🧵 weaver.nvim

A modern, performant frontend and compatibility layer for vim.pack — the Neovim 0.12 built-in plugin manager.

Weaver sits between you and vim.pack, giving you:

• Full lazy.nvim spec syntax (events, filetypes, commands, keymaps, dependencies, priorities, opts, config, init, build, version …)
• A beautiful TUI (:Weaver) showing loaded / unloaded / disabled plugins with live update badges
• Zero compromise performance — no Lua bytecode caching tricks needed; startup cost is the plugins themselves, not the manager

---

Requirements

• Neovim ≥ 0.12 (vim.pack API)
• git in $PATH

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Installation (bootstrap)

Because weaver itself uses vim.pack, you can bootstrap it with a tiny snippet at the very top of your init.lua:

-- Bootstrap weaver.nvim via vim.pack
vim.pack.add({ "https://github.com/SyntacticallySilly/weaver.nvim" })

Then configure it immediately after:

require("weaver").setup({
  -- your plugins here
})

---

Usage

Basic

require("weaver").setup({
  -- Plain string (eager load)
  "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim",

  -- With options table
  { "catppuccin/nvim",
    name     = "catppuccin",
    lazy     = false,
    priority = 1000,
    config   = function() vim.cmd.colorscheme("catppuccin") end },
})

Lazy loading by event

{ "nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter",
  version = "main",
  build   = ":TSUpdate",
  event   = { "BufReadPost", "BufNewFile" },
  config  = function()
    require("nvim-treesitter.configs").setup({ highlight = { enable = true } })
  end },

Lazy loading by filetype

{ "stevearc/conform.nvim",
  ft     = { "lua", "python", "rust" },
  opts   = {
    formatters_by_ft = { lua = { "stylua" }, python = { "black" } },
  } },

Lazy loading by command

{ "nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim",
  cmd          = { "Telescope" },
  dependencies = { "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim" },
  config       = function() require("telescope").setup({}) end },

Lazy loading by keymap

{ "folke/which-key.nvim",
  keys = {
    { "<leader>",  desc = "Leader" },
    { "<leader>w", "<cmd>w<cr>", desc = "Save" },
  },
  opts = {} },

Version pinning

{ "neovim/nvim-lspconfig", version = "v2.0.0" },
-- or a branch:
{ "nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter", version = "main" },

Local plugins

{ dir = "~/projects/my-plugin",
  config = function() require("my-plugin").setup({}) end },

Dependencies

{ "nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim",
  cmd          = "Telescope",
  dependencies = {
    "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim",
    { "nvim-telescope/telescope-fzf-native.nvim",
      build = "make" },
  },
  config = function() require("telescope").setup({}) end },

Post-install / update hooks

{ "nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter",
  build = ":TSUpdate" },       -- Neovim command

{ "some/plugin",
  build = "make install" },    -- Shell command

{ "other/plugin",
  build = function()           -- Lua function
    require("other").post_install()
  end },

---

The :Weaver UI

:Weaver           → Open the popup window
:Weaver update    → Update all plugins
:Weaver update plenary.nvim telescope.nvim   → Update specific plugins
:Weaver add user/new-plugin  → Add a plugin at runtime
:Weaver del old-plugin       → Delete a plugin

Inside the window

Key	Action
l	Load plugin under cursor
u	Update plugin under cursor
U	Update all plugins
i	Install any missing plugins
d	Delete plugin under cursor (with confirm)
r	Refresh / re-render window
?	Toggle help overlay
q / Esc	Close

Update availability is checked concurrently via git fetch --dry-run the moment the window opens; plugins with upstream changes show an ↑ badge.

---

API

local weaver = require("weaver")

weaver.setup(specs, opts)   -- Main entry point
weaver.open()               -- Open UI programmatically
weaver.add({ ... })         -- Add plugins post-setup
weaver.update({ "name" })   -- Update by name (nil = all)
weaver.del("name")          -- Delete a plugin

---

Comparison

Feature	lazy.nvim	vim.pack (raw)	weaver.nvim
Lazy loading	✅	❌	✅
lazy.nvim spec syntax	✅	❌	✅
Built-in (no bootstrap)	❌	✅	via vim.pack
TUI frontend	✅	❌	✅
Update badges	✅	❌	✅
Version pinning	✅	✅	✅
Dependencies	✅	manual	✅
Build hooks	✅	via autocmd	✅
Local plugins	✅	manual	✅
Startup overhead	medium	minimal	minimal

---

License

MIT