linefly

linefly is a simple, fast and informative pure-Lua statusline for Neovim.

linefly provides a number of useful builtin components:

Git changes (via Gitsigns plugin if installed)
Diagnostic status
Attached LSP client namess
On-going LSP progress (Neovim 0.10 or greater required)
Macro-recording status (useful when set cmdheight=0)
Current search count (useful when set cmdheight=0)
Spell status (useful when set cmdheight=0)
Indent status (tabs or spaces and their associated width)

linefly also provides optional tabline and winbar support when the appropriate settings are enabled; refer to tabline and winbar.

linefly will adapt it's colors to the colorscheme currently in effect. Colors can also be customized if desired.

Lastly, linefly is a lean statusline plugin clocking in at about 800 lines of Lua code. For comparison, the lualine, lightline and airline plugins contain over 8,200, 3,600 and 7,300 lines of code respectively. In fairness, the latter plugins are more featureful, configurable and visually pleasing.

⚠️ linefly has a predominantly fixed layout, this will not be an appropriate statusline plugin if layout flexibility is desired.

Screenshots

The above screenshots are using the moonfly colorscheme and the Iosevka font with Git changes, Diagnostics and indent-status enabled.

Statusline Startup Comparison

A startup comparison of linefly against various popular statusline plugins, with their out-of-the-box defaults, on a clean and minimal Neovim setup with the moonfly colorscheme. The Neovim startup times in the following table are provived by the dstein64/vim-startuptime plugin.

Startup times are the average of five consecutive runs. Note, stock is run without any statusline plugin.

stock	linefly	lualine	lightline	airline
18.0ms	18.9ms	23.2ms	22.0ms	76.0ms

Startup times as of March 2024 on my system; performance on other systems will vary.

Modules And Plugins supported

⚡ Requirements

linefly requires Neovim 0.8, or later.

linefly also requires a GUI capable version Neovim with an appropriate colorscheme set. A GUI client, or Neovim with the termguicolors option enabled in a true-color terminal, is required.

Lastly, please make sure that the laststatus option is set to either: 1, 2 or 3.

Installation

Install bluz71/nvim-linefly with your preferred plugin manager.

lazy.nvim:

{ 'bluz71/nvim-linefly' },

Please do not lazy-load linefly.

Layout And Default Colors

The linefly layout consists of three groupings: the left-side, middle and right-side as follows:

+-------------------------------------------------+
| A | B | C | D | E    M    U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
+-------------------------------------------------+

Section	Purpose
A`*`	Mode status (normal, insert, visual, command and replace modes)
B	Filename (refer below for details)
C`*`	Git branch name (if applicable)
D`*`	Plugins notification (git, diagnostic and session status)
E	Active buffer-attached LSP client names
M	LSP progress status
U	`showcmd` content if `showcmdloc=statusline`
V`*`	Optional macro-recording status
W	Optional search count and spell status
X	Current position
Y`*`	Total lines and current location as percentage
Z	Optional indent status (spaces and tabs shift width)

Sections marked with a * are linked to a highlight group and are colored, refer to the next section for details.

Sections C, D, U, V & W will not be displayed when the statusline width is less than 80 columns.

Section E, active buffer-attached LSP client names, will only be displayed when the statusline width is greater than or equal to 120 columns.

Section M, LSP progress status, will only be displayed when a global statusline is in effect and the statusline width is greater than or equal to 120 columns.

Note, filenames will be displayed as follows:

Pathless filenames for files in the current working directory
Relative paths in preference to absolute paths for files not in the current working directory
~-style home directory paths in preference to absolute paths
Possibly shortened, for example foo/bar/bazz/hello.txt will be displayed as f/b/b/hello.txt when statusline width is less than 120 columns.
Possibly trimmed. A maximum of four path components will be displayed for a filename; if a filename is more deeply nested then only the four most significant components, including the filename, will be displayed with an ellipsis prefix symbol used to indicate path trimming.

Highlight Groups And Colors

Sections marked with * in the previous section are linked to the following custom highlight groups with their associated fallbacks if the current colorscheme does not support linefly.

