how i optimized my neovim config for 10ms startup

the problem with plugin managers

my neovim used to take 400ms to start. that's fast enough for most people. it wasn't fast enough for me.

the culprit was eager plugin loading. every plugin, loaded on startup, whether you needed it or not.

lazy.nvim

lazy.nvim changed everything. it defers plugin loading until the plugin is actually needed — triggered by a command, filetype, or keymap.

require("lazy").setup({
  {
    "nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter",
    event = "BufReadPost",  -- load after buffer is read
    build = ":TSUpdate",
  },
  {
    "neovim/nvim-lspconfig",
    ft = { "rust", "go", "typescript" },  -- load only for these filetypes
  },
})

profiling startup

nvim --startuptime /tmp/nvim-startup.log
tail -20 /tmp/nvim-startup.log

this tells you exactly which files take the most time to source. in my case, a colorscheme plugin was loading 40ms of vimscript on every startup.

the result

after profiling and lazy-loading everything:

• before: 380ms startup, 47 plugins eager-loaded
• after: 9ms startup, same 47 plugins, all lazy

the config feels instant. opening files from the terminal is seamless. this is what neovim was designed to feel like.