Nvim Navic

With the latest release of version of nvim 0.8.0 we get access to a new winbar feature. One thing I have long wanted somewhere in my nvim is navigation for pairing partners or anyone watching can keep track of where I am. As the driver it's easy to keep track of the file/function you are in. But when you make big jumps in a few keystrokes it can be quite disorienting to anyone watching, and having this feedback to look at is very helpful.

winbar

nvim exposes the winbar api in lua, and you can send any text to the winbar as follows.

        
vim.o.winbar = "here"

You can try it for yourself right from the nvim command line.

        
:lua vim.o.winbar = "here"

Now you will notice one line above your file with the word here at the very beginning.

Clearing the winbar

If you want to clear it out, you can just set it to an empty string or nil.

        
:lua vim.o.winbar = ""
:lua vim.o.winbar = nil

Setting up nvim-navic

You will need to install nvim-navic if you want to use it. I added it to my plugins using Plug as follows.

        
call plug#begin('~/.local/share/nvim/plugged')
Plug 'SmiteshP/nvim-navic'
call plug#end()

Note! nvim-navic does require the use of the nvim lsp, so if you are not using it then maybe this won't work for you.

I created an on_attach function long ago, cause that's what Teej told me to do. Now I am glad I did, because it made this change super easy.

        
local function on_attach(client, bufnr)
    if client.server_capabilities.documentSymbolProvider then
        navic.attach(client, bufnr)
    end
end

Then you need to use that on_attach function on all of the lsp's that you want navic to work on.

Then in a lua file you need to setup the winbar, for now I put this in my lsp-config settings file, but eventually I want to move my settings to lua and put it there.

        
vim.o.winbar = " %{%v:lua.vim.fn.expand('%F')%}  %{%v:lua.require'nvim-navic'.get_location()%}"

What my winbar looks like

What I have right now is everything someone who is watching would need to know to navigate to the same place that I am in the project.

        
 waylonwalker/app.py   Link >  on_click

Diff

Here are the changes that I made to to my plugins list and my lsp-config to get it.

        
 /home/u_walkews/.config/nvim/plugins.vim
call plug#begin('~/.local/share/nvim/plugged')
+Plug 'SmiteshP/nvim-navic'

        
#  /home/u_walkews/.config/nvim/lua/waylonwalker/lsp-config.lua
-local function on_attach() end
+local navic = require("nvim-navic")
+local function on_attach(client, bufnr)
+    if client.server_capabilities.documentSymbolProvider then
+        navic.attach(client, bufnr)
+    end
+end
+
+vim.o.winbar = " %{%v:lua.vim.fn.expand('%F')%}  %{%v:lua.require'nvim-navic'.get_location()%}"

GH commit

If you want to see the change on GitHub, here is the diff