What is telescope.nvim?

nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-21

★ 19,418LuaAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · moderate

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Telescope))
    What it does
      Fuzzy file search
      Live grep search
      Preview pane
    Tech stack
      Lua
      Neovim
      ripgrep
    Built-in pickers
      Files and buffers
      Git commits
      LSP symbols
    Use cases
      Navigate codebases
      Search across project
      Explore Git history

mindmap root((Telescope)) What it does Fuzzy file search Live grep search Preview pane Tech stack Lua Neovim ripgrep Built-in pickers Files and buffers Git commits LSP symbols Use cases Navigate codebases Search across project Explore Git history

Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Search for any file in a large codebase by typing a few characters instead of browsing directories, with a live preview of the file on the right.

USE CASE 2

Find every occurrence of a function name or string across the entire project using ripgrep, all from inside Neovim.

USE CASE 3

Browse and switch between open buffers, Git commits, or LSP symbol definitions without leaving the editor.

What is it built with?

LuaNeovimLuaJITripgrep

How does it compare?

	nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim	lunarvim/lunarvim	jcjohnson/neural-style
Stars	19,418	19,268	18,284
Language	Lua	Lua	Lua
Setup difficulty	moderate	moderate	hard
Complexity	2/5	2/5	3/5
Audience	developer	developer	vibe coder

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 0.11.7 or newer, ripgrep must be installed separately to use the live grep picker.

So what is it?

Telescope.nvim is a plugin for Neovim, a popular programmer's text editor, that gives you a powerful, interactive search panel for finding almost anything: files, text inside files, open buffers, Git commits, help topics, and much more. The problem it solves is navigation: in large codebases, jumping to the right file or the right function quickly is critical, and Telescope replaces the slow process of manually browsing directories with a fast, fuzzy-matching picker (a "fuzzy finder" matches results even if you type letters slightly out of order or skip some characters). When you trigger a search, Telescope opens a floating window split into three panes: a text box where you type your query, a live-updating results list, and a preview pane that shows the content of the currently selected item. You can search files, search for a word across the entire codebase using ripgrep, or swap between open files. It is highly extensible, hundreds of community-built extensions add pickers for Git, LSP symbols, browser bookmarks, databases, and more. The plugin is written entirely in Lua and runs on Neovim version 0.11.7 or newer with LuaJIT. You would use Telescope any time you work in Neovim and want to navigate, search, or manage your project faster than traditional file browsing allows.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

I just installed telescope.nvim in Neovim. Write the Lua init.lua configuration to set up key mappings for fuzzy file search, live grep across the project, and buffer switching.

Prompt 2

Help me configure telescope.nvim so the picker window appears centered on screen, the preview pane is on the right, and the results list uses a dropdown theme instead of the default layout.

Prompt 3

I want to browse my Git commit history from inside Neovim using telescope.nvim. Which extension do I need and how do I configure it so I can preview diffs inline?

Prompt 4

Write a custom telescope.nvim picker in Lua that lists all lines matching TODO or FIXME in the current project and lets me jump to each one with Enter.

Frequently asked questions