Segment	Custom Highlight Group	Synthesized Highlight Fallback
Normal Mode	`LineflyNormal`	`Directory`
Insert Mode	`LineflyInsert`	`String`
Visual Mode	`LineflyVisual`	`Statement`
Command Mode	`LineflyCommand`	`WarningMsg`
Replace Mode	`LineflyReplace`	`Error`

Note, the following dark colorschemes support linefly, either within the colorscheme (moonfly & nightfly) or within this plugin (all others):

Lastly, if the fallback colors do not suit then it is very easy to override with your own highlights.

🎁 Here is a simple example of customized linefly colors. Save the following at the end of your initialization file after setting your colorscheme.

local highlight = vim.api.nvim_set_hl

highlight(0, "LineflyNormal", { link = "DiffChange" })
highlight(0, "LineflyInsert", { link = "WildMenu" })
highlight(0, "LineflyVisual", { link = "IncSearch" })
highlight(0, "LineflyCommand", { link = "WildMenu" })
highlight(0, "LineflyReplace", { link = "ErrorMsg" })

🔧 Options

Default option values:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  separator_symbol = "⎪",
  progress_symbol = "↓",
  active_tab_symbol = "▪",
  git_branch_symbol = "",
  error_symbol = "E",
  warning_symbol = "W",
  information_symbol = "I",
  ellipsis_symbol = "…",
  tabline = false,
  winbar = false,
  with_file_icon = true,
  with_git_branch = true,
  with_git_status = true,
  with_diagnostic_status = true,
  with_session_status = true,
  with_attached_clients = true,
  with_macro_status = false,
  with_search_count = false,
  with_spell_status = false,
  with_indent_status = false,
}

Option	Option	Option
separator_symbol	progress_symbol	active_tab_symbol
git_branch_symbol
error_symbol	warning_symbol	information_symbol
ellipsis_symbol
tabline	winbar
with_file_icon	with_git_branch	with_git_status
with_diagnostic_status	with_session_status	with_attached_clients
with_lsp_status	with_macro_status	with_search_count
with_spell_status	with_indent_status

separator_symbol

The separator_symbol option specifies which character symbol to use for segment separators in the statusline.

By default, the ⎪ character (Unicode U+23AA) will be displayed.

To specify your own separator symbol please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  separator_symbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'
}

progress_symbol

The progress_symbol option specifies which character symbol to use to indicate location-as-percentage in the statusline.

By default, the ↓ character (Unicode U+2193) will be displayed.

To specify your own progress symbol, or no symbol at all, please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  progress_symbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING-OR-EMPTY>>'
}

active_tab_symbol

The active_tab_symbol option specifies which character symbol to use to signify the active tab in the tabline.

By default, the ▪ character (Unicode U+25AA) will be displayed.

To specify your own active tab symbol please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  active_tab_symbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'
}

git_branch_symbol

The git_branch_symbol option specifies which character symbol to use when displaying Git branch details.

By default, the  character (Powerline U+E0A0) will be displayed. Many modern monospace fonts will contain that character.

To specify your own Git branch symbol, or no symbol at all, please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  git_branch_symbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING-OR-EMPTY>>'
}

error_symbol

The error_symbol option specifies which character symbol to use when displaying Diagnostic errors.

By default, the E character will be displayed.

To specify your own error symbol please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  error_symbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'
}

warning_symbol

The warning_symbol option specifies which character symbol to use when displaying Diagnostic warnings.

By default, the W character will be displayed.

To specify your own warning symbol please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  warning_symbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'
}

information_symbol

The information_symbol option specifies which character symbol to use when displaying Diagnostic information.

By default, the I character will be displayed.

To specify your own information symbol please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  information_symbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'
}

ellipsis_symbol

The ellipsis_symbol option specifies which character symbol to use when indicating truncation, for example, deeply nested path truncation.

By default, the … character will be displayed.

To specify your own ellipsis symbol please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  ellipsis_symbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'
}

tabline

The tabline option specifies whether to let this plugin manage the Neovim tabline in addition to the statusline.

By default, Neovim tabline management will not be undertaken.

If enabled, linefly will render a simple numbered, and clickable, window-space layout in the tabline; note, no buffers will be displayed in the tabline since there are many plugins that already provide that capability.

To enable tabline support please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  tabline = true,
}

💡 Mappings, such as the following, may be useful to quickly switch between the numbered window-spaces:

local map = vim.keymap.set

map("n", "<Leader>1", "1gt")
map("n", "<Leader>2", "2gt")
map("n", "<Leader>3", "3gt")
map("n", "<Leader>4", "4gt")
map("n", "<Leader>5", "5gt")
map("n", "<Leader>6", "6gt")
map("n", "<Leader>7", "7gt")
map("n", "<Leader>8", "8gt")
map("n", "<Leader>9", "9gt")

A screenshot of the tabline:

winbar

The winbar option specifies whether to display a window bar at the top of each window.

By default, window bars will not be displayed.

Displaying a window bar is recommended when the global statusline is enabled via set laststatus=3; the winbar will then display the file name at the top of each window to disambiguate splits. Also, if there is only one window in the current tab then a winbar will not be displayed (it won't be needed).

To enable the winbar feature please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  winbar = true,
}

with_file_icon

The with_file_icon option specifies whether a filetype icon, from a Nerd Font, will be displayed prior to the filename in the statusline (and optional winbar).

Note, a Nerd Font must be active and the nvim-web-devicons plugin must also be installed and active.

By default, a filetype icon will be displayed if possible.

To disable the display of a filetype icon please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  with_file_icon = false,
}

with_git_branch

The with_git_branch option specifies whether to display Git branch details in the statusline.

By default, Git branches will be displayed in the statusline.

To disable the display of Git branches in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  with_git_branch = false,
}

with_git_status

The with_git_status option specifies whether to display Gitsigns of the current buffer in the statusline.

By default, the Git status will be displayed if the plugin is loaded.

To disable the display of Git status in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  with_git_status = false,
}

with_diagnostic_status

linefly supports Diagnostics.

The with_diagnostic_status option specifies whether to indicate the presence of the diagnostics in the current buffer.

By default, diagnostics will be displayed if the nvim-lspconfig plugin is loaded.

If diagnostic display is not wanted then please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  with_diagnostic_status = false,
}

with_session_status

The with_session_status option specifies whether to display vim-obsession, posession.nvim or nvim-possession session details in the statusline.

By default, session details will be displayed if one of those plugins is loaded.

To disable the display of session details in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  with_session_status = false,
}

with_attached_clients

The with_attached_clients option specifies whether to display all active buffer-attached language servers and linters in the statusline.

Note, linter names are derived from the nvim-lint plugin, if active.

By default, attached clients will be displayed.

To disable the display of attached clients in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  with_attached_clients = false,
}

with_lsp_status

The with_lsp_status option specifies whether to display LSP progress status in the statusline if global statusline is in effect (:set laststatus=3).

By default, LSP progress status will be displayed.

Note, this option requires Neovim 0.10 or greater.

To disable the display of LSP progress status in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  with_lsp_status = false,
}

with_macro_status

The with_macro_status option specifies whether to display macro-recording status in the statusline. This option is especially useful if cmdheight is set to 0.

By default, macro-recording status will not be displayed.

To enable the display of macro-recording status in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  with_macro_status = true,
}

with_search_count

The with_search_count option specifies whether to display the search count in the statusline. This option is especially useful if cmdheight is set to 0.

By default, search count will not be displayed.

To enable the display of the search count in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  with_search_count = true,
}

Note, the search count is only displayed when the hlsearch option is set and the search count result is not zero.

with_spell_status

The with_spell_status option specifies whether to display the spell status in the statusline. This option is especially useful if cmdheight is set to 0.

By default, spell status will not be displayed.

To enable spell status in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  with_spell_status = true,
}

with_indent_status

The with_indent_status option specifies whether to display the indentation status as the last component in the statusline.

By default, indentation status will not be displayed.

Note, if the expandtab option is set, for the current buffer, then tab stop will be displayed, for example Tab:4 (tab equals four spaces); if on the other hand noexpandtab option is set then shift width will be displayed instead, for example Spc:2 ('spc' short for 'space').

To enable indentation status please add the following to your initialization file:

vim.g.linefly_options = {
  with_indent_status = true,
}

bluz71 / nvim-linefly