Neovim Commands Cheat Sheet (2026)

Neovim Commands Cheat Sheet (2026)

Neovim has become the terminal editor of choice for developers who want speed, extensibility, and full keyboard-driven workflows. Whether you are new to Neovim or switching from Vim, this cheat sheet covers every essential command you need in 2026.

This reference is organized by task so you can find what you need quickly.

Getting Started

Installation

# macOS
brew install neovim

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install neovim

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S neovim

# Windows (Scoop)
scoop install neovim

# From source (latest)
git clone https://github.com/neovim/neovim.git
cd neovim && make CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
sudo make install

Check your version:

nvim --version

Configuration File Location

Neovim uses Lua for configuration (not .vimrc):

~/.config/nvim/init.lua

Or the traditional Vim format:

~/.config/nvim/init.vim

Modes

Neovim has several modes. Understanding them is fundamental:

Mode	Key to Enter	Purpose
Normal	Esc or Ctrl+[	Navigate and run commands
Insert	i, a, o	Type and edit text
Visual	v, V, Ctrl+v	Select text
Command	:	Execute Ex commands
Replace	R	Overwrite text
Terminal	:terminal	Embedded terminal

Movement Commands

Basic Motion

Command	Action
h	Move left
j	Move down
k	Move up
l	Move right
w	Jump to start of next word
W	Jump to start of next WORD (whitespace-delimited)
b	Jump to start of previous word
B	Jump to start of previous WORD
e	Jump to end of word
E	Jump to end of WORD
0	Jump to start of line
^	Jump to first non-blank character
$	Jump to end of line

Advanced Motion

Command	Action
gg	Go to first line of file
G	Go to last line of file
{number}G	Go to specific line number
{	Jump to previous paragraph
}	Jump to next paragraph
%	Jump to matching bracket
f{char}	Jump forward to character
F{char}	Jump backward to character
t{char}	Jump to just before character
T{char}	Jump back to just after character
;	Repeat last f/F/t/T motion
,	Repeat last f/F/t/T motion in reverse
Ctrl+d	Scroll down half page
Ctrl+u	Scroll up half page
Ctrl+f	Scroll down full page
Ctrl+b	Scroll up full page
zz	Center cursor line on screen
zt	Move cursor line to top of screen
zb	Move cursor line to bottom of screen

Editing Commands

Insert Mode Entry

Command	Action
i	Insert before cursor
I	Insert at beginning of line
a	Append after cursor
A	Append at end of line
o	Open new line below
O	Open new line above
s	Delete character and enter insert mode
S	Delete entire line and enter insert mode
C	Delete from cursor to end of line and enter insert mode

Normal Mode Editing

Command	Action
x	Delete character under cursor
X	Delete character before cursor
dd	Delete entire line
D	Delete from cursor to end of line
dw	Delete word
d$	Delete to end of line
d0	Delete to start of line
yy	Yank (copy) entire line
yw	Yank word
y$	Yank to end of line
p	Paste after cursor
P	Paste before cursor
u	Undo
Ctrl+r	Redo
.	Repeat last change
r{char}	Replace single character
R	Enter replace mode
J	Join current line with next
~	Toggle case of character
>>	Indent line
<<	Unindent line
==	Auto-indent line

Text Objects

Text objects are one of Neovim's most powerful features. Use them with operators like d, c, y, v:

Command	Action
diw	Delete inner word
daw	Delete a word (including surrounding space)
di"	Delete inside double quotes
da"	Delete including double quotes
di(	Delete inside parentheses
da(	Delete including parentheses
di{	Delete inside curly braces
di[	Delete inside square brackets
dit	Delete inside HTML/XML tag
dip	Delete inner paragraph
dap	Delete a paragraph
ci"	Change inside double quotes
ca(	Change around parentheses
vi{	Visually select inside braces
yit	Yank inside tag

Search and Replace

Command	Action
/{pattern}	Search forward
?{pattern}	Search backward
n	Next search result
N	Previous search result
*	Search forward for word under cursor
#	Search backward for word under cursor
:%s/old/new/g	Replace all occurrences in file
:%s/old/new/gc	Replace all with confirmation
:s/old/new/g	Replace all on current line
:{range}s/old/new/g	Replace in line range

Visual Mode

Command	Action
v	Enter character-wise visual mode
V	Enter line-wise visual mode
Ctrl+v	Enter block (column) visual mode
gv	Reselect last visual selection
o	Move to other end of selection
>	Indent selection
<	Unindent selection
=	Auto-indent selection
d	Delete selection
y	Yank selection
c	Change selection
U	Uppercase selection
u	Lowercase selection

Buffers, Windows, and Tabs

Buffers

Command	Action
:e {file}	Open file in new buffer
:ls	List all buffers
:bn	Next buffer
:bp	Previous buffer
:bd	Delete (close) buffer
:b {number}	Go to buffer by number
:b {name}	Go to buffer by partial name

Windows (Splits)

Command	Action
:sp {file}	Horizontal split
:vsp {file}	Vertical split
Ctrl+w s	Horizontal split
Ctrl+w v	Vertical split
Ctrl+w h/j/k/l	Navigate between splits
Ctrl+w H/J/K/L	Move split to edge
Ctrl+w =	Equal size splits
Ctrl+w _	Maximize height
Ctrl+w |	Maximize width
Ctrl+w q	Close split
Ctrl+w o	Close all splits except current

Tabs

Command	Action
:tabnew {file}	Open file in new tab
:tabn or gt	Next tab
:tabp or gT	Previous tab
:tabclose	Close current tab
:tabonly	Close all tabs except current

