News

v0.4.0 - Every extra verified

Every extra was tested end to end in a real editor, and the broken ones were fixed. Blak now uses more of Neovim 0.12 directly. Plugins install at shipped pins, including extras, and your lockfile moved out of the checkout.

Before you update

• Your lockfile now lives at stdpath('state')/blak/lazy-lock.json, so :BlakUpdate no longer modifies the checkout. If git pull --ff-only refuses because of local changes to lazy-lock.json, run git -C ~/.config/blak checkout lazy-lock.json and pull again. On the next start Blak records the commits you have installed, so no plugin moves.
• Run :BlakUpgrade after updating. It explains each change below that affects you.
• Blak no longer maps gr, gI and K in LSP buffers. Neovim’s grr (references), gri (implementation) and K (hover) cover them. Bare gr used to wait for timeoutlen because it shadowed Neovim’s gr prefix. ]d/[d are Neovim’s own jumps now, so counts work and [D/]D reach the first and last diagnostic; the float still opens after each jump. To restore gr, add { key = "gr", action = vim.lsp.buf.references, desc = "References" } to keymaps.
• ai.supermaven was removed because the Supermaven service shut down. Use ai.copilot.

Pins and updates

• lazy-lock.json in the checkout now holds shipped pins for every plugin that core or any extra can install. A plugin is first installed at the commit Blak was tested with. Your own updates and rollbacks always win. editor.mini modules, which you choose, follow their default branch. Maintainers refresh pins with make pins, and make validate fails for plugins without one.
• :BlakExtras sync installs and cleans at pinned commits and no longer updates every installed plugin, which :Lazy sync did.
• :BlakRollback right after :BlakUpdate in the same session restored nothing and wrote the post-update pins back. It now restores the snapshot. Rollback also prefers the full snapshot over a legacy lockfile backup taken in the same second.
• A fresh install no longer modifies the lockfile on first launch. Blak starts lazy.nvim at its pinned commit instead of the newest stable tag.
• Refreshed core and extra plugin pins. Updated the documentation stack to Astro 7.4.12 and Starlight 0.43.1, with no known vulnerabilities.

Native Neovim

• Language servers in lsp.servers start through vim.lsp.enable(), so servers installed outside Mason (Nix, Homebrew, Xcode) work. A missing binary is only logged.
• Removed the :LspInfo-style lazy-load stubs, which do nothing on Neovim 0.12. Use :checkhealth vim.lsp and :lsp.
• Neovim defaults are back: smartindent is no longer enabled (it moved # comment lines to column 0 in files without an indent expression), jumpoptions keeps clean and adds view, and completeopt keeps popup. Removed settings that only repeated Neovim’s defaults. grepprg is set only when rg is installed.
• The completion menu, documentation, signature and diagnostic float borders follow ui.winborder.
• Restart hints point at :restart. Replaced deprecated API calls and removed fallbacks for Neovim versions older than 0.12.

Core fixes

• The first file you open is now linted on open, not only after a save.
• Enabling an extra and running :BlakExtras sync loads its plugins in the same session, including plugins that load on VeryLazy.
• Mason install failures now warn and point at :MasonLog. :checkhealth blak checks that Mason tools and enabled extras’ plugins are installed.
• Without a StyLua config, StyLua formats Lua with Blak’s indent settings (spaces by default) instead of tabs.
• Snacks pickers show file icons. which-key names the <leader>a, d, h, o, r, s and T groups that extras use.
• :BlakKeys lists Ctrl-key mappings in the Blak section, and reload removes them. Git hunk mappings in Visual mode no longer apply in Select mode.
• :Lazy no longer draws a frame around the whole editor. Long notifications wrap. The notification history has no line numbers.
• The splash keeps its colors after :colorscheme. :BlakSplash opens a centered float, and the dashboard hides ~ rows and the ruler.
• ui.theme reaches base46 for scheme names with several dashes.
• CI checks Lua formatting with StyLua, and the advisory nightly smoke passes again on Neovim 0.13 development builds.

