Alpha (Neovim Start-up Screen)

Fast and fully programmable greeter for Neovim.

Alpha is a blazing fast start screen plugin for Neovim. It was developed by Zachary Churchill.

Installation

• Refernce github repository in plugins.lua

-- Plugins.lua

return {

    -- Alpha (Dashboard)
    -- Added this plugin to initial configuration
    {
        "goolord/alpha-nvim"
        lazy = true,
    },

    -- Bufferline
    {
        'akinsho/bufferline.nvim',
        dependencies = {
            'nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons'
        },
    },

    -- Colorscheme
    {
        'folke/tokyonight.nvim',
    },

    -- Hop (Better Navigation)
    {
        "phaazon/hop.nvim",
        lazy = true,
    },


    -- Lualine
    {
        'nvim-lualine/lualine.nvim',
        dependencies = {
            'nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons'
        },
    },

    -- Nvimtree (File Explorer)
    {
        'nvim-tree/nvim-tree.lua',
        lazy = true,
        dependencies = {
            'nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons',
        },
    },

    -- Telescope (Fuzzy Finder)
    {
        'nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim',
        lazy = true,
        dependencies = {
            {'nvim-lua/plenary.nvim'},
        }
    },

    -- Which-key
    {
        'folke/which-key.nvim',
        lazy = true,
    },

}

• Invoke Lazy(Package Manager) using Space + p command in Normal mode to install Alpha. Use shift + i to install the plugin.

Configuration

• Create a new file alpha-config.lua in your lua directory and add this code.
• You can find more ASCII arts here, but they are present in other representation. In order to make them work here, one should manually change the art.

-- alpha-config.lua

local status_ok, alpha = pcall(require, "alpha")
if not status_ok then
 return
end

local dashboard = require("alpha.themes.dashboard")
dashboard.section.header.val = {

    [[          ▀████▀▄▄              ▄█ ]],
    [[            █▀    ▀▀▄▄▄▄▄    ▄▄▀▀█ ]],
    [[    ▄        █          ▀▀▀▀▄  ▄▀  ]],
    [[   ▄▀ ▀▄      ▀▄              ▀▄▀  ]],
    [[  ▄▀    █     █▀   ▄█▀▄      ▄█    ]],
    [[  ▀▄     ▀▄  █     ▀██▀     ██▄█   ]],
    [[   ▀▄    ▄▀ █   ▄██▄   ▄  ▄  ▀▀ █  ]],
    [[    █  ▄▀  █    ▀██▀    ▀▀ ▀▀  ▄▀  ]],
    [[   █   █  █      ▄▄           ▄▀   ]],

}

 dashboard.section.buttons.val = {
   dashboard.button("f", "  Find file", ":Telescope find_files <CR>"),
   dashboard.button("e", "  New file", ":ene <BAR> startinsert <CR>"),
   dashboard.button("r", "  Recently used files", ":Telescope oldfiles <CR>"),
   dashboard.button("t", "  Find text", ":Telescope live_grep <CR>"),
   dashboard.button("c", "  Configuration", ":e ~/.config/nvim/init.vim<CR>"),
   dashboard.button("q", "  Quit Neovim", ":qa<CR>"),
}

local function footer()
 return "Don't Stop Until You are Proud..."
end

dashboard.section.footer.val = footer()

dashboard.section.footer.opts.hl = "Type"
dashboard.section.header.opts.hl = "Include"
dashboard.section.buttons.opts.hl = "Keyword"

dashboard.opts.opts.noautocmd = true
alpha.setup(dashboard.opts)

Update the Main Configuration

-- init.lua

require "options"
require "keymaps"
require "lazy-config"
require "alpha-config" -- Added this line to initial file
require "bufferline-config"
require "hop-config"
require "nvim-tree-config"
require "lualine-config"
require "telescope-config"
require "whichkey"

Alpha Keybindings in Which-key

• Update the mappings variable in whichkey.lua with a key to invoke Alpha.

    -- Space + a will invoke Alpha.
    ["a"] = { "<cmd>Alpha<cr>", "Alpha" },

• The updated whichkey.lua file will look like this…

-- whichkey.lua

local status_ok, which_key = pcall(require, "which-key")
if not status_ok then
    return
end

