DEV Community

Prasanna Gautam
Prasanna Gautam

Posted on • Originally published at nextdoorhacker.com on

Neovim for Blog Writing: Plugins, Keymaps, and a Cheatsheet

#productivity #writing #tooling #tutorial

My Neovim config has always been coding-focused—LSP, treesitter, language-specific keymaps for Zig, Rust, and Go. But I recently wanted to use the same setup for writing blog posts. Here’s what I added to make Neovim a solid prose environment.

The full config is at github.com/prasincs/vim-config. screenshot-20251226-041442

Writing-Focused Plugins

Zen Mode

zen-mode.nvim removes distractions by centering your buffer and hiding UI elements.

{
"folke/zen-mode.nvim",
opts = {},
keys = {
{ "<leader>z", "<cmd>ZenMode<cr>", desc = "Zen Mode" },
},
},
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Press <Space>z to toggle. The buffer centers itself, line numbers fade, and you’re left with just your text.

The screenshot below shows what zen-mode looks like screenshot-20251226-043407

Twilight

twilight.nvim dims inactive portions of your file. When combined with Zen Mode, it auto-activates to keep your focus on the current paragraph.

{
"folke/twilight.nvim",
opts = {},
},
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The screenshot above also shows the dimming.

Render Markdown

render-markdown.nvim renders markdown decorations directly in the buffer—headings get background colors, code blocks are highlighted, lists show proper bullets.

{
"MeanderingProgrammer/render-markdown.nvim",
dependencies = { "nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter", "nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons" },
ft = { "markdown" },
opts = {},
keys = {
{ "<leader>mr", "<cmd>RenderMarkdown toggle<cr>", desc = "Toggle markdown rendering" },
},
},
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Press <Space>mr to toggle rendering on/off. This is optional if you’re using Hugo’s live server for previews—sometimes the raw markdown is easier to edit.

This was a big new and confusing to me, so here’s a helper screen-recording-markdown-toggle

Markdown Configuration

Treesitter Parsers

Add markdown and markdown_inline to your treesitter config for proper syntax highlighting:

{
"nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter",
opts = {
ensure_installed = { "markdown", "markdown_inline", --[[other languages]] },
},
},
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Prose-Friendly Settings

Markdown files need different settings than code. This autocmd enables word wrap, spell checking, and hides markdown syntax:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd("FileType", {
pattern = "markdown",
callback = function()
vim.opt_local.wrap = true
vim.opt_local.linebreak = true
vim.opt_local.spell = true
vim.opt_local.conceallevel = 2
end,
})
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
  • wrap + linebreak: Text wraps at word boundaries instead of mid-word
  • spell: Highlights misspellings (use z= to see suggestions)
  • conceallevel = 2: Hides markdown syntax like **bold**, showing just bold

Adding Images and Screenshots

One friction point in markdown blogging is adding images. You either need to manually copy files and write the markdown tag, or leave Neovim entirely. I added helpers to streamline this.

Setup: pngpaste

For clipboard paste support on macOS, you need pngpaste. I use my fork with error handling:

git clone -b error-handling https://github.com/prasincs/pngpaste.git
cd pngpaste
make && sudo make install
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Or use the original via Homebrew: brew install pngpaste

Image Helper Functions

The config auto-detects your images directory (static/images, assets/images, etc.) and provides three ways to add images:

Action Keymap/Command
Paste from clipboard <Space>mi
Paste with custom name <Space>mn
Insert from file path <Space>mI
Insert via command :MarkdownInsertImage ~/path/to/image.png

When you paste, it:

  1. Saves the clipboard image to static/images/screenshot-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.png
  2. Inserts ![screenshot-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS](/static/images/screenshot-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.png) at cursor

The :MarkdownInsertImage command copies an external file into your images directory and inserts the tag—useful for images from Downloads or other projects.

Screen Recordings

For screen recordings, there’s a dedicated workflow that converts videos to GIF automatically:

Action Keymap
Fuzzy find recording from Desktop <Space>mR
Insert via command :MarkdownInsertRecording <path> <name>

The search directories are configurable:

local markdown_media_config = {
image_search_dir = "~/Downloads", -- Where to search for images with <Space>mI
recording_search_dir = "~/Desktop", -- Where to search for recordings with <Space>mR
image_search_depth = 2, -- How deep to search for images
recording_search_depth = 1, -- How deep to search for recordings
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The <Space>mR keymap opens Telescope filtered to video files (.mov, .mp4, .webm) in your configured directory—~/Desktop by default, where macOS saves screen recordings.

The command handles spaces in filenames naturally:

:MarkdownInsertRecording ~/Desktop/Screen Recording 2025-12-26 at 4.52.47 AM.mov my-demo
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The last word without / is treated as the output name, everything before it is the path. This converts the video to GIF using ffmpeg and inserts the markdown tag.

For static images, the keymaps use Telescope for fuzzy finding:

Action Keymap
Fuzzy find image <Space>mI
Paste from clipboard <Space>mi
Paste with custom name <Space>mn

neovim-screen-recording-to-gif

AI-Assisted Writing with Claude Code

I use claudecode.nvim for AI assistance while writing. It integrates Claude directly into Neovim.

{
"coder/claudecode.nvim",
dependencies = { "folke/snacks.nvim" },
opts = {
terminal_cmd = vim.fn.expand("~/.claude/local/claude"),
},
keys = {
{ "<leader>ac", "<cmd>ClaudeCode<cr>", desc = "Toggle Claude" },
{ "<leader>af", "<cmd>ClaudeCodeFocus<cr>", desc = "Focus Claude" },
{ "<leader>as", "<cmd>ClaudeCodeSend<cr>", mode = "v", desc = "Send to Claude" },
{ "<leader>ab", "<cmd>ClaudeCodeAdd %<cr>", desc = "Add current buffer" },
},
},
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Select text, hit <Space>as, and Claude sees your selection. Useful for rephrasing paragraphs or getting feedback on technical explanations.

Cheatsheet

Starting a Writing Session

Action Keymap
Open file finder <Space>ff
Toggle Zen Mode <Space>z
Toggle file tree <Space>e
Toggle markdown rendering <Space>mr

Navigating Content

Action Keymap
Search in files <Space>fg
Switch buffers <Space>fb

Editing

Action Keymap
Move line down J (visual mode)
Move line up K (visual mode)
Yank to clipboard <Space>y
Toggle comment gc

AI Assistance

Action Keymap
Toggle Claude <Space>ac
Send selection to Claude <Space>as (visual)
Add buffer as context <Space>ab

Spell Checking

Action Keymap
Next misspelling ]s
Previous misspelling [s
Suggest corrections z=
Add word to dictionary zg

Images & Recordings

Action Keymap
Paste image from clipboard <Space>mi
Paste with custom name <Space>mn
Fuzzy find image from home <Space>mI
Fuzzy find recording from Desktop <Space>mR

Conclusion

This setup gives me distraction-free writing with in-buffer markdown rendering, spell checking, and AI assistance—all without leaving Neovim.

It’s been over a decade since I wrote about Perfect Vim Setup for Go. The tooling has evolved dramatically, but the core idea remains: configure your editor to fit how you work.

Full config: github.com/prasincs/vim-config

Top comments (0)