Persisted.nvim is a simple lua plugin for automated session management within Neovim
Forked from Persistence.nvim as active development has stopped

• Features
• Requirements
• Installation
• Usage
  • Default commands
  • Telescope
  • Helpers
• Configuration
  • Defaults
  • Session options
  • Session save location
  • Git branching
  • Autosaving
  • Autoloading
  • Following current working directory
  • Allowed directories
  • Ignored directories
  • Callbacks
  • Telescope extension
• License

• Automatically saves the active session under .local/share/nvim/sessions on exiting Neovim
• Supports sessions across multiple git branches
• Supports auto saving and loading of sessions with allowed/ignored directories
• Simple API to save/stop/restore/delete/list the current session(s)
• Telescope extension to list all sessions

• Neovim >= 0.7.0

Install the plugin with your preferred package manager:

-- Lua
use({
  "olimorris/persisted.nvim",
  --module = "persisted", -- For lazy loading
  config = function()
    require("persisted").setup()
    require("telescope").load_extension("persisted") -- To load the telescope extension
  end,
})

" Vim Script
Plug 'olimorris/persisted.nvim'

lua << EOF
  require("persisted").setup {
    -- your configuration comes here
    -- or leave it empty to use the default settings
    -- refer to the configuration section below
  }
EOF

The plugin is designed to work with startup screens like vim-startify or dashboard out of the box. It will never load a session automatically by default.

However, to lazy load the plugin add the module = "persisted" line to packer.

The plugin comes with a number of commands:

• :SessionToggle - Determines whether to load, start or stop a session
• :SessionStart - Start recording a session. Useful if autosave = false
• :SessionStop - Stop recording a session
• :SessionSave - Save the current session
• :SessionLoad - Load the session for the current directory and current branch if git_use_branch = true
• :SessionLoadLast - Load the last session
• :SessionDelete - Delete the current session

Note: The author only binds :SessionToggle to a keymap for simplicity.

The Telescope extension may be opened via :Telescope persisted.

Once opened, the available keymaps are:

• <CR> - Source the session file
• <C-d> - Delete the session file

The plugin sets a global variable, vim.g.persisting, which is set to true when a session is started. The author uses this to display an icon in their statusline.

The plugin comes with the following defaults:

require("persisted").setup({
  save_dir = vim.fn.expand(vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/sessions/"), -- directory where session files are saved
  command = "VimLeavePre", -- the autocommand for which the session is saved
  silent = false, -- silent nvim message when sourcing session file
  use_git_branch = false, -- create session files based on the branch of the git enabled repository
  autosave = true, -- automatically save session files when exiting Neovim
  should_autosave = nil, -- function to determine if a session should be autosaved
  autoload = false, -- automatically load the session for the cwd on Neovim startup
  on_autoload_no_session = nil, -- function to run when `autoload = true` but there is no session to load
  follow_cwd = true, -- change session file name to match current working directory if it changes
  allowed_dirs = nil, -- table of dirs that the plugin will auto-save and auto-load from
  ignored_dirs = nil, -- table of dirs that are ignored when auto-saving and auto-loading
  before_save = nil, -- function to run before the session is saved to disk
  after_save = nil, -- function to run after the session is saved to disk
  after_source = nil, -- function to run after the session is sourced
  telescope = { -- options for the telescope extension
    before_source = nil, -- function to run before the session is sourced via telescope
    after_source = nil, -- function to run after the session is sourced via telescope
    reset_prompt_after_deletion = true, -- whether to reset prompt after session deleted
  },
})

As the plugin uses Vim's :mksession command then you may change the vim.o.sessionoptions value to determine what to write into the session. Please see :h sessionoptions for more information.

