configuration.md

Configuration

lim reads $LIM_CONFIG, else $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/lim/config.json, else ~/.config/lim/config.json (%APPDATA%\lim\config.json on Windows; lim --config-path prints it). Sessions, recent files and the last colorscheme go to $XDG_STATE_HOME/lim, ~/.local/state/lim or %LOCALAPPDATA%\lim. JSON with // comments and trailing commas. Every section is optional; anything invalid is reported in a notification and the default stays, so a broken config never stops the editor.

Settings (<Leader>, or :settings, as VS Code's settings page) lists every option except keys (mapleader, timeoutlen, keymaps stay in the file), grouped by section, full screen and drawn in the theme being set, so each change shows at once. / searches names, descriptions and sections (<CR> back to the list, <Esc> clears), j/k move, h/l or <CR> change the value, w writes the options into the config file (the other sections are kept; the old file is copied to config.json.bak, since its comments are not kept), <Esc> closes and keeps the changes for this session.

mkdir -p ~/.config/lim && lim --print-config > ~/.config/lim/config.json

The documented defaults are also in config.example.json.

{
  "options": { "tabstop": 4, "relativenumber": true, "mapleader": ",", "colorscheme": "catppuccin-mocha" },
  "palette": { "ui": { "base": "#11121d" } },
  "highlights": {
    "@comment": { "fg": "#565f89", "italic": false },
    "Visual": { "link": "Search" }
  },
  "keymaps": {
    "i": { "jk": "<Esc>" },
    "n": {
      "<Leader>x": { "rhs": ":x<CR>", "desc": "Save and quit" },
      "H": "^",
      "L": "$",
      "Q": false
    }
  }
}

Options

Names and defaults follow AstroNvim.

Option	Default	Meaning
number / relativenumber	true / false	Line numbers; both on shows the current line's absolute number
signcolumn · foldcolumn	true · true	Two-cell git sign column · one blank column left of the numbers
cursorline	false	Highlight the cursor's line; off, only its number stands out (NvChad)
tabstop · shiftwidth · expandtab	4 · 0 · true	Tab width · indent step (0 = tabstop) · indent with spaces
scrolloff / sidescrolloff	0 / 0	Lines / columns kept around the cursor
ignorecase / smartcase · hlsearch	true / true · true	Search case rules · highlight matches
autopairs · autoindent	true · true	Close brackets and quotes · keep indentation
mapleader · timeoutlen	" " · 500	Leader key · ms to wait for the rest of a mapping
showtabline / laststatus / winbar	true / true / false	Tabline · statusline · per-window path bar
cmdheight	0	0: notifications and an on-demand command line; 1: permanent command line
clipboard	"unnamedplus"	"" keeps yanks inside lim
colorscheme	unset	A theme name; unset uses the last one picked (nvchad at first)
icons · iconset	true · "nerd"	Glyphs at all · "nerd", "unicode", "emoji" or "ascii" ("unicode" when no Nerd Font is installed)
statusline_style	"rounded"	Statusline section ends: "rounded", "slanted", "arrow" or "flat" (Nerd Font icon set only)
splash	"random"	Start screen hydra: "random" (one that fits, each start), "braille" or "small"
mouse	true	Click (text, tabs, tabline buttons), drag to select, wheel; false gives the terminal its own selection back (to copy)
completion	true	Completion menu while typing (<C-Space> still opens it when off)
truecolor	"auto"	true, false (256 colors) or "auto"
highlighturl indentguides matchparen gitsigns wordhighlight colorhighlight todocomments notifications dashboard syntax	true	Turn each feature off

Palette

The theme's palette (astrotheme layout), overridable color by color under palette.syntax and palette.ui:

syntax: red orange yellow green cyan blue purple text comment mute · ui: red orange yellow green cyan blue purple accent tabline winbar tool base inactive_base statusline split float title border current_line selection highlight none_text text text_active text_inactive prompt

Highlight groups

Each takes fg, bg ("#RRGGBB"), bold, italic, underline, or link to another group.

Kind	Groups
Editor	Normal NormalNC CursorLine LineNr CursorLineNr Visual Search CurSearch MatchParen LspReferenceText HighlightURL IblIndent Directory
Syntax	@variable @comment @string @number @keyword @function @type @type.builtin @constant @function.macro @property
Statusline	StatusLine StatusLineSection StatusLineNormal StatusLineInsert StatusLineVisual StatusLineCommand StatusLineReplace StatusLineCwd StatusLinePosition StatusLineRecording StatusLineModeSep (the grey step after the mode) StatusLineGit StatusLineJob (the spinner)
Tabline, windows	TabLine TabLineSel TabLineFill TabLineModified TabLineButton (light/dark button) TabLineCloseAll BufferPicker WinSeparator WinBar WinBarNC
Messages, floats	MsgArea ErrorMsg NormalFloat FloatBorder (fg = bg hides the frame, the default; set an fg to bring lines back) FloatTitle (title pill) PmenuSel SnacksNotifierInfo SnacksNotifierError
Completion	BlinkCmpLabelMatch BlinkCmpKind BlinkCmpSource (menu: NormalFloat, FloatBorder, PmenuSel)
Git, TODO	GitSignsAdd GitSignsChange GitSignsDelete · TodoFgFIX TodoFgTODO TodoFgHACK TodoFgWARN TodoFgPERF TodoFgNOTE TodoFgTEST
Plugins look-alikes	WhichKey WhichKeyNormal (menu background, the editor's by default) WhichKeyDesc WhichKeyGroup WhichKeySeparator · SnacksPickerMatch SnacksPickerDir SnacksPickerInput · NeoTreeNormal NeoTreeDirectoryIcon NeoTreeFileName NeoTreeIndentMarker NeoTreeFileNameOpened NeoTreeGitModified NeoTreeGitAdded NeoTreeGitUntracked NeoTreeGitDeleted
lim	LimCheatsheetKey LimCheatsheetDesc (the start screen uses Normal for the hydra, these two for its buttons)

Keymaps

keymaps holds one object per mode: "n", "i", "v", "nv" (normal and visual). Each entry maps a left-hand side to a key sequence (":w<CR>"), an object with a which-key description ({ "rhs": ":w<CR>", "desc": "Save" }), or false to disable the key. Right-hand sides run without remapping and can call built-in mappings ("<Leader>ff"). Your mappings appear in which-key, the keymaps picker and the cheat sheet.

Key notation: plain characters, <Leader>, <CR>, <Esc>, <BS>, <Tab>, <S-Tab>, <Space>, <C-x>, <C-Up>…, <F1>…<F12>, <Up> <Down> <Left> <Right>, <Home> <End>, <Del>, <PageUp> <PageDown>, <lt>, <Bar>, <Bslash>.

Commands

The commands section adds :Name commands that pipe text through external programs: see Commands.