The Neovim Ecosystem Has Matured. Here’s What’s Different.

Why modern Neovim setups are becoming simpler, not more complex.

Introduction

Every Neovim user knows that updating your config is just part of the package. Why, ricing, as it’s sometimes called, is what many of us love so much about our “hyperextensible” editor! It can even become addictive.

But not every change is just another tweak to chase the perfect setup. Sometimes the ecosystem itself moves on.

If your Neovim configuration is a couple of years old, chances are you’re still using plugins that are perfectly good, but no longer the ones the community is building around.

Open source moves on — and that’s a good thing

When I first set up Neovim seriously, telescope.nvim by TJ DeVries was the undisputed go-to for fuzzy finding. nvim-cmp was the completion engine everyone used. And kickstart.nvim, also by TJ, was the canonical starting point for a fresh config.

These tools are still excellent. But TJ, like many open-source contributors, has moved on to other projects and the maintainers of nvim-cmp have shifted focus. The community kept moving, and new plugins — smarter, faster, or simply more opinionated — have…