mistfly statusline

mistfly statusline is a simple, fast and informative statusline for Vim.

👉 Neovim users should use the pure-Lua linefly plugin instead of mistfly.

mistfly provides a number of useful builtin components:

• Git changes
• Diagnostic status
• Macro-recording status
• Current search count
• Spell status
• Indent status (tabs or spaces and their associated width)

mistfly also provides optional tabline support when the appropriate setting is enabled; refer to mistflyTabLine.

mistfly will adapt it's colors to the colorscheme currently in effect. Colors can also be customized if desired.

Lastly, mistfly is a lean statusline plugin clocking in at about 500 lines of code. For comparison, the lightline, airline and lualine statusline plugins contain over 3,600, 7,300 and 8,200 lines of code respectively. In fairness, the latter plugins are more featureful, configurable and visually pleasing.

⚠️ mistfly has a predominantly fixed layout, this will not be an appropriate statusline plugin if layout flexibility is desired.

Screenshots

The above screenshots are using the nightfly colorscheme and the Iosevka font with Git changes, diagnostics and indent-status enabled.

Statusline Startup Comparison

A startup comparison of mistfly against various popular statusline plugins, with their out-of-the-box defaults, on a clean and minimal Vim setup with the moonfly colorscheme. The Vim startup times in the following table are provived by the dstein64/vim-startuptime plugin.

Startup times are the average of five consecutive runs. Note, stock is run without any statusline plugin.

stock	mistfly	lightline	airline	lualine
18.0ms	18.7ms	22.0ms	76.0ms	23.2ms

Startup times as of March 2024 on my system; performance on other systems will vary.

Plugins, Linters and Diagnostics supported

• vim-devicons and nvim-web-devicons

• Gitsigns

• GitGutter

• Signify

• ALE

• Coc

• Obsession

⚡ Requirements

mistfly requires Vim 8 (or later), Neovim is not supported. The pure-Lua linefly plugin should instead be used with Neovim.

Please also make sure that the laststatus option is set to either: 1, 2 or 3.

Installation

Install bluz71/vim-mistfly-statusline with your preferred plugin manager.

vim-plug:

Plug 'bluz71/vim-mistfly-statusline'

lazy.nvim:

{ 'bluz71/vim-mistfly-statusline' },

Please do not lazy-load mistfly.

Layout And Default Colors

The mistfly-statusline layout consists of three groupings, the left-side, middle and right-side as follows:

+-------------------------------------------------+
| A | B | C | D          M          W | X | Y | Z |
+-------------------------------------------------+

Section	Purpose
A*	Mode status (normal, insert, visual, command and replace modes)
B	Filename (refer below for details)
C*	Git branch name (if applicable)
D*	Plugins notification (git, diagnostic and session status)
W	Optional search count and spell status
X	Current position
Y*	Total lines and current location as percentage
Z	Optional indent status (spaces and tabs shift width)

Sections marked with a * are linked to a highlight group and are colored, refer to the next section for details.

Sections C, D & W will not be displayed when the statusline width is less than 80 columns.

Note, filenames will be displayed as follows:

• Pathless filenames only for files in the current working directory

• Relative paths in preference to absolute paths for files not in the current working directory

• ~-style home directory paths in preference to absolute paths

• Possibly shortened, for example foo/bar/bazz/hello.txt will be displayed as f/b/b/hello.txt when statusline width is less than 120 columns.

• Possibly trimmed. A maximum of four path components will be displayed for a filename; if a filename is more deeply nested then only the four most significant components, including the filename, will be displayed with an ellipsis prefix symbol used to indicate path trimming.

Highlight Groups And Colors

Sections marked with * in the previous section are linked to the following custom highlight groups with their associated fallbacks if the current colorscheme does not support mistfly.

Segment	Custom Highlight Group	Synthesized Highlight Fallback
Normal Mode	MistflyNormal	Directory
Insert Mode	MistflyInsert	String
Visual Mode	MistflyVisual	Statement
Command Mode	MistflyCommand	WarningMsg
Replace Mode	MistflyReplace	Error

Note, the following colorschemes support mistfly, either within the colorscheme (moonfly & nightfly) or within this plugin (all others):

• moonfly

• nightfly

• dracula

• edge

• embark

• everforest

• gruvbox

• gruvbox-material

• retrobox

• sonokai

Lastly, if the fallback colors do not suit then it is very easy to override with your own highlights.

🎁 Here is a simple example of customized mistfly colors. Save the following at the end of your initialization file after setting your colorscheme.

highlight! link MistflyNormal DiffChange
highlight! link MistflyInsert WildMenu
highlight! link MistflyVisual IncSearch
highlight! link MistflyCommand WildMenu
highlight! link MistflyReplace ErrorMsg

🔧 Options

Option	Default State
mistflySeparatorSymbol	⎪
mistflyProgressSymbol	↓
mistflyActiveTabSymbol	▪
mistflyGitBranchSymbol	
mistflyErrorSymbol	E
mistflyWarningSymbol	W
mistflyInformationSymbol	I
mistflyEllipsisSymbol	…
mistflyTabLine	Disabled
mistflyWithFileIcon	Enabled
mistflyWithGitBranch	Enabled
mistflyWithGitStatus	Enabled
mistflyWithDiagnosticStatus	Enabled
mistflyWithSessionStatus	Enabled
mistflyWithSearchCount	Disabled
mistflyWithSpellStatus	Disabled
mistflyWithIndentStatus	Disabled

---

mistflySeparatorSymbol

The mistflySeparatorSymbol option specifies which character symbol to use for segment separators in the statusline.

By default, the ⎪ character (Unicode U+23AA) will be displayed.

