ctrlvim

A Rust reimplementation of Neovim's editing core with a Ratatui frontend.

Features

• Buffer Engine — Rope-backed buffers with unified mark tree, undo tree (with g-/g+ branch traversal), and register ring
• Modal Editing — Normal/Insert/Visual/Cmdline modes with motions, operators, and text objects
• Lua Runtime — mlua-based Lua embedding with vim.api.*, vim.fn.*, vim.keymap, and vim.treesitter
• Async I/O — Tokio-backed event loop with timers and msgpack-RPC codec
• Vimscript — Tree-walking interpreter supporting let/if/for/while/function
• Treesitter — Parse, query, and node-range extraction via tree-sitter crate
• Window Management — Split frame tree with <C-w> commands
• TUI Frontend — Ratatui + crossterm dashboard, plugin manager, file browser, and floating overlays

Quick start

cargo test --workspace                            # run all tests
cargo run -p ctrlvim-core --bin ctrlvim-demo       # end-to-end demo (no UI)
cargo run -p ctrlvim-tui                           # launch the TUI

Workspace layout

crate	replaces (Neovim C)	what it does
ctrlvim-types	Object/typval, handles	dynamic Object value, BufferId/WindowId arena handles, Position/Range, errors
ctrlvim-text	memline.c, mark.c+marktree.c+extmark.c, undo.c, register.c	rope-backed Buffer, unified MarkStore, arena UndoTree (with g-/g+), Registers
ctrlvim-options	option.c + options.lua	three-tier (global/buffer/window) options via Option<T> overrides
ctrlvim-editor	normal.c, ops.c, textobject.c, edit.c, state.c, window.c (model)	Editor context (no globals), motions, operators, Mode state machine, split Frame tree + <C-w> window cmds, Session key dispatch
ctrlvim-vimscript	eval.c + eval/*.c, eval.lua builtins	minimal Vimscript interpreter (let/if/for/while/function), vim.fn.* builtins
ctrlvim-treesitter	lua/treesitter.c	binding surface over the tree-sitter crate: parse, query, node ranges
ctrlvim-api-macro	gen_api_dispatch.lua + c_grammar.lua	#[ctrlvim_api] proc-macro → generates Lua + RPC dispatch, no text parsing
ctrlvim-api	src/ctrlvim/api/*.c	ApiContext (owns the Session), #[ctrlvim_api] functions, inventory registry, autocmd store, vim.fn bridge
ctrlvim-lua	executor.c + converter.c	mlua embedding, Object↔Lua converter, LuaRef/RegistryKey callbacks, vim.api/vim.uv/vim.fn/vim.keymap/vim.treesitter
ctrlvim-async	event/*.c (libuv), msgpack_rpc/*.c	tokio event loop + timers, rmpv msgpack-RPC codec/dispatch
ctrlvim-core	startup wiring	Ctrlvim facade + demo binary a frontend links against
ctrlvim-tui	(the UI, split out)	Ratatui + crossterm frontend: startup dashboard, plugin manager, file-buffer viewer, and floating explorer/palette/help overlays, keyboard + mouse driven, atop ctrlvim-core

Dependency direction flows strictly downward; ctrlvim-async is a parallel infra branch.

Design notes

• No global curbuf/curwin. Everything threads through an explicit Editor, with Copy integer handles instead of raw pointers — a stale handle is a clean None.
• One callback mechanism. Autocmds, keymaps, and timers all store an Object::LuaRef resolved through LuaRefStore (mlua RegistryKey) — the Rust twin of nlua_call_ref.
• Codegen is a proc-macro, not a C-text parser. #[ctrlvim_api] on an ordinary Rust fn emits both dispatch paths; inventory auto-collects them at link time.

Changelog

[0.1.0] - 2026-07-22

Added

• Motion operators (d, y, c), visual mode (char + line), and text objects
• TUI improvements including floating overlays and mouse support

[0.1.0] - 2026-07-20

Added

• ctrlvim-tui crate with Ratatui + crossterm frontend
• ctrlvim-markdown crate for markdown support
• Startup dashboard, plugin manager, and file browser UI

Fixed

• .gitignore patterns for IDE files and OS artifacts

[0.1.0] - 2026-07-10

Added

• Initial project structure with all core crates
• Rope-backed buffer engine with mark tree, undo tree, and registers
• Modal editing (Normal/Insert/Visual/Cmdline) with motions and operators
• Lua runtime with vim.api.*, vim.fn.*, vim.keymap, and vim.treesitter
• Tokio async event loop with timers and msgpack-RPC
• Vimscript interpreter with let/if/for/while/function
• Treesitter integration for parse, query, and node ranges
• Window management with split frames and <C-w> commands
• Proc-macro for API dispatch generation

Changed

• Renamed all nvim references to ctrlvim across the project