File Operations

Command	Action
:w	Save file
:w {filename}	Save as
:wq or ZZ	Save and quit
:q	Quit
:q! or ZQ	Quit without saving
:wa	Save all buffers
:qa	Quit all
:qa!	Quit all without saving
:e!	Reload file from disk

Marks and Jumps

Command	Action
m{a-z}	Set local mark
m{A-Z}	Set global mark (across files)
`{mark}	Jump to mark (exact position)
'{mark}	Jump to mark (line start)
``	Jump to last position before jump
Ctrl+o	Jump to older position in jump list
Ctrl+i	Jump to newer position in jump list

Macros

Command	Action
q{register}	Start recording macro to register (a-z)
q	Stop recording
@{register}	Play macro
@@	Replay last macro
{count}@{register}	Play macro N times

Registers

Command	Action
"{register}y{motion}	Yank into specific register
"{register}p	Paste from specific register
:reg	Show all registers
"0p	Paste last yank (not delete)
"+y	Yank to system clipboard
"+p	Paste from system clipboard
"_d	Delete without saving to register (black hole)

Built-in LSP (Language Server Protocol)

Neovim has built-in LSP support. Common keybindings (default or typical config):

-- init.lua LSP keybindings
vim.keymap.set('n', 'gd', vim.lsp.buf.definition, { desc = 'Go to definition' })
vim.keymap.set('n', 'gD', vim.lsp.buf.declaration, { desc = 'Go to declaration' })
vim.keymap.set('n', 'gi', vim.lsp.buf.implementation, { desc = 'Go to implementation' })
vim.keymap.set('n', 'gr', vim.lsp.buf.references, { desc = 'Find references' })
vim.keymap.set('n', 'K', vim.lsp.buf.hover, { desc = 'Hover documentation' })
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>rn', vim.lsp.buf.rename, { desc = 'Rename symbol' })
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>ca', vim.lsp.buf.code_action, { desc = 'Code action' })
vim.keymap.set('n', '[d', vim.diagnostic.goto_prev, { desc = 'Previous diagnostic' })
vim.keymap.set('n', ']d', vim.diagnostic.goto_next, { desc = 'Next diagnostic' })
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>f', function() vim.lsp.buf.format({ async = true }) end, { desc = 'Format' })

Essential Lua Configuration

Basic init.lua Setup

-- Line numbers
vim.opt.number = true
vim.opt.relativenumber = true

-- Indentation
vim.opt.tabstop = 4
vim.opt.shiftwidth = 4
vim.opt.expandtab = true
vim.opt.smartindent = true

-- Search
vim.opt.ignorecase = true
vim.opt.smartcase = true
vim.opt.hlsearch = false
vim.opt.incsearch = true

-- Appearance
vim.opt.termguicolors = true
vim.opt.signcolumn = "yes"
vim.opt.scrolloff = 8
vim.opt.wrap = false

-- Performance
vim.opt.updatetime = 250
vim.opt.timeoutlen = 300

-- Leader key
vim.g.mapleader = " "
vim.g.maplocalleader = " "

-- Clipboard
vim.opt.clipboard = "unnamedplus"

-- Splits
vim.opt.splitright = true
vim.opt.splitbelow = true

Plugin Manager (lazy.nvim)

-- Bootstrap lazy.nvim
local lazypath = vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/lazy/lazy.nvim"
if not vim.loop.fs_stat(lazypath) then
    vim.fn.system({
        "git", "clone", "--filter=blob:none",
        "https://github.com/folke/lazy.nvim.git",
        "--branch=stable", lazypath,
    })
end
vim.opt.rtp:prepend(lazypath)

require("lazy").setup({
    -- Telescope (fuzzy finder)
    { "nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim", dependencies = { "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim" } },

    -- Treesitter (syntax highlighting)
    { "nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter", build = ":TSUpdate" },

    -- LSP
    { "neovim/nvim-lspconfig" },

    -- Autocompletion
    { "hrsh7th/nvim-cmp" },

    -- File explorer
    { "nvim-neo-tree/neo-tree.nvim" },
})

Telescope Commands (Fuzzy Finder)

If you use Telescope (the most popular Neovim fuzzy finder):

Command	Action
<leader>ff	Find files
<leader>fg	Live grep (search in files)
<leader>fb	Browse buffers
<leader>fh	Help tags
<leader>fr	Recent files
<leader>fd	Diagnostics

Terminal Mode

Command	Action
:terminal	Open terminal in current buffer
:sp | terminal	Open terminal in horizontal split
Ctrl+\\ Ctrl+n	Exit terminal mode to normal mode
i or a	Re-enter terminal mode from normal mode

Useful Ex Commands

Command	Action
:!{command}	Run shell command
:r !{command}	Insert output of shell command
:r {file}	Insert contents of file
:sort	Sort selected lines
:sort u	Sort and remove duplicates
:%!jq .	Format JSON using jq
:noh	Clear search highlighting
:set spell	Enable spell checking
:checkhealth	Run health check

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Vim and Neovim? Neovim is a modernized fork of Vim with built-in LSP support, Lua scripting, better defaults, and an async architecture. It is fully compatible with most Vim plugins while adding features like a built-in terminal and tree-sitter integration.

Should I use init.lua or init.vim? Use init.lua. Lua is faster, more readable, and all modern Neovim plugins use Lua. The Vimscript format still works but is considered legacy.

How do I exit Neovim? Type :q to quit, :wq to save and quit, or :q! to quit without saving. You can also use ZZ (save and quit) or ZQ (quit without saving).

Wrapping Up

This cheat sheet covers the commands you will use daily in Neovim. The key to mastery is building muscle memory through practice -- start with basic motions and editing, then gradually add text objects, macros, and LSP features to your workflow.

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