local setup = {
    plugins = {
        marks = true, -- shows a list of your marks on ' and `
        registers = true, -- shows your registers on " in NORMAL or <C-r> in INSERT mode
        spelling = {
            enabled = true, -- enabling this will show WhichKey when pressing z= to select spelling suggestions
            suggestions = 20, -- how many suggestions should be shown in the list?
        },
        -- the presets plugin, adds help for a bunch of default keybindings in Neovim
        -- No actual key bindings are created
        presets = {
            operators = false, -- adds help for operators like d, y, ... and registers them for motion / text object completion
            motions = true, -- adds help for motions
            text_objects = true, -- help for text objects triggered after entering an operator
            windows = true, -- default bindings on <c-w>
            nav = true, -- misc bindings to work with windows
            z = true, -- bindings for folds, spelling and others prefixed with z
            g = true, -- bindings for prefixed with g
        },
    },
    -- add operators that will trigger motion and text object completion
    -- to enable all native operators, set the preset / operators plugin above
    -- operators = { gc = "Comments" },
    key_labels = {
        -- override the label used to display some keys. It doesn't effect WK in any other way.
        -- For example:
        -- ["<space>"] = "SPC",
        -- ["<cr>"] = "RET",
        -- ["<tab>"] = "TAB",
    },
    icons = {
        breadcrumb = "»", -- symbol used in the command line area that shows your active key combo
        separator = "➜", -- symbol used between a key and it's label
        group = "+", -- symbol prepended to a group
    },
    popup_mappings = {
        scroll_down = "<c-d>", -- binding to scroll down inside the popup
        scroll_up = "<c-u>", -- binding to scroll up inside the popup
    },
    window = {
        border = "rounded", -- none, single, double, shadow
        position = "bottom", -- bottom, top
        margin = { 1, 0, 1, 0 }, -- extra window margin [top, right, bottom, left]
        padding = { 2, 2, 2, 2 }, -- extra window padding [top, right, bottom, left]
        winblend = 0,
    },
    layout = {
        height = { min = 4, max = 25 }, -- min and max height of the columns
        width = { min = 20, max = 50 }, -- min and max width of the columns
        spacing = 3, -- spacing between columns
        align = "left", -- align columns left, center or right
    },
    ignore_missing = true, -- enable this to hide mappings for which you didn't specify a label
    hidden = { "<silent>", "<cmd>", "<Cmd>", "<CR>", "call", "lua", "^:", "^ " }, -- hide mapping boilerplate
    show_help = true, -- show help message on the command line when the popup is visible
    triggers = "auto", -- automatically setup triggers
    -- triggers = {"<leader>"} -- or specify a list manually
    triggers_blacklist = {
        -- list of mode / prefixes that should never be hooked by WhichKey
        -- this is mostly relevant for key maps that start with a native binding
        -- most people should not need to change this
        i = { "j", "k" },
        v = { "j", "k" },
    },
}

local opts = {
    mode = "n", -- NORMAL mode
    prefix = "<leader>",
    buffer = nil, -- Global mappings. Specify a buffer number for buffer local mappings
    silent = true, -- use `silent` when creating keymaps
    noremap = true, -- use `noremap` when creating keymaps
    nowait = true, -- use `nowait` when creating keymaps
}

local mappings = {

    -- Added Alpha Keybinding
    ["a"] = { "<cmd>Alpha<cr>", "Alpha" },
    ["e"] = { "<cmd>NvimTreeToggle<cr>", "Explorer" }, -- File Explorer
    ["k"] = { "<cmd>bdelete<CR>", "Kill Buffer" },  -- Close current file
    ["p"] = { "<cmd>Lazy<CR>", "Plugin Manager" }, -- Invoking plugin manager
    ["q"] = { "<cmd>wqall!<CR>", "Quit" }, -- Quit Neovim after saving the file
    ["w"] = { "<cmd>w!<CR>", "Save" }, -- Save current file

    -- Telescope
    f = {
        name = "File Search",
        c = { "<cmd>Telescope colorscheme<cr>", "Colorscheme" },
        f = { "<cmd>lua require('telescope.builtin').find_files()<cr>", "Find files" },
        t = { "<cmd>Telescope live_grep <cr>", "Find Text Pattern" },
        r = { "<cmd>Telescope oldfiles<cr>", "Recent Files" },
    },

    s = {
        name = "Search",
        h = { "<cmd>Telescope help_tags<cr>", "Find Help" },
        m = { "<cmd>Telescope man_pages<cr>", "Man Pages" },
        r = { "<cmd>Telescope registers<cr>", "Registers" },
        k = { "<cmd>Telescope keymaps<cr>", "Keymaps" },
        c = { "<cmd>Telescope commands<cr>", "Commands" },
    },
}

which_key.setup(setup)
which_key.register(mappings, opts)

• Restart Neovim to observe the changes in which key.

Alpha Keybindings

• Space + a :- Invoke Alpha

Alpha Alternatives

• Dashboard
• Vim-startify

Neovim From Scratch

• If you want a complete installation and configuration of Neovim from Scratch, then you can head over to my NEOVIM SERIES.
• This series is updated regularly, with updates and inclusion of newer plugins which improves the wholesome IDE experience of Neovim.