Extras

• ai.copilot showed no suggestions as configured. It now uses copilot-language-server with Neovim’s native inline completion: sign in with :LspCopilotSignIn, accept with <M-l>, cycle with <M-]>/<M-[>. Existing sign-ins carry over.
• git.diffview uses dlyongemallo/diffview-plus.nvim, the maintained fork. Commands and keymaps are unchanged.
• debug.dap and test.neotest work out of the box with a language extra: lang.go adds Delve and neotest-golang, lang.python and lang.python-pro add debugpy and neotest-python, and lang.rust adds codelldb, which it now installs only when debug.dap is enabled. dap-ui shows a session that started before it opened. neotest dropped unneeded dependencies and warns when no adapter exists.
• Fixed editor.refactoring for the rewritten upstream plugin (needs Neovim 0.12.5+), editor.overseer for overseer v2, and editor.render-markdown’s toggle.
• lang.tailwind and lang.web start Tailwind only in Tailwind projects. HTML and CSS hovers are readable. lang.typescript no longer mixes position encodings.
• lang.bash no longer reports shellcheck twice. lang.terraform lints through tflint’s language server, so diagnostics land on the right line. lang.nix no longer installs nixfmt through Mason, which only supports Linux x64. lang.rust enables crates.nvim’s hover, actions and completion.
• editor.fzf-lua uses current APIs, live workspace symbols and this session’s recent files. Pickers report a missing plugin in one line.
• Smaller fixes: editor.aerial, editor.harpoon, editor.neotree, editor.todo-comments, ai.claudecode, ai.sidekick (edit suggestions load), ui.base46 (moved repository), ui.comfy-line-numbers, ui.animations, lang.json and git.neogit.

Earlier changes in this release

• Fixed extras-menu selection: headings and blank lines no longer toggle an unrelated extra. The menu fits small terminals and adjusts when resized.

• Automatic config reload now survives external editors replacing user.lua, including a syntax error followed by a corrected save. Changes to unrelated or unchanged files do not reload Blak, and edits during startup wait until setup finishes. Invalid keymap mode names are rejected before replacing the accepted configuration.

• One unknown or failing linter no longer prevents the other configured linters from running. Blak reports the failing linter separately and honors the event’s target buffer when linting a background buffer.

• Extras no longer share mutable Snacks option tables between config builds, so changes to an active extra cannot alter its defaults on later reloads.

• Clarified the manifesto: supported stable Neovim releases are the baseline; nightly is a compatibility target. CI now has a required stable smoke job and an advisory nightly smoke job.

• Updated deprecated Neovim highlighting and diagnostic navigation APIs while preserving the existing keys. :BlakKeys now includes described global mappings, including native defaults, and shows the effective mapping when a buffer-local mapping overrides a global one.

• <leader>cf now works without an attached LSP. :BlakFormat accepts line ranges, including :'<,'>BlakFormat after a visual selection. Disable the shortcut with { key = "<leader>cf", disable = true } in keymaps.

• Reopening an exited native terminal starts a fresh shell and retains the old output buffer. Running terminal jobs are still reused.

• Per-filetype Conform options now override Blak’s global formatting defaults on save and through :BlakFormat. Use { lsp_format = "never" } as a filetype’s formatter entry to disable formatting for that filetype; an empty list alone still allows LSP fallback.

• lang.typescript now uses TypeScript 7’s native tsc language server. This is a deliberate distribution upgrade: review this change before updating the Blak checkout, then run :BlakUpgrade, :BlakToolsInstall, wait for installation, and restart. To retain ts_ls, select the new lang.typescript-legacy extra when upgrading. Explicit lsp.servers.ts_ls entries remain configured; remove them to use only the native server. lang.typescript-tsgo is a compatibility alias for the standard stack and carries tsgo overrides into tsc, with explicit tsc settings winning. Installed tools remain. Plugin-only :BlakUpdate does not fetch this change, and rollback snapshots do not restore the Blak checkout revision.

• Overlapping Python or TypeScript language extras now behave consistently regardless of activation order. Python Pro supersedes basic Python, and native TypeScript supersedes legacy TypeScript. They replace only unchanged extra-contributed defaults, preserving explicit user settings. Changes in one configuration no longer leak through shared extra server tables. Basic Python no longer starts a second Ruff process through nvim-lint; Ruff LSP supplies diagnostics. Opt back in with lint.linters_by_ft.python = { "ruff" }.

• Fixed TypeScript initialization when a project-local language server cannot find TypeScript: lang.typescript-legacy resolves a compatible workspace SDK first, then Mason’s copy, while preserving explicit SDK paths and user hooks. Tool installation repairs Mason packages missing tsserver.js, including incompatible TypeScript 7 installations. Run :BlakToolsInstall, wait for completion, and restart to recover an existing broken installation. :BlakDoctor now checks this dependency. Automatic repair follows mason.automatic_install; see the typescript-runtime migration.

• Configuration functions can remove default LSP servers and formatters without the defaults being silently restored. Table-based overrides and explicit setup() overrides retain their existing precedence.