Note: The author uses vim.o.sessionoptions = "buffers,curdir,folds,winpos,winsize"

The location of the session files may be changed by altering the save_dir configuration option. For example:

require("persisted").setup({
  save_dir = vim.fn.expand(vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/sessions/"), -- Resolves to ~/.local/share/nvim/sessions/
})

Note: The plugin may be unable to find existing sessions if the save_dir value is changed

By default, a session is saved to disk when the VimLeavePre autocommand is triggered. This can be modified by:

require("persisted").setup({
  command = "VimLeavePre",
})

Note: See :h autocmds for more information on possible autocmds

One of the plugin's core features is the ability to have multiple sessions files for a given project, by using git branches. To enable git branching:

require("persisted").setup({
  use_git_branch = true,
})

Note: If git branching is enabled on a non git enabled repo, then main will be used as the default branch

By default, the plugin will automatically save a Neovim session to disk when the VimLeavePre autocommand is triggered. Autosaving can be turned off by:

require("persisted").setup({
  autosave = false,
})

Autosaving can be further controlled for certain directories by specifying allowed_dirs and ignored_dirs.

There may be occasions when you do not wish to autosave; perhaps when a dashboard or terminal are open. To control this, a callback function, should_autosave, may be specified. This function should return a boolean value.

require("persisted").setup({
  should_autosave = function()
    -- do not autosave if the alpha dashboard is the current filetype
    if vim.bo.filetype == "alpha" then
      return false
    end
    return true
  end,
})

The plugin can be enabled to automatically load sessions when Neovim is started. Whilst off by default, this can be turned on by:

require("persisted").setup({
  autoload = true,
})

You can also provide a function to run when autoload = true but there is no session to be loaded:

require("persisted").setup({
  autoload = true,
  on_autoload_no_session = function()
    vim.notify("No existing session to load.")
  end
})

Autoloading can be further controlled for certain directories by specifying allowed_dirs and ignored_dirs.

Note: Autoloading will not occur if a user opens Neovim with arguments. For example: nvim some_file.rb

There may be a need to change the working directory to quickly access files in other directories without changing the current session's name on save. This behavior can be configured with follow_cwd = false.

By default, the session name will match the current working directory:

require("persisted").setup({
  follow_cwd = true,
})

Note: If follow_cwd = false the session name is stored upon loading under the global variable vim.g.persisting_session. This variable can be manually adjusted if changes to the session name are needed. Alternatively, if follow_cwd = true then vim.g.persisting_session = nil.

You may specify a table of directories for which the plugin will autosave and/or autoload from. For example:

require("persisted").setup({
  allowed_dirs = {
    "~/.dotfiles",
    "~/Code",
  },
})

Specifying ~/Code will autosave and autoload from that directory as well as all its sub-directories.

Note: If allowed_dirs is left at its default value and autosave and/or autoload are set to true, then the plugin will autoload/autosave from any directory

You may specify a table of directories for which the plugin will never autosave and autoload from. For example:

require("persisted").setup({
  ignored_dirs = {
    "~/.config",
    "~/.local/nvim"
  },
})

Specifying ~/.config will prevent any autosaving and autoloading from that directory as well as all its sub-directories.

The plugin allows for before and after callbacks to be executed in relation to a session being saved. This is achieved via the before_save and after_save configuration options:

require("persisted").setup({
  before_save = function()
    pcall(vim.cmd, "bw minimap")
  end,
  after_save = function()
    print("Session was saved!")
  end,
})

Note: The author uses a before callback to ensure that minimap.vim is not written into the session. Its presence prevents the exact buffer and cursor position from being restored when loading a session

The plugin allows for before and after callbacks to be executed in relation to a session being sourced:

require("persisted").setup({
  before_source = function()
    print("Sourcing...")
  end,
  after_source = function()
    -- Reload the LSP servers
    vim.lsp.stop_client(vim.lsp.get_active_clients())
  end
})

The plugin contains an extension for telescope.nvim which allows the user to list all of the saved session files and source them via :Telescope persisted.

The plugin allows for before and after callbacks to be used when sourcing a session via Telescope. For example:

require("persisted").setup({
  telescope = {
    before_source = function()
      -- Close all open buffers
      -- Thanks to https://github.com/avently
      vim.api.nvim_input("<ESC>:%bd<CR>")
    end,
    after_source = function(session)
      print("Loaded session " .. session.name)
    end,
  },
})

The callbacks can accept a session parameter which is a table that has the following properties:

• name - The filename of the session
• file_path - The file path to the session
• branch - The git branch of the session

MIT