What's new in Neovim 0.11

Neovim 0.11 is packed with exciting new features and bug fixes. For the complete list of changes, see: https://neovim.io/doc/user/news-0.11.html

Take a look at the milestone to admire all the contributions made by the community: https://github.com/neovim/neovim/milestone/41

Here are some of the highlights:

Treesitter

Many treesitter performance improvements have been merged and released in 0.11. Providing a huge boost to user experience when working with large files.

• Async parsing: Treesitter now supports asynchronous parsing, which no longer blocks the UI when parsing large files.

• Non-blocking injection query: Treesitter now supports non-blocking injection queries, which can be used to improve performance when working / editing with large files.

• Asnyc folding: Treesitter now supports asynchronous folding, which no longer blocks the UI when folding a large chunk of code.

gx fixed

The default gx keymap in neovim opens a filepath or URL under the cursor.

Previously, if you try to gx an URL on markdown files, you should find out that it doesn't work if your cursor is on the link text.

[...](https://...)
  ^

⚠️ Spoiler alert: it doesn't work 🫠

With this fixed, you can now gx on anywhere in the link text!

Check out the PR for more details.

Bonus tips

Check this plugin out for enhanced gx functionality, including:

• gx with your cursor on top of a plugin name to open the plugin github page in the browser
• the word/selection is automatically searched on the web, if there is no url found under the cursor

Builtin auto-completion

Another long-awaited feature from Neovim 0.11 is the builtin auto-completion.

You can now try the following autocmd snippet to see the auto-completion in action:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd('LspAttach', {
  callback = function(event)
    local client = vim.lsp.get_client_by_id(event.data.client_id)
    if client:supports_method('textDocument/completion') then
      vim.lsp.completion.enable(true, client.id, event.buf, { autotrigger = true })
    end
  end,
})

With Neovim approaching 1.0, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

I'm excited to see more new vimmers onboarding with all these new features that makes Neovim a more powerful and enjoyable editor!

I'm already using nvim-cmp or blink.cmp, should I switch?

With blink.cmp 1.0 recently released, quite a few people have already switched from nvim-cmp to it.

The new built-in auto-completion is still missing some customization options and supports for snippets, so if you are currently using nvim-cmp or blink.cmp with heavy configurations, maybe you should wait it out.

I'm personally using blink.cmp with some heavy customization, so I have kept using blink.cmp on neovim 0.11, secretly hoping that maybe one day the builtin auto completion will be able to replace blink.cmp.

I know how time-consuming it is to tinker with the config (I have spent countless hours and hours on it…). So if your life is happy with whatever completion plugin you are current using, feel free to not worry about it.

Source

Diagnostic virtual lines

If you are using the builtin diagnostic virtual text, note that it is now disabled by default. It must now be opt-ed in manually with

vim.diagnostic.config({ virtual_text = true })

If you are looking at a more fancy diagnostic, you can try out the new diagnostic vistual lines feature.

This is inspired by a plugin made by whynothugo called lsp_lines.nvim. Which in turns might be inspired by the helix editor.

It offers more features such as pin-pointing the position of error, and showing multiple errors on the same line.

Double diagnostic text

If you are experiencing double diagnostic message showing up, try disabling nvim-lspconfig virtual text.

return {
  "neovim/nvim-lspconfig",
  opts = {
    diagnostics = {
      virtual_text = false,
    },
  },
}

Virtual lines for errors and virtual text for warnings

vim.diagnostic.config({
  virtual_text = {
    severity = {
      max = vim.diagnostic.severity.WARN,
    },
  },
  virtual_lines = {
    severity = {
      min = vim.diagnostic.severity.ERROR,
    },
  },
})

Source

Toggle diagnostic virtual lines and virtual text

vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>tdd', function()
    vim.diagnostic.config {
        virtual_lines = not vim.diagnostic.config().virtual_lines,
        virtual_text = not vim.diagnostic.config().virtual_text,
     }
end, { desc = 'Toggle diagnostic virtual lines and virtual text' })

Source

Show virtual lines only on the cursor line

The following snippets will show virtual lines only on the cursor line. Otherwise, it will show the diagnostics as vistual text.

vim.diagnostic.config({
  virtual_text = true,
  virtual_lines = { current_line = true },
  underline = true,
  update_in_insert = false
})

Pair it with the autocmd:

local og_virt_text
local og_virt_line
vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({ 'CursorMoved', 'DiagnosticChanged' }, {
  group = vim.api.nvim_create_augroup('diagnostic_only_virtlines', {}),
  callback = function()
    if og_virt_line == nil then
      og_virt_line = vim.diagnostic.config().virtual_lines
    end

    -- ignore if virtual_lines.current_line is disabled
    if not (og_virt_line and og_virt_line.current_line) then
      if og_virt_text then
        vim.diagnostic.config({ virtual_text = og_virt_text })
        og_virt_text = nil
      end
      return
    end

    if og_virt_text == nil then
      og_virt_text = vim.diagnostic.config().virtual_text
    end

    local lnum = vim.api.nvim_win_get_cursor(0)[1] - 1

    if vim.tbl_isempty(vim.diagnostic.get(0, { lnum = lnum })) then
      vim.diagnostic.config({ virtual_text = og_virt_text })
    else
      vim.diagnostic.config({ virtual_text = false })
    end
  end
})

Source

Default keymaps

Mappings inspired by Tim Pope's vim-unimpaired:

• [q, ]q, [Q, ]Q, [CTRL-Q, ]CTRL-Q navigate through the quickfix list
• [l, ]l, [L, ]L, [CTRL-L, ]CTRL-L navigate through the location-list
• [t, ]t, [T, ]T, [CTRL-T, ]CTRL-T navigate through the tag-matchlist
• [a, ]a, [A, ]A navigate through the argument-list
• [b, ]b, [B, ]B navigate through the buffer-list
• [<Space>, ]<Space> add an empty line above and below the cursor
• [[ and ]] in Normal mode jump between shell prompts for shells which emit OSC 133 sequences ("shell integration" or "semantic prompts").

Should you upgrade?

I would recommend upgrading to 0.11 for the treesitter improvements alone.