• Unknown linter names and failing linter factories now produce health warnings instead of aborting :BlakDoctor before later checks run.

• Restored Neovim’s built-in compressed-file support, tar/zip browsing, and Tutor. Blak disables only the netrw directory handler that its explorer replaces. See the native-helpers migration for opting out.

• Reload now discards cached plugin options, preserves custom Conform/Blink options from plugins.specs, removes stale formatter filetypes, and replaces removed LSP settings. Live extras refresh their plugin specs before setup.

• :BlakKeys now includes mappings in the current buffer, including Blak’s extras UI and plugin-owned shortcuts.

• Background buffer reads no longer move the visible cursor. Hiding a terminal preserves its tab even when it is the last normal window beside a float.

• Fixed false-positive smoke results: failed Lua assertions now return a failing exit status. Tests use disposable XDG directories and the committed plugin pins, compile all Lua modules, and validate every extra independently.

• Restricted Mason’s automatic LSP activation to configured servers, so disabled extras stay disabled after restart. mason.automatic_install = false now covers language servers; :BlakToolsInstall explicitly requests both servers and tools. Add manually installed servers to lsp.servers to auto-enable them.

• Fixed stale leader and LSP mappings on reload, preserved user LSP mapping overrides, and prevented :BlakKeys from corrupting later registry updates. Disabling lint events or shared clipboard now removes the old behavior.

• Rollback now validates every snapshot file before restoring anything; failed backups abort updates instead of recording unreadable files as absent.

• Extras preserve explicit LSP and Snacks settings. Reload reuses one plugin-spec refresh path and leaves unused formatting plugins deferred. Missing parsers no longer replace native indentation, and terminal toggling preserves windows reused for editing.

• Installers reject unsafe app names and preserve existing launchers and unrelated development symlinks. Installer smoke also checks the current working tree.

• Docs development now requires Node.js 22.12+ (CI uses Node.js 24). Updated the GitHub Actions checkout, language setup, and Pages actions.

• Corrected the advertised theme and clarified update channels, checkout updates, rollback limits, plugin-owned mappings, and retained Mason/parser installations. The docs-link validator now checks the actual root-relative routes.

• :BlakDoctor no longer reports a broken fff picker as healthy. It probed require("fff"), which resolves to fff.main and defers the Rust backend into function bodies, so it succeeded even with no native library on disk. The check now probes the backend and names the fix, including the case where fff downloaded the library but could not install it over the loaded one and left it at <binary>.tmp.

• Linting no longer reports failures at the user. A configured linter that is not installed is skipped instead of raising Error running <cmd>: ENOENT on every lint event, and linter output that cannot be parsed is reported once as a warning instead of being pinned to line 1 of the buffer as a fake diagnostic. :checkhealth blak gained a “Linters” section that lists every configured linter and whether its binary was found.

• lang.typescript and lang.typescript-tsgo no longer run eslint_d. Both extras already enable the ESLint language server, so ESLint diagnostics were being produced twice from the same project configuration. Dropping the nvim-lint entry removes the duplicate source and the eslint_d spawn and parse failures that came with it. To keep eslint_d, add it back per filetype: lint = { linters_by_ft = { typescript = { "eslint_d" } } }.

• Re-enabled the built-in matchparen and matchit plugins. Stock Neovim highlights the matching bracket under the cursor and extends % matching; Blak disabled both for a negligible startup win without replacing them, which contradicted the native-first contract. To turn them back off, set vim.g.loaded_matchparen = 1 and vim.g.loaded_matchit = 1 in a hooks.before function in lua/blak/user.lua.

v0.3.0 — Fifteen new extras

A batch of opt-in extras that widen language and workflow coverage without touching any default. Each is reversible and disabled by default.

• Languages: lang.c (clangd + clang-format), lang.bash (bashls + shellcheck), lang.web (HTML/CSS/Tailwind/Emmet + Prettier), lang.docker (dockerls + Compose + hadolint), lang.yaml and lang.json (language servers wired to SchemaStore), lang.terraform (terraform-ls + tflint), lang.nix (nil + nixfmt), and lang.zig (zls).
• Editor: editor.flash for label-based motions (Flash’s char mode is off, so f/t/F/T stay native), editor.grug-far for project-wide find and replace, and editor.scratch for Snacks scratch buffers.
• Git: git.gitbrowse opens the current file or line on the remote, and git.neogit adds a Magit-style interactive Git interface.
• UI: ui.indent enables Snacks indent guides with animated scope.
• No default keymaps, picker, completion engine, explorer, or LSP strategy changed. The Snacks-backed extras add no new plugins.

v0.2.2 — Dependency refresh

A maintenance release that refreshes the bundled plugin pins without adding configuration weight or changing any defaults.

