Neovim

Last updated Apr 23, 2025 by Simon Späti

Text editor evolved from the old vim. People call it not IDE, such as VSCode or similar, but PDE (Personalized Development Environment).

I use Neovim with tmux for everything I can. I have mentioned in Personal Knowledge Management Workflow for a Deeper Life, how it gives me clarity for writing, especially Vim Language (and Motions), a modular way of editing text that came with vim but can be found through plugins on any other IDE as well.

See also Why Vim Is More than Just an Editor – Vim Language, Motions, and Modes Explained, where I wrote 3000 words about why I still use Neovim in the modern world of editors. Also, check out DHH’s article about Finding The Last Editor.

See more on my Neovim Setup.

# Distributions

# My Setup Images

# All in one (Tmux and Neovim)

It’s scary how versatile/productive your terminal, and specifically Neovim, can get.

Shared on X and LinkedIn. Also, check my demo of SQL-IDE in vim.

In one screen:

data integration/dbt code
analysis of SQL queries -> Query databases in vim (vim-dadbod)
db connections/browser -> Query databases in vim (vim-dadbod)
result of queries -> Query databases in vim (vim-dadbod)
docker build
dbt run
postgres
more windows/sessions (tmux)

# Basic

tree, lsp and outline (and rose-pine):

lsp reference and file search:

git:

Markdown (showing titles, bold, italic with hiding symbols, except on the current line):

# Writing / Markdown Preview

live rendering like Obsidian: GitHub - OXY2DEV/markview.nvim: An experimental markdown previewer for Neovim
GitHub - iamcco/markdown-preview.nvim: markdown preview plugin for (neo)vim
Images for Neovim
- 3rd/image.nvim -> might be the better option
- edluffy/hologram.nvim -> didn’t work as of 2024-10-20 (2 years inactivity)

# Why I do not use Neovim for notes

You might wonder why I don’t use Neovim for notes. I tried a couple of times, and sometimes, when writing my book, I use Neovim. But for the most part, Obsidian is optimized for notes specifically, and Neovim is optimized for programming.

With Obsidian based on Markdown, I have access to my Second Brain with forward/backlinks to any note or article. Better integration with images, text-based diagrams with Mermaid, and text-based images with Exaclidraw, and Canvas.

Integration with Plugins such as ReadWise syncing my highlights and notes I read, Obsidian Dataview to use Notes as databases, Admonition (Call-outs) to write lovely in-side comments without distracting the reading flow, Templates, Mobile support, and many more. I write more about that in Obsidian in Rich Text vs Markdown.

# The connection to self-hosting

(Neo)vim is to text editors what self-hosting is to blogging platforms. Here’s why

People often jump between:

Blogging platforms: WordPress → Medium → Substack -> …a
Text editors: Dreamweaer -> Notepad++ → Sublime → VSCode → Zed → Cursor (see My Text Editors History (IDEs))

But (Neo)vim, like self-hosting: