carlos-algms Neovim Documentation Files and help docs
CRITICAL: Reading docs via nvim / nvim --headless is forbidden (hangs,
races, disrupts the dev env). Read doc files directly.
Neovim Documentation Lookup Strategy:
Always prefer reading local documentation files directly from the Neovim runtime path, because they reflect the exact version installed on the system.
Common path patterns for discovery:
- macOS (Homebrew):
- Runtime docs:
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/neovim/*/share/nvim/runtime/doc/ - Note: We don't need the exact version, just use the wildcard
*to match the installed version
- Runtime docs:
- Linux (Snap):
/snap/nvim/current/usr/bin/nvim- Runtime docs:
/snap/nvim/current/usr/share/nvim/runtime/doc/
- Runtime docs:
If OS unknown or path patterns above miss: discover the install root:
realpath $(which nvim)
Then derive runtime/doc/ from that path.
If local lookup fails: Use GitHub raw URLs (least preferred)
curl -sfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/neovim/neovim/refs/tags/v<version>/runtime/doc/<doc-name>.txt
Flags: -s silent, -f fail on HTTP error (catches wrong tag), -L follow
redirects.
Tip: Do not assume a file contains what you need, use rg, or grep on the
runtime/doc folder to find the file containing needed info.
Example - search across the runtime docs:
rg "colors_name" /opt/homebrew/Cellar/neovim/*/share/nvim/runtime/doc/