| name | neovim-documentation |
| description | Load before any Neovim help, documentation, or Lua API lookup. Defines how to read Neovim docs from disk or online. Reading docs via `nvim --headless` or any other `nvim` subprocess is FORBIDDEN; Triggers: "Neovim docs", `:help`, `:h <topic>`, `runtime/doc`, Neovim Lua API lookups, "how does Neovim do X" questions.
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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
- Linux (Snap):
/snap/nvim/current/usr/bin/nvim
- Runtime docs:
/snap/nvim/current/usr/share/nvim/runtime/doc/
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/
