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Vim autosave

To automatically save your changes in NeoVim you can use the auto-save plugin.

It has some nice features

  • Automatically save your changes so the world doesn't collapse
  • Highly customizable:
  • Conditionals to assert whether to save or not
  • Execution message (it can be dimmed and personalized)
  • Events that trigger auto-save
  • Debounce the save with a delay
  • Hook into the lifecycle with autocommands
  • Automatically clean the message area

Installation ⚑

{
  "okuuva/auto-save.nvim",
  cmd = "ASToggle", -- optional for lazy loading on command
  event = { "InsertLeave", "TextChanged" }, -- optional for lazy loading on trigger events
  opts = {
    -- your config goes here
    -- https://github.com/okuuva/auto-save.nvim?tab=readme-ov-file#%EF%B8%8F-configuration
    execution_message = {
      enabled = false,
    },
  },
},

Disable for specific filetypes⚑

The condition field of the configuration allows the user to exclude auto-save from saving specific buffers. This can be useful for example if you have a broken LSP that is making editing the markdown files an absolute hell.

Here is an example that disables auto-save for specified file types:

{
  condition = function(buf)
    local filetype = vim.fn.getbufvar(buf, "&filetype")

    -- don't save for `sql` file types
    if vim.list_contains({ "markdown" }, filetype) then
      return false
    end
    return true
  end
}

You may also exclude special-buffers see (:h buftype and :h special-buffers):

{
  condition = function(buf)
    -- don't save for special-buffers
    if vim.fn.getbufvar(buf, "&buftype") ~= '' then
      return false
    end
    return true
  end
}

Buffers that are nomodifiable are not saved by default.

Usage⚑

Besides running auto-save at startup (if you have enabled = true in your config), you may as well:

  • ASToggle: toggle auto-save

References⚑