Installation

Plugins not installing on first launch

Symptom: No plugins appear, or Neovim opens with no syntax highlighting.

Solution:

  1. Press Space-ql to open Lazy.nvim.
  2. Check if it’s still installing (shows progress bar).
  3. Wait 30-60 seconds for initial install.

If still stuck:

# Clear plugin cache
rm -rf ~/.local/state/nvim/lazy
rm -rf ~/.local/share/nvim/lazy

# Reinstall
nvim -c "Lazy sync"

Tree-sitter

Incorrect syntax highlighting

Symptom: Colors wrong or no syntax highlighting.

Solution: Update parsers Space-qt

Parser installation fails

Symptom: Error about missing parser or compilation.

Solution: Install build tools (Linux)

Use your package manager to install build tools. For example,

OpenMandriva:

sudo dnf -y install task-devel task-c-devel task-c++-devel clang llvm yarn

Arch:

sudo pacman -S base-devel yarn

Debian:

sudo apt install build-essential yarn

Reinstall Tree-sitter

rm -rf ~/.local/share/nvim/mason/share/nvim-treesitter/parser/*
nvim -c "TSInstallAll"

LSP

LSP not starting

Symptom: No LSP client attached (check with :LspAttach).

Solution:

  1. Open Mason: Space-qm
  2. Check if LSP is installed (green checkmark)
  3. If not, install via Mason UI or: Mason install <lsp-name>

LSP shows errors but code runs fine

This is expected; LSP checks for code quality/issues, not runtime errors.

Common fixes:

  • Python: Ensure virtual environment is activated or Mason’s Python path is correct
  • Java: Add module-info.java if using modules
  • TypeScript: Check tsconfig.json exists

Debugging

Breakpoints don’t work

Python:

  1. Ensure debugpy is installed via Mason
  2. Check Python path: :echo $VIRTUAL_ENV (if using venv)

Java:

  1. Run with debug agent: java -agentlib:jdwp=...
  2. Port 5005 must be available

DAP UI not showing

Press Space-dc to start debugging. The UI should auto-open on debug attach.

Buffers

Buffers not switching properly

Use Space-kb to see buffer list and select.

To close a buffer, use Space-kj.

File Explorer

Neo-tree not showing

Press C-n or Space-kt (toggle Neotree).

If still not visible:

:Neotree toggle

Performance

Neovim feels slow

Check startup time:

nvim --startuptime profile.log

Common fixes:

  1. Update plugins: Space-ql → Lazy update
  2. Enable lazy loading: Some plugins already load on demand
  3. Reduce Tree-sitter parsers: Only install needed ones
  4. Disable plugins temporarily to isolate issue

High memory usage

Memory-heavy plugins:

  • Tree-sitter (caches parsers in memory)
  • LSP clients (each uses RAM)
  • Neo-tree (keeps file list)

Reduce memory:

:TSUninstall unused-parsers
:Lazy clean

Spell Check

Spell check doesn’t enable

Ensure filetype is recognized:

:set filetype?

Manually enable:

:set spell

Markdown

Live preview not working

  1. Check port 8084 is available: 
    netstat -tlnp | grep 8084
  2. Restart preview: Space-oq then Space-op.

Pandoc not found

Install Pandoc:

  • Linux: Check your package manager or see https://pandoc.org.
  • macOS: brew install pandoc
  • Windows: Download from https://pandoc.org.

Keybindings

Space key doesn’t trigger

Check leader settings:

:echo vim.g.mapleader
:echo vim.g.maplocalleader

Both should show ` ` (space).

If not, restart Neovim to reload config.

General Commands

Command Purpose
:messages Show recent messages/errors
:checkhealth Run Neovim health check
:scriptnames List loaded scripts
Space-ql Manage plugins
Space-qm Manage LSPs/tools
Space-qt Update Tree-sitter