[audit] vim.pack has no lazy-loading — fff.nvim lazy=true is silently ignored when vim.pack is active

[stanfish06]

What

plugins.lua:9 marks fff.nvim as lazy:

{
    name = "fff.nvim",
    src = "https://github.com/dmtrKovalenko/fff.nvim",
    lazy = true,          -- <-- this field
    version = vim.version.range("0.9.4"),
},

The old git-clone fallback path (lines 89–110) reads the lazy field and places fff.nvim in pack/plugins/opt/ (opt = lazy, start = eager). That works correctly.

However, vim.pack.add() — the Neovim 0.12 native package manager path — does not support lazy-loading at all (confirmed in the official vim.pack documentation and guides). There is no lazy field in the vim.pack spec; the field is silently ignored. When vim.pack is active, fff.nvim is installed into the start directory and loaded at startup, defeating the intent.

Where

• lua/config/plugins.lua:9 — lazy = true on fff.nvim spec
• lua/config/plugins.lua:89 — old path correctly uses entry.lazy to pick opt/ vs start/
• lua/config/plugins.lua:75 — vim.pack path calls vim.pack.add(package_list) without any lazy handling
• lua/config/plugins.lua:128-132 — the packadd loop at startup would also need to skip lazy plugins

Why it matters

fff.nvim requires downloading and/or building a Rust binary (require("fff.download").download_or_build_binary()). Loading it unconditionally at startup adds binary-download overhead and a Rust toolchain requirement to every Neovim startup, even when fff.nvim is never used. The lazy = true annotation exists precisely to avoid this. On the vim.pack path that intent is lost.

Recommended action

Option A — Remove lazy entirely: Accept that fff.nvim loads at startup on both paths. Add the PackChanged autocmd (already present at plugin_config.lua:212–222) to handle first-time binary builds. Update the comment to explain the limitation.

Option B — Defer loading manually: Remove fff.nvim from package_list and instead use a separate packadd-on-demand call inside the fff_call() wrapper in plugin_config.lua:227–239. This is effectively the vim.pack-compatible equivalent of lazy-loading:

local function fff_call(fn)
    return function()
        vim.cmd.packadd("fff.nvim")  -- idempotent after first call
        local fff_ok, fff = pcall(require, "fff")
        if not fff_ok then
            vim.notify("fff.nvim is not installed (run :SyncPkgs)", vim.log.levels.WARN)
            return
        end
        fff[fn]()
    end
end

Option C — Wait for vim.pack lazy support: vim.pack is still experimental; lazy-loading may be added in a future Neovim release. File a Neovim issue upstream and track it.