dotfiles

Personal Neovim (LazyVim), tmux, and Starship config.

Prerequisites

• Neovim ≥ 0.9 (LazyVim requirement)
• tmux
• Starship
• git, curl, a C compiler (for Treesitter), and ripgrep + fd (LazyVim defaults expect them)
• A Nerd Font set as your terminal font (LazyVim and Starship use font icons)
• Optional: himalaya CLI — needed for the email plugin to actually do anything

On macOS:

brew install neovim tmux starship ripgrep fd

Install

1. Clone this repo (path doesn't matter, examples assume ~/writing/dotfiles):

   git clone <this-repo> ~/writing/dotfiles

2. Run the setup script:

   cd ~/writing/dotfiles
   ./setup.sh

   It symlinks nvim/ → ~/.config/nvim, tmux/.tmux.conf → ~/.tmux.conf, and starship/starship.toml → ~/.config/starship.toml, then checks the required tools above and prints the brew install line for anything missing. It's idempotent (safe to re-run) and refuses to clobber a pre-existing non-empty init.lua, init.vim, .tmux.conf, or starship.toml — back the file up and re-run if it warns.

3. Hook Starship into your shell. The setup script tells you exactly what to paste; for reference:

   # zsh — append to ~/.zshrc
   eval "$(starship init zsh)"
   
   # bash — append to ~/.bashrc (or ~/.bash_profile on macOS login shells)
   eval "$(starship init bash)"

   Open a new shell to pick it up.

4. Launch nvim. On first run, nvim/lua/config/lazy.lua bootstraps lazy.nvim itself (clones it into Neovim's data dir), then installs every plugin under nvim/lua/plugins/. The fzf plugin's build step compiles the fzf binary automatically.

5. Start tmux with tmux. Reload after editing .tmux.conf with prefix r (C-b r by default — the prefix is not remapped).

What's inside

• nvim/ — Neovim config layered on LazyVim. Custom plugins live in nvim/lua/plugins/:
  • tmux.lua — vim-tmux-navigator for Ctrl-h/j/k/l pane navigation (paired with tmux/.tmux.conf).
  • himalaya.lua — himalaya-vim email client.
  • fzf.lua — junegunn/fzf + fzf.vim.
• tmux/.tmux.conf — terminal defaults (mouse off), the tmux side of seamless Vim/tmux Ctrl-h/j/k/l navigation, and TPM-managed session persistence (tmux-resurrect + tmux-continuum).
• starship/starship.toml — Starship prompt config. Reloads automatically on the next prompt render — no command needed.
• scripts/ — source-or-standalone helpers used by setup.sh: starship.sh (binary install + shell wiring) and tmux.sh (TPM clone, headless plugin install, persistent-history wiring).
• git/gitignore_global — global gitignore (symlinked to ~/.gitignore_global, wired via core.excludesfile); keeps Session.vim out of git status everywhere.

Session persistence

tmux sessions survive reboots. setup.sh clones TPM and installs tmux-resurrect + tmux-continuum headlessly (no prefix + I needed, though it still works).

• Automatic: continuum autosaves every 15 minutes and restores the last saved state when the tmux server starts after a reboot — windows, panes, working directories, and visible pane text included.
• Manual: save with prefix + Ctrl-s, restore with prefix + Ctrl-r.
• Neovim: panes that were running nvim reopen it from a Session.vim written automatically on exit (only when inside tmux). Session.vim files are globally gitignored via git/gitignore_global.
• Shell history: restored panes keep up-arrow history. setup.sh wires persistent history into ~/.bashrc (histappend + history -a on every prompt) or ~/.zshrc (INC_APPEND_HISTORY), depending on $SHELL — tmux-resurrect itself no longer supports history saving. Re-runnable standalone for other shells: ./scripts/tmux.sh --no-config.

Updating plugins

Inside Neovim: :Lazy sync (LazyVim also has checker.enabled = true, which notifies of updates automatically).

Notes

There is no vim-plug in this setup — lazy.nvim is the only plugin manager. If you see references to Plug anywhere, it's stale.

See CLAUDE.md for architecture notes when editing.