Bufpin

Manually track a list of bufs and visualize the list in the tabline.

Recording.at.2025-05-18.16.09.33.mp4

Features

• Display the pinned bufs in the tabline.
• Expose an API to track the pinned bufs.
• Out of the box key mappings to manage pinned bufs.
• Mouse support to left-click to edit buf and middle-click to remove buf.
• Auto-hide the tabline when there are no pinned bufs.
• Store the pinned bufs in session.

Suggested complementary plugins:

Plugin	Benefit	Integrate via install and...
vim-obsession	Persist the pinned bufs among Neovim sessions.	Set in your init.lua: vim.opt.ssop:append("globals")
mini.bufremove	Preserve window layout when removing bufs.	Set in your config of Bufpin: use_mini_bufremove = true
vim-lastplace	Remember the cursor location in visited bufs.	-

Out of scope

• Be a fully-fledged tabline plugin like bufferline.nvim.

Requirements

• Neovim >= 0.11.0

Installation

Use your favorite package manager. For example, Lazy.nvim:

{
  "hernancerm/bufpin.nvim",
  opts = {}
},

The function require("bufpin").setup() needs to be called. Lazy.nvim does this using the snippet above.

Default config

local bufpin = require("bufpin")
bufpin.setup()

Is equivalent to:

local bufpin = require("bufpin")
bufpin.setup({
  auto_hide_tabline = true,
  set_default_keymaps = true,
  exclude = function(_) end,
  use_mini_bufremove = false,
  remove_with = "delete",
})

Default key mappings:

local o = { silent = true }
local kset = vim.keymap.set
kset("n",  "<Leader>p",  ":cal v:lua.Bufpin.toggle()<CR>", o)
kset("n",  "<Leader>w",  ":cal v:lua.Bufpin.remove()<CR>", o)
kset("n",  "<Up>",       ":cal v:lua.Bufpin.edit_left()<CR>", o)
kset("n",  "<Down>",     ":cal v:lua.Bufpin.edit_right()<CR>", o)
kset("n",  "<Left>",     ":cal v:lua.Bufpin.move_to_left()<CR>", o)
kset("n",  "<Right>",    ":cal v:lua.Bufpin.move_to_right()<CR>", o)
kset("n",  "<F1>",       ":cal v:lua.Bufpin.edit_by_index(1)<CR>", o)
kset("n",  "<F2>",       ":cal v:lua.Bufpin.edit_by_index(2)<CR>", o)
kset("n",  "<F3>",       ":cal v:lua.Bufpin.edit_by_index(3)<CR>", o)
kset("n",  "<F4>",       ":cal v:lua.Bufpin.edit_by_index(4)<CR>", o)

Documentation

Please refer to the help file: bufpin.txt.

Similar experience in IdeaVim

In IntelliJ a similar experience can be had to the one offered by this plugin. It's not the same, but it's close enough, at least for me, to feel uniform. Configure IntelliJ like this:

• IntelliJ: In Settings set the tab limit to 1: "Editor > Editor Tabs > Tab limit: 1".
• IdeaVim: In ~/.ideavimrc add this to match the default key maps of this plugin:

nmap      <Space>p  <Action>(PinActiveEditorTab)
nmap      <Space>w  <Action>(CloseContent)
nmap      <Up>      <Action>(PreviousTab)
nmap      <Down>    <Action>(NextTab)
nnoremap  <Left>    :tabmove -1<CR>
nnoremap  <Right>   :tabmove +1<CR>
nmap      <F1>      <Action>(GoToTab1)
nmap      <F2>      <Action>(GoToTab2)
nmap      <F3>      <Action>(GoToTab3)
nmap      <F4>      <Action>(GoToTab4)

Inspiration

• Harpoon
• IntelliJ IDEA
• IdeaVim

Contributing

I welcome issues requesting any behavior change. However, please do not submit a PR unless it's for a trivial fix.

License

MIT