What is noice.nvim?

folke/noice.nvim — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-26

★ 5,729LuaAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5Setup · moderate

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((noice.nvim))
    What it does
      Floating command line
      Styled popups
      Message routing
      Syntax highlighting
    Tech stack
      Neovim plugin
      Lua config
      nui.nvim renderer
      nvim-notify optional
    Use cases
      Cleaner editor UI
      Error notifications
      Command history
      Fuzzy finder integration
    Audience
      Neovim power users
      Keyboard-driven coders
      Terminal developers
    Setup
      Plugin manager install
      Health check tool
      Preset bundles

mindmap root((noice.nvim)) What it does Floating command line Styled popups Message routing Syntax highlighting Tech stack Neovim plugin Lua config nui.nvim renderer nvim-notify optional Use cases Cleaner editor UI Error notifications Command history Fuzzy finder integration Audience Neovim power users Keyboard-driven coders Terminal developers Setup Plugin manager install Health check tool Preset bundles

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Replace Neovim's plain command bar with a floating, syntax-highlighted input that shows icons for different command types.

USE CASE 2

Route editor errors and warnings to corner notifications instead of blocking prompts that interrupt your flow.

USE CASE 3

Browse a scrollable history of all editor messages using the :Noice command or a fuzzy finder like Telescope.

USE CASE 4

Show recent message info in your status bar with built-in status line components.

What is it built with?

LuaNeovimnui.nvimnvim-notifyTelescopefzf-lua

How does it compare?

	folke/noice.nvim	lunarvim/neovim-from-scratch	sindrets/diffview.nvim
Stars	5,729	5,582	5,560
Language	Lua	Lua	Lua
Setup difficulty	moderate	moderate	easy
Complexity	3/5	3/5	2/5
Audience	developer	developer	developer

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires Neovim 0.9.0+. Install via any plugin manager. nui.nvim is a required dependency, nvim-notify is optional. Run :checkhealth noice after install to catch config issues.

License type not mentioned in the explanation.

So what is it?

Noice is a plugin for Neovim, a highly configurable text editor used primarily by programmers. The plugin replaces the default appearance of three parts of the Neovim interface: the command line input area at the bottom of the screen, the pop-up menu that appears when you are typing commands or completions, and the area where status and error messages are displayed. By default, Neovim shows these elements in fairly plain, fixed positions. Noice replaces them with floating windows and popups that can be positioned, styled, and configured in detail. Messages from the editor can be routed to different views depending on their type: errors might appear as notifications in the corner of the screen, while long command output gets sent to a separate split window instead of requiring you to page through a prompt. The command line input gains syntax highlighting for Vim commands, Lua code, regular expressions, and shell commands, along with customizable icons for different command types. The plugin keeps a history of messages that you can review with a :Noice command, and that history can also be opened in a fuzzy finder if you use Telescope or fzf-lua for navigation. Status bar components are included if you want to show information about recent messages in your editor status line. Noice requires Neovim version 0.9.0 or later and depends on a companion plugin called nui.nvim for rendering its windows. A notification plugin called nvim-notify is optional but recommended. The plugin is described as highly experimental because it uses a newer Neovim API that may still have edge cases and known issues. The README recommends running the built-in health check after installation to catch common configuration problems. Installation uses any standard Neovim plugin manager. Configuration is done in Lua and has many options, including preset bundles for common setups. The full README is longer than what was shown.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

I just installed noice.nvim in Neovim. Write me a Lua config snippet that sends error messages to a corner notification and routes long command output to a split window.

Prompt 2

Using noice.nvim, how do I set up preset bundles to get a good default experience without writing a lot of config from scratch?

Prompt 3

I use Telescope with noice.nvim. Show me how to open the Noice message history inside Telescope's fuzzy finder.

Prompt 4

My noice.nvim setup has a rendering issue. Walk me through running Neovim's built-in health check for noice and interpreting the output.

Prompt 5

Show me how to add a noice.nvim component to my lualine status bar so I can see recent editor messages at the bottom of the screen.

Frequently asked questions