Updates

All updates

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

Space-qt refreshes the parsers that are already installed and installs the ones that are missing for the files you have open.

Errors after the Neovim 0.12 upgrade

Symptom: Neovim starts with a wall of Tree-Sitter errors, for example attempt to call field 'get_available' (a nil value) or No parser for 'markdown' available.

Cause: Neovim 0.12 needs the main branch of nvim-treesitter, older versions need master. The two branches have completely different APIs. lazy-lock.json remembers the exact commit of every plugin, so a stale entry keeps restoring the commit of the master branch on every install, no matter which branch VimStar asks for.

Solution: VimStar compares the branch that is checked out with the one this Neovim needs and repairs both the checkout and the lockfile on startup. If that does not happen, remove the plugin and let Lazy install it again:

rm -rf ~/.local/share/nvim/lazy/nvim-treesitter
nvim -c "Lazy install nvim-treesitter"

The parsers live in ~/.local/share/nvim/treesitter, so they survive a reinstall.

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/treesitter/parser/*
nvim -c "TSInstall! all"

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