Neovim Review 2026

Neovim Configuration Examples

Neovim's real power comes from its Lua config. Here's a progression from minimal to a practical starter setup using lazy.nvim (the most popular plugin manager in 2026).

-- ~/.config/nvim/init.lua
vim.g.mapleader = " "          -- Space as leader key

vim.opt.number = true          -- Line numbers
vim.opt.relativenumber = true  -- Relative numbers
vim.opt.tabstop = 4
vim.opt.shiftwidth = 4
vim.opt.expandtab = true       -- Spaces instead of tabs
vim.opt.termguicolors = true   -- Better colors
vim.opt.mouse = "a"            -- Mouse support

-- Simple keymaps
vim.keymap.set("n", "w", ":w", { desc = "Save file" })
vim.keymap.set("n", "q", ":q", { desc = "Quit" })

-- ~/.config/nvim/init.lua
local lazypath = vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/lazy/lazy.nvim"
if not vim.loop.fs_stat(lazypath) then
  vim.fn.system({
    "git", "clone", "--filter=blob:none", "https://github.com/folke/lazy.nvim.git",
    "--branch=stable", lazypath,
  })
end
vim.opt.rtp:prepend(lazypath)

require("lazy").setup({
  -- Colorscheme
  { "catppuccin/nvim", name = "catppuccin", priority = 1000 },

  -- Fuzzy finder
  { "nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim", dependencies = { "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim" } },

  -- LSP basics
  { "neovim/nvim-lspconfig" },
  { "hrsh7th/nvim-cmp" }, -- Autocompletion

  -- Treesitter for syntax
  { "nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter", build = ":TSUpdate" },
})

-- Load colorscheme
vim.cmd.colorscheme("catppuccin")

-- Telescope keymap example
local builtin = require('telescope.builtin')
vim.keymap.set('n', 'ff', builtin.find_files, { desc = "Find files" })