Code Completion for Neovim using Lazy

Shaik Zahid
6 min readFeb 8, 2023

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Neovim offers important tools like code completions, snippet management and parsing language servers with different plugins. However, All these features are composed in a single plugin named lsp-zero. This plugin blends all these featured plugins in a single package, which makes it easier to implement them.

Requirements

Installation

  • A bunch of plugins are added as dependencies to the main plugin in plugin.lua file.
  • LSP :- Language Support
  • Mason :- UI for LSP Management
  • Nvim-cmp :- Auto Complete feature in Neovim
  • Luasnip :- Snippet Manager for Neovim
  • Freindly-Snippets :- Pre-configured snippets of multiple languages.
return {

-- Alpha (Dashboard)
{
"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'
},
},

-- Language Support
-- Added this plugin.
{
'VonHeikemen/lsp-zero.nvim',
branch = 'v1.x',
dependencies = {
-- LSP Support
{'neovim/nvim-lspconfig'}, -- Required
{'williamboman/mason.nvim'}, -- Optional
{'williamboman/mason-lspconfig.nvim'}, -- Optional

-- Autocompletion
{'hrsh7th/nvim-cmp'}, -- Required
{'hrsh7th/cmp-nvim-lsp'}, -- Required
{'hrsh7th/cmp-buffer'}, -- Optional
{'hrsh7th/cmp-path'}, -- Optional
{'saadparwaiz1/cmp_luasnip'}, -- Optional
{'hrsh7th/cmp-nvim-lua'}, -- Optional

-- Snippets
{'L3MON4D3/LuaSnip'}, -- Required
{'rafamadriz/friendly-snippets'}, -- Optional
}
},


-- 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'},
}
},


-- Treesitter
{
"nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter",
},

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

}
  • Save and Install lsp-zero using shift+i , then we will move on to configure it.

Configuration

  • Open File Explorer using Space + e then Create a new file lsp-config.lua using a in your lua directory and add this code.
-- lsp-config.lua

-- Learn the keybindings, see :help lsp-zero-keybindings
-- Learn to configure LSP servers, see :help lsp-zero-api-showcase
local lsp = require('lsp-zero')
lsp.preset('recommended')

-- (Optional) Configure lua language server for neovim
lsp.nvim_workspace()

lsp.setup()
  • We can configure LSP to format our code. Add Keybindings to whichkey.lua file.
  -- lsp keybindings in whichkey.lua

["m"] = { "<cmd>Mason<cr>", "Mason UI for Lsp" },
["r"] = { "<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.format{async=true}<cr>", "Reformat Code" },

l = {
name = "LSP",
a = { "<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.code_action()<cr>", "Code Action" },
i = { "<cmd>LspInfo<cr>", "Info" },
l = { "<cmd>lua vim.lsp.codelens.run()<cr>", "CodeLens Action" },
r = { "<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.rename()<cr>", "Rename" },
s = { "<cmd>Telescope lsp_document_symbols<cr>", "Document Symbols" },
S = {
"<cmd>Telescope lsp_dynamic_workspace_symbols<cr>",
"Workspace Symbols",
},
},
  • The updated whichkey.lua file looks 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 = {

["a"] = { "<cmd>Alpha<cr>", "Alpha" },
["e"] = { "<cmd>NvimTreeToggle<cr>", "Explorer" }, -- File Explorer
["k"] = { "<cmd>bdelete<CR>", "Kill Buffer" }, -- Close current file
["m"] = { "<cmd>Mason<cr>", "Mason" }, -- LSP Manager
["p"] = { "<cmd>Lazy<CR>", "Plugin Manager" }, -- Invoking plugin manager
["q"] = { "<cmd>wqall!<CR>", "Quit" }, -- Quit Neovim after saving the file
["r"] = { "<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.format{async=true}<cr>", "Reformat Code" },
["w"] = { "<cmd>w!<CR>", "Save" }, -- Save current file

-- Language Support
l = {
name = "LSP",
i = { "<cmd>LspInfo<cr>", "Info" },
r = { "<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.rename()<cr>", "Rename" },
s = { "<cmd>Telescope lsp_document_symbols<cr>", "Document Symbols" },
S = {
"<cmd>Telescope lsp_dynamic_workspace_symbols<cr>",
"Workspace Symbols",
},
},

-- 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)

LSP Keybindings

  • Space + m :- Mason UI for LSP
  • Space + r :- Reformat Code
  • Space + l + i :- Language Server Information.
  • Space + l + r :- Rename current word in all occurances.
  • Space + l + s :- List all symbols in the file
  • Space + l + S :- List all symbols in the workspace

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.

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