preview.nvim

Universal previewer for Neovim

An extensible framework for compiling and previewing any documents (LaTeX, Typst, Markdown, etc.)—diagnostics included.

Features

• Async compilation via vim.system()
• Built-in presets for Typst, LaTeX (latexmk, pdflatex, tectonic), Markdown,

• Compiler errors via vim.diagnostic or quickfix
• Full compiler output via :Preview output
• Previewer auto-close on buffer deletion

Requirements

• Neovim 0.11+

Installation

With vim.pack (Neovim 0.12+):

vim.g.preview = { typst = true, latex = true }
vim.pack.add({   'https://git.barrettruth.com/barrettruth/preview.nvim', })

Or via luarocks:

luarocks install preview.nvim

Documentation

:help preview.nvim

FAQ

Q: How do I define a custom provider?

vim.g.preview = {
  rst = {
    cmd = { 'rst2html' },
    args = function(ctx)
      return { ctx.file, ctx.output }
    end,
    output = function(ctx)
      return ctx.file:gsub('%.rst$', '.html')
    end,
    failure_summary = function(result)
      return result.output:match('^ERROR:%s*(.+)$')
    end,
  },
}

Q: How do I override a preset?

vim.g.preview = {
  typst = { env = { TYPSTFONTPATHS = '/usr/share/fonts' } },
}

Q: How do I automatically open the output file?

Set open = true on your provider (all built-in presets have this enabled) to open the output with vim.ui.open() after the first successful compilation in toggle/watch mode. For a specific application, pass a command table:

vim.g.preview = {
  typst = { open = { 'sioyek', '--new-instance' } },
}

**Q: Markdown compilation drops .html files in my working directory. How do I send output to /tmp instead?**

Override the output field. The args function references ctx.output, so the compiled file lands wherever output points:

vim.g.preview = {
  github = {
    output = function(ctx)
      return '/tmp/' .. vim.fn.fnamemodify(ctx.file, ':t:r') .. '.html'
    end,
  },
}

Q: How do I set up SyncTeX (forward/inverse search)?

See :help preview-synctex for full recipes covering Zathura, Sioyek, and Okular.

Q: How do I inspect the full compiler output?

If a compile fails, check diagnostics or quickfix first when available. For the raw compiler output, use:

:Preview output

Compilation failures intentionally use a short notification. Providers can optionally define failure_summary(result, ctx) to customize that message. The full raw compiler output is available through :Preview output and require('preview').result(). One-shot providers replace the stored output on each compile. Long-running providers such as typst watch show the current watch-session log.