• The lazy lockfile was updated, bumping conform.nvim, fff, lazy.nvim, mason.nvim, mini.icons, nvim-lint, nvim-lspconfig, oil.nvim, and snacks.nvim to their latest tracked commits.
• No default keymaps, picker, completion engine, explorer, or LSP strategy changed. Muscle memory is preserved — this is purely a dependency refresh.

v0.2.1 — Editing defaults polish

This patch release tightens two default editing surfaces without adding new configuration weight.

• Pair handling now uses nvim-autopairs, which gives the expected brace block shape when pressing Enter inside {}.
• <Space><Space> is now documented and implemented as a plain file finder instead of a duplicate “smart” picker. :BlakPick smart remains available as a compatibility alias for files.
• Docs and smoke coverage were updated for pair insertion, picker dispatch, and the Mini extra’s non-conflicting module guidance.

v0.2.0 — Extras, updates, and docs

Blak’s second preview release is the first one that feels shaped for regular use rather than just first install. Extras are discoverable, configuration reloads are safer, updates have a clearer trust contract, and the docs now describe the runtime instead of merely introducing it.

Core

• :BlakExtras opens a browsable extras UI, and extras can now be enabled, disabled, synced, and activated live.
• lua/blak/user.lua auto-refreshes more predictably, including user keymaps and function-valued mappings.
• :BlakDocs opens the docs site from inside Neovim.
• New management keymaps live under <Space>l; native split maps and alternate-file toggling were added.
• Configuration now has typed metadata, schema validation, string completions, and a richer lua/blak/user.example.lua.
• Startup work is deferred across plugin and config setup so common paths load less up front.

Updates

• :BlakUpdate now enforces the accepted channel and blocks pending breaking migrations.
• :BlakUpgrade handles deliberate migrations and workflow-affecting moves.
• Rollback, install, and smoke-test paths were hardened.
• The public installer now creates a sparse runtime checkout with the runtime files Blak actually needs.

Theme

• blak.theme centralizes theme loading.
• TokyoNight now goes through a theme adapter.
• Transparent editor backgrounds can be enabled with ui.transparent.
• The default theme stays plain tokyonight-night.

Extras

• AI: Claude Code, Sidekick, Supermaven.
• Debug/test: DAP and Neotest.
• Editor: Aerial, Harpoon, mini modules, Overseer, Refactoring, render-markdown, Snacks explorer, Snacks terminal, todo-comments, Trouble, window navigation.
• UI: Base46, comfy line numbers, dim, lualine.
• Language: TypeScript tsgo, plus Rust crates.nvim support.

Fixes

• Restored local file discovery in the fff picker provider.
• Refreshed blink super-tab mappings after config changes.
• Smoothed Snacks explorer quit behavior and splash recentering.
• Stopped the Snacks explorer extra from installing fd unexpectedly.
• Stabilized CI smoke tests.

v0.1.0 — Public preview

Initial implementation. Complete enough to install, use, and share — young enough that issues and contributor feedback are expected.

Core

• Native-first Neovim 0.12 config built on vim.lsp.config() and vim.lsp.enable().
• lazy.nvim package backend with config-aware rollback snapshots (:BlakUpdate, :BlakUpgrade, :BlakRollback).
• fff.nvim as the primary file picker with snacks / telescope / fzf-lua provider fallbacks.
• blink.cmp for completion.
• Snacks dashboard, input, notifier, picker, quickfile, bigfile modules.
• Animated black-hole splash extracted from milli.nvim’s blackhole GIF preview.
• Conform formatting, nvim-lint linting, native Treesitter.
• Oil as the default file explorer; native terminal split; Gitsigns; Which-key.
• TokyoNight Night as the default colorscheme.

Extras (reversible)

• Languages: lua, typescript, typescript-tsgo, python, python-pro, rust, go, markdown.
• UI: animations, image-preview, zen.
• Git: lazygit, diffview.
• Editor: neotree, snacks-explorer, telescope, fzf-lua.
• AI: copilot, sidekick.

Distribution

• One-command installer that creates a blak launcher under ~/.local/bin and uses NVIM_APPNAME=blak so existing Neovim configs are not touched.
• ./dev-install.sh for local-symlink development.
• CI: static validation + a Neovim smoke test on every push.
• :BlakTreesitterInstall helper for parser installation.

This page is the human-readable changelog. Issues, milestones, and discussions live on the GitHub repo.