Installation

This guide targets Debian 13 Trixie and Neovim 0.10.4. For a test environment on another host, follow the Docker instructions; that keeps the editor's userspace on the supported Debian baseline.

1. Install dependencies

Use Debian's packages for the editor, parser build tools, download utilities, and preferred search backend:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install neovim git curl ca-certificates build-essential \
  tar gzip unzip fd-find

Confirm nvim --version reports NVIM v0.10.4. Select a Nerd Font in your terminal for the file explorer icon. Language toolchains are a separate step.

2. Download and extract the release

Download AutoVim 0.1.0 alpha. The ZIP contains init.lua, lua/, colors/, lazy-lock.json, and LICENSE directly at its root; it has no enclosing directory.

To try it alongside your current config, use a separate Neovim application name:

# Run in the directory containing the downloaded archive.
sha256sum autovim_v0-1-0-alpha.zip
# Expected: 7fb587e23d40d689e697727dd22d3e3000deab318fc10aeddc85b5659adf9ce5

mkdir -p "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/autovim-alpha"
unzip autovim_v0-1-0-alpha.zip \
  -d "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/autovim-alpha"

Choose an empty config directory. NVIM_APPNAME=autovim-alpha also gives this installation separate standard data, state, and cache directories.

3. Restore plugins and build parsers

NVIM_APPNAME=autovim-alpha AUTOVIM_BOOTSTRAP=1 \
  nvim --headless '+Lazy! restore' +qa

NVIM_APPNAME=autovim-alpha nvim

The first command restores the locked plugin commits and waits for the initial Tree-sitter parser installs. Setup requires network access and may take several minutes. Keep the NVIM_APPNAME prefix when launching this installation.

For a default installation, back up your existing Neovim configuration, extract into ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/nvim, and omit NVIM_APPNAME from the commands.

4. Open your first workspace

NVIM_APPNAME=autovim-alpha nvim ~/projects/my-project

Or press f on the dashboard to open the picker. Enter browses directories; Space, Enter assigns the selected directory as a workspace. Use :Open to reopen selection from the editor.

5. Enable language tooling

Install the toolchains for your chosen languages, then restart Neovim so it inherits their PATH. Install one server or every configured server:

:LspInstall clangd
" Or, after installing the relevant prerequisites:
:LspInstall all
:LspInfo

Opening a file never downloads its language server. Use :Mason to view installation progress and :LspStart if the file was already open.

Setup checks