nvim/MIGRATION_PLAN.md

Neovim Migration Checklist

Source of truth for the step-by-step rebuild. Keep this concise and up to date. See details in neovim-migration-guide.md.

Phase 0 — Ground Rules

• Create AGENTS.md with rules

Phase 1 — Clean & Archive Legacy Config

Phase 1.1 — Confirm scope and priorities

• Confirm scope and priorities for this phase

Phase 1.2 — Inventory legacy files

• Inventory existing Vimscript, plugin files, and directories

Phase 1.3 — Create archive location

• Create legacy/ archive folder within this config

Phase 1.4 — Move legacy files into archive

• Move legacy init files and plugin directories into legacy/ (do not delete)

Phase 1.5 — Document archived contents

• Optionally add legacy/README.md noting what was archived

Phase 1.6 — Preserve selected directories

• Keep undodir, spell, view, UltiSnips, templates as-is for now (review later)

Phase 2 — Bootstrap

Phase 2.1 — Confirm scope and priorities

• Confirm scope and priorities for this phase

Phase 2.2 — Scaffold Lua config skeleton

• Scaffold Lua config skeleton (init.lua, lua/settings.lua, lua/keymaps.lua, lua/autocmds.lua, lua/utils.lua, lua/plugins/)

Phase 2.3 — Bootstrap lazy.nvim

• Bootstrap lazy.nvim plugin manager

Phase 2.4 — Disable unused providers

• Disable unused providers (ruby, perl, node)

Phase 2.5 — Ensure lazy boots without specs

• Ensure lazy boots without specs (add empty lua/plugins/init.lua)

Phase 3 — Core Editing & LSP

Phase 3.1 — Confirm scope and priorities

• Confirm scope and priorities for this phase
• Decision: PHP LSP = intelephense
• Decision: Enable Markdown LSP = marksman
• Decision: Use legacy listchars and showbreak values
• Decision: Support per‑project config for intelephense.includePaths
• Decision: No direnv fallback for local config

Phase 3.2 — Non-plugin settings to Lua

• Port non-plugin settings to Lua (options, listchars, showbreak, spelllang=en_gb)

Phase 3.3 — Core completion stack

• Add core completion stack: nvim-cmp, cmp-nvim-lsp, cmp-buffer, cmp-path, LuaSnip

Phase 3.4 — Project‑local configuration (native exrc)

• Confirm scope and priorities for this subphase
• Decision: Use native exrc + secure instead of neoconf (neoconf incompatible with Neovim 0.11+ vim.lsp.config API)
• Enable exrc and secure in settings.lua
• Implement .nvim.lua loader in LSP config using on_new_config hook
• Wire intelephense.environment.includePaths via .nvim.lua
• Create validation workspaces: WORKSPACE_TEST/ and EXTERNAL_TEST/ with sample PHP files
• Migrate to vim.lsp.config() and vim.lsp.enable() (Neovim 0.11+ native API)
• Verify project settings load correctly from actual root_dir
• Clean up debug notifications and temporary code

Phase 3.7 — Clean LSP config

• Remove debug/helper logic from LSP config
• Migrate from deprecated require('lspconfig')[server].setup() to vim.lsp.config() + vim.lsp.enable()
• Use on_new_config hook for project-local settings loading (loads from actual root_dir, not cwd)

Phase 3.8 — Validate project-local LSP settings

• Create test workspaces with .nvim.lua files
• Validate settings load from actual root_dir via on_new_config hook
• Verify gd works for external library references via intelephense.environment.includePaths
• Clean up debug code and notifications

Phase 3.9 — Native exrc + vim.lsp.config migration (RESOLVED)

• Discovered neoconf incompatible with Neovim 0.11+ (GitHub issue #116, unresolved since May 2024)
• Migrated to native exrc + secure approach (zero dependencies, aligned with minimal philosophy)
• Implemented .nvim.lua loader using on_new_config hook (loads from actual root_dir)
• Migrated from deprecated require('lspconfig') framework to vim.lsp.config() + vim.lsp.enable()
• Root detection handled by nvim-lspconfig's native configs (no custom root_dir needed)
• Validated gd works for external library symbols via intelephense.environment.includePaths
• Settings schema: .nvim.lua returns { lsp = { [server_name] = { settings = {...} } } }
• Security: secure mode prompts user to trust .nvim.lua files before execution
• Kept single_file_support = false for intelephense
• Fixed duplicate gd results issue

Phase 3.5 — LSP minimal defaults

• Add nvim-lspconfig with minimal defaults (no over-configuration)
• Add minimal LSP on-attach keymaps (gd, gr, K, gD, gI)
• Add global LSP keymaps with fallback in lua/keymaps.lua
• Intelephense: set single_file_support=false, root detection via nvim-lspconfig defaults
• Project settings loaded via on_new_config hook from .nvim.lua files

Phase 3.6 — LSP server management (Mason)

• Confirm scope and priorities for this subphase
• Add williamboman/mason.nvim and williamboman/mason-lspconfig.nvim
• Ensure servers installed: lua_ls, tsserver, html, cssls, jsonls, bashls, marksman, intelephense
• Keep our custom per-server setup; use Mason only for installation

Phase 4 — Navigation

Phase 4.1 — Confirm scope and priorities

• Confirm scope and priorities for this phase
• Decision: Skip Neo-tree in favor of netrw for navigation/visual context
• Decision: Use netrw for project structure visualization and file preview
• Decision: Telescope as primary "find file" tool
• Decision: Add Oil.nvim for file manipulation (handles buffer sync on rename/move/delete)
• Note: Oil.nvim is for evaluation; alternative is mini.files if too heavy

Phase 4.2 — Configure netrw

• Configure netrw with tree view, preview split, and basic settings (no banner, sensible defaults)
• Add simple keymaps for opening netrw (e.g., in split, tab, or current window)

