neovide-tabs

A lightweight Windows application that provides a tabbed interface to manage multiple Neovide instances.

Overview

neovide-tabs provides a native wrapper window for Neovide by embedding a frameless Neovide window into a host application. The Neovide window automatically fills the wrapper's client area and maintains focus synchronization.

Features

• Tab Support: Create, close, and switch between multiple Neovide instances using tabs
• Dynamic Tab Titles: Customizable tab titles with token expansion (profile name, working directory, window title, or relative file path)
• Global Hotkeys: System-wide keyboard shortcuts to switch tabs or open profiles from any application
• Profile Support: Configure multiple profiles with custom working directories, icons, hotkeys, and title formats

Prerequisites

• NeoVim must be installed and available in your system PATH
• NeoVide must be installed and available in your system PATH

Installation

Download the latest MSI installer from the Releases page. Check your downloads list, you may need to select "Keep" or "Download Anyway".

Launch the installer.

(Optional) Silent command-line installation:

# Per-user (no admin required)
msiexec /i neovide-tabs-x.y.z.msi /qn

# Per-machine (requires admin)
msiexec /i neovide-tabs-x.y.z.msi /qn ALLUSERS=1

Usage

Basic Usage

Launch neovide-tabs from the Start menu or from the command-line with:

neovide-tabs

Tab Management

• New Tab: Click the (+) button to create a new tab with the default profile
• Profile Dropdown: Click the caret (v) next to (+) to select a profile for a new tab
• Switch Tabs: Click on a tab to switch to it; its Neovide instance becomes visible
• Close Tab: Click the (x) on a tab to close it gracefully (respects unsaved changes)
• Reorder Tabs: Drag tabs to rearrange their order

When the last tab is closed, the application exits.

Global Hotkeys

neovide-tabs registers system-wide hotkeys that work regardless of which application is focused:

Default Tab Hotkeys:

• Ctrl+Shift+1 through Ctrl+Shift+9: Activate tabs 1-9
• Ctrl+Shift+0: Activate tab 10

Default Profile Hotkeys:

• Ctrl+Shift+F1: Open or activate the Default profile
• Additional profiles can have custom hotkeys defined in configuration

Configuration

Configuration is stored at ~/.config/neovide-tabs/config.json:

{
  "background_color": "#1a1b26",
  "profiles": [
    {
      "name": "Default",
      "icon": "neovide.png",
      "working_directory": "~",
      "hotkey": "Ctrl+Shift+F1"
    },
    {
      "name": "Work",
      "icon": "work.png",
      "working_directory": "~/projects/work",
      "hotkey": "Ctrl+Shift+F2",
      "title": "%t"
    }
  ],
  "hotkeys": {
    "tab": {
      "1": "Ctrl+Shift+1",
      "2": "Ctrl+Shift+2",
      "3": "Ctrl+Shift+3"
    }
  }
}

Configuration options

• background_color: Hex color for the titlebar and content area border (default: #1a1b26 - Tokyo Night)
• profiles: Array of profile definitions:
  • name: Display name shown on tabs (used as fallback when title is empty)
  • icon: PNG/SVG filename
  • working_directory: Starting directory for Neovide (supports ~ expansion)
  • hotkey: (optional) Global hotkey to open/activate this profile (e.g., "Ctrl+Shift+F1")
  • title: (optional) Tab title format with token expansion (default: "%t")
    • %p - Profile name
    • %w - Working directory (with ~ for home)
    • %t - Neovide window title
    • %f - Relative file path (extracts path from window title relative to working directory; if the path is not under the working directory, returns the window title as-is)
• hotkeys: (optional) Hotkey configuration:
  • tab: Map of tab number to hotkey string (e.g., {"1": "Ctrl+Shift+1"})

Hotkeys

Hotkey format: Modifier+Modifier+Key where modifiers are Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Win and keys are A-Z, 0-9, or F1-F12.

To disable default tab hotkeys, set "hotkeys": {"tab": {}}.

Closing Tabs or the App

• Close the wrapper window normally (Alt+F4, close button, etc.)
• The embedded Neovide process will be gracefully terminated
• NeoVim may prompt you to save files before exiting

Troubleshooting

VCRUNTIME Error

This error typically means you haven't installed NeoVim/Neovide (see above). Installing them will also install the required runtime package.

neovide-tabs Won't Start

If the app doesn't start, it is likely due to a configuration error. Run neovide-tabs.exe from the command-line to see startup messages.

Development

Building from Source

Requires: Rust toolchain (2024 edition or later). See https://rust-lang.org/tools/install/.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/keathmilligan/neovide-tabs.git
cd neovide-tabs

# Build the project and copy the target\release\neovide-tabs.exe
# to your local ~\bin directory (or equivalent)
cargo build --release

Debugging/Testing

# Run in development mode
cargo run

# Run tests
cargo test

# Check code with clippy
cargo clippy -- -D warnings

# Format code
cargo fmt