To specify your own separator symbol please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflySeparatorSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflySeparatorSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'

---

mistflyProgressSymbol

The mistflyProgressSymbol option specifies which character symbol to use to indicate location-as-percentage in the statusline.

By default, the ↓ character (Unicode U+2193) will be displayed.

To specify your own progress symbol, or no symbol at all, please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyProgressSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING-OR-EMPTY>>'

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyProgressSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING-OR-EMPTY>>'

---

mistflyActiveTabSymbol

The mistflyActiveTabSymbol option specifies which character symbol to use to signify the active tab in the tabline.

By default, the ▪ character (Unicode U+25AA) will be displayed.

To specify your own active tab symbol please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyActiveTabSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyActiveTabSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'

---

mistflyGitBranchSymbol

The mistflyGitBranchSymbol option specifies which character symbol to use when displaying Git branch details.

By default, the  character (Powerline U+E0A0) will be displayed. Many modern monospace fonts will contain that character.

To specify your own Git branch symbol, or no symbol at all, please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyGitBranchSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING-OR-EMPTY>>'

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyGitBranchSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING-OR-EMPTY>>'

---

mistflyErrorSymbol

The mistflyErrorSymbol option specifies which character symbol to use when displaying diagnostic errors.

By default, the E character will be displayed.

To specify your own error symbol please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyErrorSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyErrorSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'

---

mistflyWarningSymbol

The mistflyWarningSymbol option specifies which character symbol to use when displaying diagnostic warnings.

By default, the W character will be displayed.

To specify your own warning symbol please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyWarningSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyWarningSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'

---

mistflyInformationSymbol

The mistflyInformationSymbol option specifies which character symbol to use when displaying diagnostic information.

By default, the I character will be displayed.

To specify your own information symbol please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyInformationSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyInformationSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'

---

ellipsis_symbol

The ellipsis_symbol option specifies which character symbol to use when indicating truncation, for example, deeply nested path truncation.

By default, the … character will be displayed.

To specify your own ellipsis symbol please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyEllipsisSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyEllipsisSymbol = '<<SYMBOL-OF-YOUR-CHOOSING>>'

---

mistflyTabLine

The mistflyTabLine option specifies whether to let this plugin manage the tabline in addition to the statusline.

By default, tabline management will not be undertaken.

If enabled, mistfly will render a simple numbered, and clickable, window-space layout in the tabline; note, no buffers will be displayed in the tabline since there are many plugins that already provide that capability.

To enable tabline support please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyTabLine = v:true

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyTabLine = true

💡 Mappings, such as the following, may be useful to quickly switch between the numbered window-spaces:

nnoremap <Leader>1 1gt
nnoremap <Leader>2 2gt
nnoremap <Leader>3 3gt
nnoremap <Leader>4 4gt
nnoremap <Leader>5 5gt
nnoremap <Leader>6 6gt
nnoremap <Leader>7 7gt
nnoremap <Leader>8 8gt
nnoremap <Leader>9 9gt

A screenshot of the tabline:

---

mistflyWithFileIcon

The mistflyWithFileIcon option specifies whether a filetype icon, from a Nerd Font, will be displayed prior to the filename in the statusline.

Note, a Nerd Font must be active and the vim-devicons or nvim-web-devicons plugin must also be installed and active.

By default, a filetype icon will be displayed if possible.

To disable the display of a filetype icon please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyWithFileIcon = v:false

-- lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyWithFileIcon = false

---

mistflyWithGitBranch

The mistflyWithGitBranch option specifies whether to display Git branch details in the statusline.

By default, Git branches will be displayed in the statusline.

To disable the display of Git branches in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyWithGitBranch = v:false

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyWithGitBranch = false

---

mistflyWithGitStatus

The mistflyWithGitStatus option specifies whether to display the Git status of the current buffer in the statusline.

The Gitsigns, GitGutter and Signify plugins are supported.

By default, the Git status will be displayed if one of the above plugins is loaded.

To disable the display of Git status in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyWithGitStatus = v:false

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyWithGitStatus = false

---

mistflyWithDiagnosticStatus

The mistflyWithDiagnosticStatus option specifies whether to indicate the presence of the diagnostics in the current buffer.

ALE and Coc are supported.

By default, diagnostics will be displayed if one of the above plugins is loaded.

If diagnostic display is not wanted then please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyWithDiagnosticStatus = v:false

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyWithDiagnosticStatus = false

---

mistflyWithSessionStatus

The mistflyWithSessionStatus option specifies whether to display Obsession session details in the statusline.

By default, session details will be displayed if the plugin is loaded.

To disable the display of session details in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyWithSessionStatus = v:false

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyWithSessionStatus = false

---

mistflyWithSearchCount

The mistflyWithSearchCount option specifies whether to display the search count in the statusline.

By default, search count will not be displayed.

To enable the display of the search count in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyWithSearchCount = v:true

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyWithSearchCount = true

Note, the search count is only displayed when the hlsearch option is set and the search count result is not zero.

---

mistflyWithSpellStatus

The mistflyWithSpellStatus option specifies whether to display the spell status in the statusline.

By default, spell status will not be displayed.

To enable spell status in the statusline please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyWithSpellStatus = v:true

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyWithSpellStatus = true

---

mistflyWithIndentStatus

The mistflyWithIndentStatus option specifies whether to display the indentation status as the last component in the statusline.

By default, indentation status will not be displayed.

Note, if the expandtab option is set, for the current buffer, then tab stop will be displayed, for example Tab:4 (tab equals four spaces); if on the other hand noexpandtab option is set then shift width will be displayed instead, for example Spc:2 ('spc' short for 'space').

To enable indentation status please add the following to your initialization file:

" Vimscript initialization file
let g:mistflyWithIndentStatus = v:true

-- Lua initialization file
vim.g.mistflyWithIndentStatus = true

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