What is nvim-lua-guide?

nanotee/nvim-lua-guide — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-26

★ 5,940Audience · developerComplexity · 1/5Setup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((nvim-lua-guide))
    Topics covered
      init.lua setup
      Keymaps in Lua
      Autocommands
      User commands
    Neovim Lua API
      vim.opt options
      vim.api calls
      Lua modules
    Plugin writing
      Plugin structure
      LSP config
      Plugin managers
    Audience
      Neovim users
      Vimscript migrators

mindmap root((nvim-lua-guide)) Topics covered init.lua setup Keymaps in Lua Autocommands User commands Neovim Lua API vim.opt options vim.api calls Lua modules Plugin writing Plugin structure LSP config Plugin managers Audience Neovim users Vimscript migrators

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Learn how to rewrite a Vimscript Neovim config as an init.lua file using the Lua API.

USE CASE 2

Understand how to define keymaps, autocommands, and user commands in Neovim using Lua.

USE CASE 3

Use this as a reference for structuring a Neovim plugin written in Lua with proper module organization.

What is it built with?

LuaNeovim

How does it compare?

	nanotee/nvim-lua-guide	ar-js-org/ar.js	flutterchina/flukit
Stars	5,940	5,940	5,940
Language	—	JavaScript	Dart
Setup difficulty	easy	moderate	easy
Complexity	1/5	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 · easy Time to first run · 5min

No install needed, documentation only, current content lives in Neovim built-in help at :help lua-guide.

So what is it?

This repository was a community-written guide to using the Lua scripting language inside Neovim, a highly configurable text editor built on Vim. Lua became a first-class language in Neovim for writing configuration files and plugins, replacing or supplementing the older Vimscript approach. This guide was created to help users make that transition by explaining Neovim-specific Lua concepts in a clear, practical way. The guide covered topics such as how to write an init.lua configuration file, how to call Neovim's internal API from Lua, how to work with options, keymaps, autocommands, and user commands, and how to structure a plugin or personal config using Lua modules. It also explained how to interact with plugin managers and LSP configurations through Lua, which became a common setup for Neovim users. The guide gathered a wide following and became a standard starting point for developers switching from Vimscript to Lua within Neovim. Over time its content was reviewed, expanded, and eventually incorporated into the official Neovim documentation. The current README in this repository is a short notice pointing readers to the built-in help at :help lua-guide, which contains an up-to-date version of the material. The original community guide remains accessible in the repository as OLD_README.md for those who prefer reading the original text. There is no code to install or run in this repository. It is a documentation resource only.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Using the Neovim Lua API, show me how to write an autocommand in Lua that trims trailing whitespace on every file save.

Prompt 2

Convert my Neovim init.vim config to init.lua and explain how vim.opt, vim.keymap.set, and vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd replace the Vimscript equivalents.

Prompt 3

Write a minimal Neovim plugin in Lua that adds a :Hello command, organized as a proper Lua module with a setup() function.

Prompt 4

How do I call a Neovim built-in function and read a Vim variable from Lua inside my init.lua config?

Frequently asked questions