About this project

This project aims to be a complete, 1:1 rewrite of Emacs' Magit and Forge for Neovim: the full git porcelain and the GitHub/forge layer baked into a single plugin, sharing one status buffer, one section model, and one popup system, exactly the way Forge extends Magit.

It stands on the shoulders of two excellent projects:

• Neogit - this repository is a fork of Neogit, which provides the Magit-style git porcelain this project builds on. All credit for the core architecture and the vast majority of the git functionality goes to the Anvil authors and contributors.
• octo.nvim - the inspiration and reference for the forge layer. Octo pioneered GitHub issue/PR editing inside Neovim via the gh CLI, and the forge subsystem here follows its approach (auth and GraphQL through gh, no credential handling in the plugin).

Where this fork goes beyond upstream Anvil today: a built-in Forge subsystem (N popup, pull request/issue sections in the status buffer, local offline-first topic store synced via gh), git blame (:Anvil blame, magit-blame style), and the run popup (!) for arbitrary git/shell commands and WIP snapshots.

Installation

Use whichever plugin manager suits your config. Anvil has no required Lua dependencies, though the optional integrations below can make diffs, logs, and pickers nicer.

vim.pack

Neovim 0.12+ ships a built-in plugin manager, vim.pack:

vim.pack.add({
  "https://github.com/memohnsen/anvil.nvim",

  -- Optional integrations; keep whichever ones you use.
  "https://github.com/sindrets/diffview.nvim",
  "https://github.com/esmuellert/codediff.nvim",
  "https://github.com/m00qek/baleia.nvim",
  "https://github.com/nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim",
  "https://github.com/ibhagwan/fzf-lua",
  "https://github.com/nvim-mini/mini.pick",
  "https://github.com/folke/snacks.nvim",
  "https://github.com/kkharji/sqlite.lua", -- optional Forge store backend
})

lazy.nvim

{
  "memohnsen/anvil.nvim",
  lazy = true,
  dependencies = {
    -- Only one of these is needed.
    "sindrets/diffview.nvim",        -- optional
    "esmuellert/codediff.nvim",      -- optional

    -- For a custom log pager
    "m00qek/baleia.nvim",            -- optional

    -- Only one of these is needed.
    "nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim", -- optional
    "ibhagwan/fzf-lua",              -- optional
    "nvim-mini/mini.pick",           -- optional
    "folke/snacks.nvim",             -- optional

    "kkharji/sqlite.lua",            -- optional Forge store backend
  },
  cmd = "Anvil",
  keys = {
    { "<leader>gg", "<cmd>Anvil<cr>", desc = "Show Anvil UI" }
  }
}

mini.deps

local add = MiniDeps.add

add({
  source = "memohnsen/anvil.nvim",
  depends = {
    -- Optional integrations; keep whichever ones you use.
    "sindrets/diffview.nvim",
    "esmuellert/codediff.nvim",
    "m00qek/baleia.nvim",
    "nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim",
    "ibhagwan/fzf-lua",
    "nvim-mini/mini.pick",
    "folke/snacks.nvim",
  },
})

packer.nvim

use({
  "memohnsen/anvil.nvim",
  requires = {
    -- Optional integrations; keep whichever ones you use.
    "sindrets/diffview.nvim",
    "esmuellert/codediff.nvim",
    "m00qek/baleia.nvim",
    "nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim",
    "ibhagwan/fzf-lua",
    "nvim-mini/mini.pick",
    "folke/snacks.nvim",
  },
})

Vim packages

Anvil can also be installed with Neovim's built-in package support (:help packages), with no plugin manager at all. Clone it (and any optional dependencies) into a package directory on your packpath:

git clone https://github.com/memohnsen/anvil.nvim \
  ~/.config/nvim/pack/plugins/start/anvil.nvim

Then call require("anvil").setup({}) somewhere in your config. Optional integrations (diffview, codediff, baleia, telescope, fzf-lua, mini.pick, snacks) can be cloned into the same start directory.

