lazyvcs.nvim

Git and Subversion in Neovim: a repository sidebar, editable live diffs, branch comparisons, hunk actions, and blame. Works with vanilla Neovim and AstroNvim on Linux, macOS, and Windows. No required Lua dependencies.

Requirements

• Neovim 0.11 or newer. On Windows, use a standard LuaJIT build.
• git or svn for the repositories you use.
• A Nerd Font for icons, optional.

Install

With lazy.nvim:

{
  "Reddimus/lazyvcs.nvim",
  main = "lazyvcs",
  event = { "BufReadPost", "BufNewFile", "BufReadCmd lazyvcs://compare/*" },
  cmd = "LazyVCS",
  keys = {
    { "<leader>vs", "<cmd>LazyVCS<cr>", desc = "Toggle VCS sidebar" },
    { "<leader>vo", "<cmd>LazyVCS diff open<cr>", desc = "Open VCS diff" },
    { "<leader>vq", "<cmd>LazyVCS diff close<cr>", desc = "Close VCS diff" },
    { "<leader>vr", "<cmd>LazyVCS hunk revert<cr>", desc = "Revert VCS hunk" },
    { "<leader>vb", "<cmd>LazyVCS blame toggle<cr>", desc = "Toggle VCS blame" },
    { "<leader>vc", "<cmd>LazyVCS compare<cr>", desc = "Compare against base" },
    { "<leader>vC", "<cmd>LazyVCS compare base<cr>", desc = "Choose comparison base" },
    { "]v", "<cmd>LazyVCS hunk next<cr>", desc = "Next VCS hunk" },
    { "[v", "<cmd>LazyVCS hunk prev<cr>", desc = "Previous VCS hunk" },
  },
  opts = {},
}

The BufReadCmd event loads LazyVCS when Neovim rereads a Compare snapshot buffer, such as after :edit.

For AstroNvim, put return { ... } around this spec and save it as lua/plugins/lazyvcs.lua. Restart Neovim and run :checkhealth lazyvcs. Sidebar diffs use your editing window alongside Neo-tree. With Resession installed, session saves preserve the editor's pre-diff window options without restoring temporary LazyVCS panes.

Without a plugin manager, clone the repository into stdpath("data")/site/pack/plugins/start/lazyvcs.nvim and add require("lazyvcs").setup() to your init.lua.

Start here

Open a file inside a Git or SVN working copy:

Native hunks preserve supported text encodings and EOF state and refuse symlink bases. See :help lazyvcs-notes for limits and undo behavior.

Press <Tab> after :LazyVCS for command completion. In the sidebar, C compares a repository against a base. . opens repository actions, c commits, b switches branches or SVN targets, R refreshes, ? shows help, and q closes it.

Compare a branch

Run :LazyVCS compare and choose a Git branch/commit or SVN URL@revision. The choice is remembered for the current worktree and branch.

Omitted sparse-checkout files use read-only index snapshots.

Git compares the common ancestor with your saved working tree, including committed, staged, unstaged, and nonignored untracked changes. SVN compares the selected repository revision with the working copy. The file list reflects saved changes; save and refresh to discover new paths.

The comparison uses native Neovim buffers and windows. Press Enter or double-click a file in the list to focus its first hunk. ]v and [v cycle hunks; ]b and [b cycle files and restore your position. Both wrap, and file counts work, such as 3]b. These mappings apply only in Compare.

Text panes keep normal Vim motions, search, macros, marks, and jump history. The right pane edits the real file, including unsaved changes; the left stays read-only. Save with :write. Edited buffers survive closing Compare. Symlinks, deleted files, and other unsupported paths use read-only snapshots. Set compare.editable = false to use snapshots throughout. Use <leader>vf for the file list, <leader>ve for your original editing window, or <leader>v? for help. File and grep searches, including AstroNvim's <leader>ff and <leader>fw, open other files in your editing window. Searching within the displayed working file jumps directly in its editable pane.

In the file list, P previews, e fits the width, o edits, R refreshes, b changes the base, p toggles metadata, and q closes. From any Compare pane, use :LazyVCS compare width, metadata, refresh, or close. The installation mappings use <leader>vc to compare and <leader>vC to choose a base. Deleted files focus the base pane; binary and oversized files remain listed without a text preview. SVN properties remain available through metadata. Snapshots decode each source to UTF-8 for display, including Git working-tree-encoding files, while blame retains the original bytes. Display normalizes CRLF to LF on both sides and preserves lone CR characters as content. Hunk navigation from metadata loads the text before jumping.

Files load on demand; Compare does not fill your ordinary buffer list. Editing a file adds it to that list. Controls apply only while a Compare pane has focus. Compare keeps up to 32 cached snapshots, plus current, visible, or pending files. Eviction drops snapshot marks and jumps; review positions remain remembered. Set compare.max_cached_files = 0 for an unlimited cache. Customize or disable pane shortcuts with compare.keymaps = { files = "<leader>vf", edit = "<leader>ve", help = "<leader>v?" }; use false to disable a key.

Known limits

• Compare panes are diff windows. As with any diff window, a split of a pane, or another window in Compare's tab that shows a pane's file, starts in diff mode; :diffoff ends it. Diff mode replaces manual folds, so a reviewed file keeps no manual folds in windows that take a pane's options, including views saved by auto-view autocommands.
• While Compare shows a file again after ]b or [b, a window in another tab that opens that file for the first time can start with the pane's diff mode and label. o, <leader>ve, and picker selections reset the window they open; other windows are not reset.
• When Compare takes a pane back from a picker preview, the preview's own diff ends in that pane. Its winbar and scroll and cursor bindings remain.

Blame selected lines

Select lines, then run :LazyVCS blame. Vim supplies the selected range. This also works in Compare's text panes. q closes the report. Unsaved edits are marked uncommitted in editor buffers.

SVN blame maps working-copy BASE history onto saved and unsaved edits. New or changed lines stay uncommitted after saving; unchanged lines keep their history.

Optional visual mapping:

vim.keymap.set("x", "<leader>vb", "<Plug>(LazyVCSBlameSelection)")

Configure

Keep inline blame off between sessions:

opts = { blame = { persist = false } }

Defaults avoid remote refreshes unless requested. Git signs are delegated to gitsigns.nvim when installed. Optional pickers and commit-message providers are detected automatically. See :help lazyvcs-configuration for all options and :help lazyvcs-defaults for the complete default configuration.

Commit messages use CopilotChat.nvim by default. Set ai.commit_message.provider to "claude", "codex", "gemini", or "copilot_cli" for a CLI, to "auto" to try provider_order, or to "off" to disable generation:

opts = { ai = { commit_message = { provider = "off" } } }

Diff panes use normal syntax colors, including code an LSP marks inactive. On Neovim versions with link_global, a custom namespace stays active if any link target resolves differently in that namespace and globally, including through link chains. Semantic overlays remain visible in those windows because the API cannot distinguish ordinary links from global-only links. Other custom namespaces keep normal diff highlighting. Set diff_highlighting = "editor" to keep LSP semantic colors in every comparison.

Help and contribute

• :help lazyvcs covers commands, mappings, and configuration.
• CONTRIBUTING.md covers setup, checks, architecture, and releases.
• CHANGELOG.md lists changes.
• SECURITY.md explains private security reporting.