list of them by doing
:h option-list from within NeoVim.
All of these are configurable from within NixVim. All you have to do is set the
opts attribute:
{
programs.nixvim = {
opts = {
number = true; # Show line numbers
relativenumber = true; # Show relative line numbers
shiftwidth = 2; # Tab width should be 2
};
};
}Please note that to, for example, disable numbers you would not set
opts.nonumber to true, you'd set opts.number to false.
It is fully possible to define key mappings from within NixVim. This is done
using the keymaps attribute:
{
programs.nixvim = {
keymaps = [
{
key = ";";
action = ":";
}
{
mode = "n";
key = "<leader>m";
options.silent = true;
action = "<cmd>!make<CR>";
}
];
};
}This is equivalent to this vimscript:
noremap ; :
nnoremap <leader>m <silent> <cmd>make<CR>This table describes all modes for the keymaps option.
You can provide several modes to a single mapping by using a list of strings.
| Short | Description |
|---|---|
"n" |
Normal mode |
"i" |
Insert mode |
"v" |
Visual and Select mode |
"s" |
Select mode |
"t" |
Terminal mode |
"" |
Normal, visual, select and operator-pending mode |
"x" |
Visual mode only, without select |
"o" |
Operator-pending mode |
"!" |
Insert and command-line mode |
"l" |
Insert, command-line and lang-arg mode |
"c" |
Command-line mode |
Each keymap can specify the following settings in the options attrs.
| NixVim | Default | VimScript |
|---|---|---|
| silent | false | <silent> |
| nowait | false | <silent> |
| script | false | <script> |
| expr | false | <expr> |
| unique | false | <unique> |
| noremap | true | Use the 'noremap' variant of the mapping |
| remap | false | Make the mapping recursive (inverses noremap) |
| desc | "" | A description of this keymap |
Sometimes you might want to define a global variable, for example to set the
leader key. This is easy with the globals attribute:
{
programs.nixvim = {
globals.mapleader = ","; # Sets the leader key to comma
};
}Sometimes NixVim won't be able to provide for all your customization needs.
In these cases, the extraConfigVim and extraConfigLua options are
provided:
{
programs.nixvim = {
extraConfigLua = ''
-- Print a little welcome message when nvim is opened!
print("Hello world!")
'';
};
}If you feel like what you are doing manually should be supported in NixVim, please open an issue.
See CONTRIBUTING.md