Phase 4.2.1 — PHP gf enhancement

• Add PHP includeexpr for intelligent gf behavior (handles __DIR__, __FILE__, dirname(__FILE__) patterns)
• Created after/ftplugin/php.lua with path resolution for WordPress/PHP patterns
• Tested and validated with test-gf.php

Phase 4.3 — Telescope setup

• Add telescope.nvim + telescope-fzf-native.nvim for fuzzy finding
• Configure basic pickers: find_files, live_grep, buffers, help_tags, oldfiles
• Add sensible default keymaps

Phase 4.4 — Oil.nvim for file manipulation

• Add stevearc/oil.nvim for filesystem operations (rename, create, delete, copy, move)
• Configure to handle buffer name sync on file operations
• Keep minimal - use only when shell operations would cause buffer issues
• Note: Evaluate practicality; can switch to mini.files if preferred

Phase 5 — Treesitter

Phase 5.1 — Confirm scope and priorities

• Confirm scope and priorities for this phase

Phase 5.2 — Base Treesitter

• Add nvim-treesitter with incremental selection, highlighting

Phase 5.3 — Treesitter textobjects

• Add nvim-treesitter-textobjects

Phase 5.4 — Treesitter autotag

• Add nvim-ts-autotag

Phase 6 — UX / Editing

Phase 6.1 — Confirm scope and priorities

• Confirm scope and priorities for this phase

Phase 6.2 — Comment.nvim

• Add numToStr/Comment.nvim

Phase 6.3 — Surround

• Add kylechui/nvim-surround

Phase 6.4 — Autopairs

• Add windwp/nvim-autopairs

Phase 6.5 — Indent guides

• Add lukas-reineke/indent-blankline.nvim

Phase 6.6 — Motion (leap/flash)

• Add ggandor/leap.nvim or folke/flash.nvim

Phase 6.7 — Folding (UFO)

• Add kevinhwang91/nvim-ufo for folding

Phase 6.8 — Optional: Undotree

• (Optional) Add mbbill/undotree

Phase 7 — Git, Markdown, Copilot, Formatting

Phase 7.1 — Confirm scope and priorities

• Confirm scope and priorities for this phase

Phase 7.2 — Git

• Add lewis6991/gitsigns.nvim

Phase 7.3 — Markdown

• Add render-markdown.nvim

Phase 7.4 — Copilot

• Add zbirenbaum/copilot.lua + copilot-cmp

Phase 7.5 — Formatting

• Add nvimtools/none-ls.nvim with minimal formatters/linters

Phase 8 — Migrate Kept Behaviours

Phase 8.1 — Confirm scope and priorities

• Confirm scope and priorities for this phase

Phase 8.2 — Abbreviations

• Abbreviations: adn→and, waht→what, tehn→then, functin→function, positin→position

Phase 8.3 — Templates

• Templates: auto-populate new .sh from template

Phase 8.4 — Whitespace highlighting

• Whitespace highlighting (modern approach)

Phase 8.5 — Persistent folds

• Persistent folds (via UFO)

Phase 9 — Cleanup & Validation

Phase 9.1 — Confirm scope and priorities

• Confirm scope and priorities for this phase

Phase 9.2 — Retire legacy files

• Retire legacy Vimscript files (keep for reference until verified)

Phase 9.3 — Startup performance

• Validate startup performance (no errors, fast launch)

Phase 9.4 — Tab workflow validation

• Validate tab-per-context workflow with Neo-tree

Phase 9.5 — Navigation validation

• Validate Telescope navigation + LSP jumps

Phase 9.6 — Language tooling validation

• Validate HTML/PHP/JS/Markdown tooling

---

Notes:

• Keep plugin specs minimal; configure in their own lua/plugins/*.lua files.
• Avoid adding plugins not listed in the guide unless explicitly requested.
• Prefer simple defaults; only add settings that clearly improve workflow.
• Plugin approval policy: unlisted plugins may be proposed, but must be explicitly confirmed before installation.

Known Issues / Follow-ups:

• lua-language-server (lua_ls) from Mason failed to start due to missing shared library libbfd-2.38-system.so. Options:
  • Install lua-language-server via system package manager compatible with your distro.
  • Provide the required libbfd or adjust symlink to match expected soname.
  • Skip lua_ls for now; validation done with other servers (jsonls, intelephense).
• LSP root detection: In some cases, the parent repository is picked as the root (e.g., when a workspace lives inside another repo). Workaround: create an empty .git directory (or a marker like .nvimroot) in the intended workspace root to pin the project root for LSPs.

Decisions & Changes:

• Neoconf dropped: folke/neoconf.nvim incompatible with Neovim 0.11+ vim.lsp.config API (GitHub issue #116, open since May 2024, no resolution). Migrated to native exrc + secure approach.
• vim.lsp.config migration: Migrated from deprecated require('lspconfig')[server].setup() to vim.lsp.config() + vim.lsp.enable() (Neovim 0.11+ native API).
• Project config format: .nvim.lua files return { lsp = { [server_name] = { settings = {...} } } }.
• Security model: secure mode prompts user to trust .nvim.lua files before execution (one-time per file hash).
• Settings loading: on_new_config hook loads project settings from actual root_dir (not cwd), ensuring correct behavior across different workspace structures.
• Phase 4 Navigation Strategy: Skipped Neo-tree in favor of built-in netrw for visual context and project structure browsing. Telescope for fuzzy finding. Oil.nvim for file manipulation (evaluation phase; alternative is mini.files). Rationale: User needs visual context and preview, not per-tab roots or complex tree features. File manipulation primarily done in shell, but Oil.nvim handles buffer sync issues when renaming/moving files.