Neovim config for remote machines

This is my Neovim configuration, published so that I, or an agent working on my behalf, can put it on any machine I SSH into with one command. The config is frozen: the lockfile is the contract, and the files here are byte-for-byte what I run locally.

curl -fsSL https://www.mfserna.dev/nvim/install.sh | sh

If nvim is missing or older than 0.11, add --install-nvim and the script fetches the official release tarball into ~/.local/opt/nvim (no sudo, no package manager):

curl -fsSL https://www.mfserna.dev/nvim/install.sh | sh -s -- --install-nvim

For a machine with no git or no outbound network beyond this download, install the plugin-free variant instead:

curl -fsSL https://www.mfserna.dev/nvim/install.sh | sh -s -- --minimal

Files

• /nvim/install.sh: POSIX sh installer. Idempotent; backs up any config it replaces.
• /nvim/init.lua: the full config. Bootstraps lazy.nvim and declares every plugin, LSP server, keymap, and option.
• /nvim/lazy-lock.json: pinned plugin commits. The installer runs Lazy! restore, not sync, so you get exactly these.
• /nvim/syntax/baml.vim: fallback highlighting for BAML files until the LSP attaches.
• /nvim/init.min.lua: the --minimal variant. Same options and keymaps, built-in colorscheme, netrw instead of a tree plugin, :find/:grep instead of Telescope, and native LSP completion for any server already on PATH.

Requirements

Hard requirements for the full config: nvim 0.11 or newer (the config uses vim.lsp.config, vim.lsp.enable, and vim.uv), git (lazy.nvim clones plugins), and curl or wget for the download. The minimal variant needs only nvim 0.11+ and curl or wget.

Optional tools, and what each unlocks:

• cc and make: compile telescope-fzf-native and LuaSnip's jsregexp. Without them Telescope falls back to its Lua sorter.
• tree-sitter CLI plus a C compiler: nvim-treesitter's main branch installs the C, C++, CMake, and Make parsers through it. Without it, highlighting comes from regex syntax files and LSP semantic tokens.
• rg (ripgrep): Telescope live_grep and the minimal config's :grep.
• node, cargo, go, java, python3: toolchains for the language servers Mason installs. Servers whose toolchain is absent simply fail to install in :Mason and the rest keep working.

The installer prints which optional tools it found so you can decide whether the machine needs more.

What the installer does

1. Checks for nvim ≥ 0.11. With --install-nvim, downloads the stable tarball for the detected OS and architecture from the Neovim GitHub releases into ~/.local/opt/nvim and links ~/.local/bin/nvim. It prints a note if that directory is not on PATH.
2. Downloads init.lua, lazy-lock.json, and syntax/baml.vim (or just init.min.lua with --minimal) into a temporary directory.
3. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim (default ~/.config/nvim) exists and its init.lua differs, moves it to nvim.bak.<timestamp>. If it already matches, it refreshes in place with no backup. It never deletes anything.
4. Copies the files into place.
5. Runs nvim --headless "+Lazy! restore" +qa to install the pinned plugins, then counts the directories in $XDG_DATA_HOME/nvim/lazy against the lockfile. Skip this with --no-sync.
6. Reports optional tooling.

--dry-run prints every step without writing. The script writes only to the config directory, Neovim's data directory, and, with --install-nvim, ~/.local/opt/nvim and ~/.local/bin/nvim.

Language servers are installed by Mason on the first interactive launch, not by the installer, because mason-lspconfig installs them asynchronously and a headless +qa would cut that short. Open nvim once and let :Mason finish, or run :MasonInstall for a specific server.

Verify

nvim --headless +checkhealth +qa
nvim --headless "+Lazy! check" +qa

Both should exit 0. To check that a remote machine is on the published config rather than a drifted copy:

curl -fsSL https://www.mfserna.dev/nvim/init.lua | diff - ~/.config/nvim/init.lua
curl -fsSL https://www.mfserna.dev/nvim/lazy-lock.json | diff - ~/.config/nvim/lazy-lock.json

No output means no drift.

Manual install

For a machine where piping to sh is not acceptable, the files are plain static downloads:

mkdir -p ~/.config/nvim/syntax
curl -fsSL https://www.mfserna.dev/nvim/init.lua -o ~/.config/nvim/init.lua
curl -fsSL https://www.mfserna.dev/nvim/lazy-lock.json -o ~/.config/nvim/lazy-lock.json
curl -fsSL https://www.mfserna.dev/nvim/syntax/baml.vim -o ~/.config/nvim/syntax/baml.vim
nvim --headless "+Lazy! restore" +qa

What is in the config

Gruvbox, lualine, bufferline, nvim-tree, Telescope with fzf-native, nvim-cmp with LuaSnip and friendly-snippets, gitsigns, toggleterm, which-key, Comment.nvim, indent-blankline, and nvim-autopairs. LSP goes through nvim-lspconfig and Mason, with rustaceanvim and crates.nvim for Rust, nvim-jdtls for Java, clangd flags for C and C++, and a hand-wired BAML server. Leader is space; <leader>f finds, <leader>g is git, <leader>l is LSP, <leader>r is Rust, <leader>c shells out to the Cursor CLI, and Ctrl-\ toggles a terminal. Tabs are four spaces, folds come from treesitter and start open, diagnostics show in a float on hover rather than as virtual text, and search highlighting clears itself when the cursor leaves the match.

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