vim-cheat

vim-cheat is a natural-language snippet manager for vim, built atop cheat and fzf.

While the goal of most snippet managers is to minimize keystrokes, vim-cheat aims to reduce the cognitive load associated with common programming tasks. It does so by providing a task-focused repository of snippets that can be queried with natural language.

vim-cheat is context-aware, and can be configured to return only snippets that are relevant to the filetype of the current buffer. This makes "polyglot" work less mentally taxing by reducing the cost of context-switching among languages.

Use vim-cheat in conjunction with snippets.

Example

vim-cheat works by leveraging cheat's tagging mechanism: vim-cheat uses fzf.vim to filter and retrieve cheatsheets by tag.

As a concrete example, imagine that we're writing a Go application that must connect to MySQL. Which method does this?

Is it mysql_connect? Err, no - that's PHP. I think it's mysql.createConnection? Wait, no - that's Node. Is it mysql.connector.connect? Ah, no - that's Python.

vim-cheat frees us from having to remember these details. Run :Cheat and type connect database into the prompt, and the appropriate Go snippet will be pasted into your buffer. (Snippets can be pasted from insert mode as well.)

Installation

vim-cheat can be installed as described in :help packages, or by using a package manager like Pathogen, Vundle, or Plug.

vim-cheat additionally requires that the following dependencies be installed:

• cheat: https://github.com/cheat/cheat
• fzf: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
• fzf.vim: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.vim

You are encouraged cultivate a snippet collection that best serves your personal needs. With that said, the following repository serves as a starting point:

https://github.com/cheat/snippets

Functions

cheat#read_ft

Read a snippet into the current buffer. The fzf selection menu will contain only cheatsheets that are tagged with the buffer's filetype.

cheat#read_all

Read a snippet into the current buffer. The fzf selection menu will contain all cheatsheets available on all cheatpaths.

cheat#read_smart

Read a snippet into the current buffer. If the buffer's filetype is known, the fzf selection menu will contain only cheatsheets that are tagged with the buffer's filetype. Otherwise, the selection menu will contain all cheatsheets available on all cheatpaths.

cheat#edit_ft

Open an existing cheatsheet for editing. The fzf selection menu will contain only cheatsheets that are tagged with the buffer's filetype. (Note that it is not currently possible to create a new cheatsheet using this function.)

cheat#edit_all

Open a cheatsheet for editing. The fzf selection menu will contain all cheatsheets available on all cheatpaths. (Note that it is not currently possible to create a new cheatsheet using this function.)

cheat#edit_smart

Open an existing cheatsheet for editing. If the buffer's filetype is known, the fzf selection menu will contain only cheatsheets that are tagged with the buffer's filetype. Otherwise, the selection menu will contain all cheatsheets available on all cheatpaths. (Note that it is not currently possible to create a new cheatsheet using this function.)

cheat#dirs

Display the configured cheatsheet directories. (This function simply wraps the cheat -d command.)

cheat#tags

Display the cheatsheet tags that are in use. (This function simply wraps the cheat -T command.)

cheat#version

Display the current cheat version. (This function simply wraps the cheat -v command.)

Options

cheat_bin

The path to the cheat executable. Defaults to cheat.

cheat_fzf_options

Options that will be passed to fzf. Defaults to the following:

g:cheat_fzf_options = [
      \    '--header-lines',
      \    '1',
      \    '--tiebreak',
      \    'begin',
      \    '--preview-window',
      \    'right:40%',
      \    '--preview',
      \    g:cheat_fzf_preview,
      \]

cheat_fzf_preview

The command fzf will use for generating a cheatsheet preview. Defaults to the following:

  cheat --colorize `echo {} | cut -f1 -d" "`

Config

You should map the functions exposed by this plugin to convenient wrappers in your vimrc. The following is an example configuration:

" ex-mode commands:
command Cheat call cheat#read_smart()
command CheatDirs call cheat#dirs()
command CheatEdit call cheat#edit_smart()
command CheatVersion call cheat#version()

" insert-mode: press Ctrl+s to open snippet selection menu:
inoremap <c-s> <c-o>:call cheat#read_smart()<CR>

Because vim-cheat wraps the cheat executable, you must configure your cheatpaths as well. Example:

cheatpaths:
  - name: snippet-community
    path: ~/path/to/community/snippets
    tags: [ snippet ]
    readonly: true

  - name: snippet-personal
    path: ~/path/to/personal/snippets
    tags: [ snippet, personal ]
    readonly: false

See the cheat project documentation for more information on configuring cheatpaths:

https://github.com/cheat/cheat/#cheatpaths

See Also

vim-cheat pairs nicely with vim-so.