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Neovim from scratch

Rebuilding my Neovim config from zero on 0.12: no plugin manager, every line understood. From the boring-but-essential options layer up to a full IDE-shaped setup.

7 parts

  1. 1 Options Jun 2026

    I deleted my whole Neovim config and started over on 0.12: no plugin manager, and I want to understand every line. Part 1 is the boring but essential layer, editor options.
  2. 2 Keymaps Jun 2026

    Part 2 of rebuilding my Neovim config from zero: a beginner-friendly tour of Vim's modes, then the custom keymaps that make the editor feel like mine.
  3. 3 My first plugin, and the bug that ate the afternoon Jun 2026

    Installing my first Neovim plugin with vim.pack, the built-in plugin manager in Neovim 0.12, and the sneaky git config bug that broke it first.
  4. 4 Treesitter, and the dependency nobody mentions Jun 2026

    Adding real syntax highlighting to my from-scratch Neovim config with the rewritten nvim-treesitter, plus the tree-sitter CLI gotcha that the tutorials skip.
  5. 5 An IDE in 60 lines, no LSP plugins Jun 2026

    Wiring up go-to-definition, hover docs, rename, and live diagnostics in Neovim using the native vim.lsp API in 0.11+: gopls, clangd, lua_ls, and not a single LSP plugin.
  6. 6 Completion, and when the docs run ahead of the release Jun 2026

    Adding autocomplete to my from-scratch Neovim config with blink.cmp, the one place I broke from "no plugins," plus the version-pinning bug from docs that described an unreleased version.
  7. 7 The comfort layer, and what 67ms taught me Jun 2026

    The finale of rebuilding my Neovim config from zero: fuzzy finder, file tree, git signs, statusline, which-key, plus the startup-time number that settled the whole "no plugin manager" debate.