Usage

You can either open Anvil by using the Anvil command:

:Anvil             " Open the status buffer in a new tab
:Anvil cwd=<cwd>   " Use a different repository path
:Anvil cwd=%:p:h   " Uses the repository of the current file
:Anvil kind=<kind> " Open specified popup directly
:Anvil commit      " Open commit popup
:Anvil forge       " Open forge popup (GitHub PRs/issues, requires `gh`)
:Anvil run         " Open run popup (arbitrary git/shell commands)
:Anvil blame       " Blame the current file (magit-blame style)
:Anvil patch       " Open patch/am popup
:Anvil notes       " Open git-notes popup
:Anvil submodule   " Open submodule popup
:Anvil clone       " Open clone popup
:Anvil file_dispatch " Open file-oriented dispatch popup
:Anvil sparse_checkout " Open sparse-checkout popup
:Anvil subtree     " Open subtree popup
:Anvil bundle      " Open bundle popup
:Anvil shortlog    " Open shortlog popup
:Anvil repos       " Open repositories list popup
:Anvil dispatch    " Open global dispatch popup
:Anvil mergetool   " Open mergetool popup

" Map it to a key
nnoremap <leader>gg <cmd>Anvil<cr>

-- Or via lua api
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>gg", "<cmd>Anvil<cr>", { desc = "Open Anvil UI" })

Or using the lua api:

local anvil = require('anvil')

-- open using defaults
anvil.open()

-- open a specific popup
anvil.open({ "commit" })

-- open the forge popup (fetch/browse/list/checkout GitHub PRs and issues)
anvil.open({ "forge" })

-- blame the current file
anvil.open({ "blame" })

-- open as a split
anvil.open({ kind = "split" })

-- open with different project
anvil.open({ cwd = "~" })

-- You can map this to a key
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>gg", anvil.open, { desc = "Open Anvil UI" })

-- Wrap in a function to pass additional arguments
vim.keymap.set(
    "n",
    "<leader>gg",
    function() anvil.open({ kind = "split" }) end,
    { desc = "Open Anvil UI" }
)

The kind option can be one of the following values:

• tab (default)
• replace
• split
• split_above
• split_above_all
• split_below
• split_below_all
• vsplit
• floating
• auto (vsplit if window would have 80 cols, otherwise split)

Configuration

Configure Anvil by calling require('anvil').setup {} with a table of options. Anvil works out of the box with no configuration.

require("anvil").setup {
  -- Use Treesitter to apply syntax highlighting to diff hunks
  treesitter_diff_highlight = true,
  -- Path to the git executable
  git_executable = "git",
  -- Watch the .git/ directory and auto-refresh the status buffer
  filewatcher = { enabled = true },
}

Every option — signs, integrations (diffview/codediff, telescope/fzf-lua/mini.pick/snacks), mappings, sections, graph style, Forge, WIP, and more — is documented in the wiki/ pages and in :help anvil.

Documentation

Detailed reference lives in the wiki/ directory (and in :help anvil inside Neovim):

• Configuration — every setup {} option and the full default config.
• Popups — the transient popup menus, argument state, and section navigation.
• Forge — the GitHub subsystem: sections, topic buffers, reviews, notifications.
• WIP Snapshots — Magit-style work-in-progress refs.
• Events — the autocmd events Anvil emits.

Highlight groups are listed in :help anvil; if your theme doesn't style a particular group, Anvil falls back to sensible defaults.

Special Thanks

• Neogit and its contributors - this project is a fork of Neogit, which provides the entire git porcelain foundation
• octo.nvim - the inspiration and reference implementation for the forge/GitHub layer
• Magit and Forge - the gold standard this project is a 1:1 rewrite of
• gitgraph.nvim for the "kitty" git graph renderer
• vim-flog for the "unicode" git graph renderer