Neovim and LazyVim for Rails Development over SSH

NOTE: This is Part 3 of the Modernizing my Terminal-Based Development Environment series.

The Editor Setup

When you SSH into a devcontainer, you have two choices: use a terminal-based editor (nvim, vim, nano) or use an IDE with remote development extensions (VS Code and others handle this pretty well). I chose Neovim with LazyVim - a preconfigured Neovim distribution with sane defaults, LSP support, and a plugin ecosystem.

Once a vim user, always a vim user. I was even using vim keybindings in Cursor, so going back to actual Neovim felt natural.

LazyVim Setup

The LazyVim config for my DevPods lives outside of containers and is mounted in my host machine. The config includes things like project-specific plugins (e.g., Slim syntax for Rails) and other custom tweaks detailed below.

Installation happens through the custom DevPod setup scripts:

• Installs Neovim v0.11.4
• Clones LazyVim starter
• Installs ripgrep and fd for telescope/fuzzy finding
• Fixes permissions on mounted config directory (for the cases when the folder is created as root by docker compose)

What Works

Clipboard Integration (OSC 52)

Copying from nvim to host clipboard works perfectly via OSC 52 (a terminal escape sequence for clipboard operations)!

• Yank text with yy in nvim inside the container, paste on host with Ctrl+V / Ctrl+Shift+V
• For pasting FROM host clipboard INTO nvim I just use terminal paste (Ctrl+Shift+V) in insert mode. OSC 52 paste doesn’t seem to work reliably in nvim and causes weird timeout issues.

My learning here was that OSC 52 is basically one-directional for this workflow (nvim -> host copying only). See “LazyVim Configuration Details” below for complete config.

Multi-Cursor Editing

vim-visual-multi works great for Ctrl+N style multi-cursor (popularized by Sublime Text). Select a word, press Ctrl+N to add next occurrence, edit simultaneously. Works great for quick refactoring.

Usage:

1. Put cursor on a word
2. Press Ctrl+N - selects first occurrence
3. Press Ctrl+N again - adds next occurrence
4. Press Ctrl+X - skip current match
5. Type c to change all cursors simultaneously
6. Press Esc to exit multi-cursor mode

Global Find and Replace

LazyVim ships with grug-far (<leader>sr) for project-wide search/replace with visual preview. The interface is a bit unintuitive at first (look for keybinding hints in status bar), but powerful once you get it.

The Friction

Ruby LSP Setup

The Ruby LSP documentation recommends against using Mason for installation due to Ruby version and C extension compatibility issues. I followed their guidance and landed on a simple config (updated 2025-11-26 from the adam12 plugin approach) using LazyVim’s native Ruby LSP support (available since v12.33.0) with bundle exec ruby-lsp. See the configuration details below for the full setup.

Ruby LSP Performance with Git Worktrees

I use git worktrees to work on multiple branches simultaneously, and ran into a performance issue: Ruby LSP reindexes the entire project every time you open Neovim. This isn’t a bug - it’s because Ruby LSP doesn’t have persistent index caching yet.

For my work project, that’s ~16 seconds of indexing on every nvim startup. With worktrees, each one creates its own .ruby-lsp/ directory and re-indexes independently, so 3 worktrees = 3x the pain.

I tested aggressive exclusions (specs, test gems, dev tools) via init_options.indexing config, but they made zero performance difference for my codebase - most of my files are application code, not tests/gems. Your mileage may vary depending on your project’s test-to-code ratio.

There are open feature requests for persistent caching (Issue #1040 for project-based caching, Issue #1009 for gem caching), but no ETA yet.

Navigation Between Nvim Splits and Zellij Panes

I tried getting seamless Alt+Arrow navigation between nvim splits and Zellij panes working with zellij-nav.nvim, but it requires zellij-autolock which messed up my Zellij setup.

For now I just use Ctrl+W H/J/K/L for nvim splits and Alt+Arrow for Zellij panes - different keybindings, but no mode switching headaches. I’ll come back to this another time and see if I can get things working like I used to have in my “old” tmux days.

LazyVim Configuration Details

These are some things I added to my configs that might be useful to you too.

-- Buffer navigation with Ctrl+PageUp/PageDown
vim.keymap.set("n", "<C-PageUp>", "<cmd>bprevious<cr>", { desc = "Previous Buffer" })
vim.keymap.set("n", "<C-PageDown>", "<cmd>bnext<cr>", { desc = "Next Buffer" })

-- Bufferline configuration - add buffer numbers to make it clear these are buffers, not tabs
return {
  {
    "akinsho/bufferline.nvim",
    opts = {
      options = {
        numbers = "buffer_id", -- Show buffer numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.)
        separator_style = "slant",
      },
    },
  },
}

-- Snacks configuration
-- Explorer: Show hidden and gitignored files by default
-- File pickers (<space>ff, <space><space>): Show hidden files, respect .gitignore
return {
  {
    "folke/snacks.nvim",
    opts = {
      picker = {
        sources = {
          explorer = {
            hidden = true,     -- Show hidden files (dotfiles)
            ignored = true,    -- Show gitignored files
          },
          files = {
            hidden = true,     -- Show hidden files in file picker
            -- Note: Gitignored files intentionally excluded from fuzzy finders
            -- This is standard behavior - keeps search results focused
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

-- Disable relative line numbers
vim.opt.relativenumber = false

-- OSC 52 clipboard over SSH - copy only
-- Yank (y) copies to system clipboard via OSC 52
-- Paste (p) uses nvim's internal registers only (OSC 52 paste doesn't work reliably)
-- For pasting from system clipboard, use terminal paste (Ctrl+Shift+V in insert mode)
local osc52 = require("vim.ui.clipboard.osc52")
vim.g.clipboard = {
  name = "OSC 52",
  copy = {
    ["+"] = osc52.copy("+"),
    ["*"] = osc52.copy("*"),
  },
  paste = {
    ["+"] = function()
      return vim.split(vim.fn.getreg('"'), '\n')
    end,
    ["*"] = function()
      return vim.split(vim.fn.getreg('"'), '\n')
    end,
  },
}

-- vim-visual-multi: Multi-cursor support (Ctrl+N style)
return {
  {
    "mg979/vim-visual-multi",
    branch = "master",
    init = function()
      vim.g.VM_maps = {
        ["Find Under"] = "<C-n>",           -- Start multi-cursor, add next match
        ["Find Subword Under"] = "<C-n>",
        ["Select All"] = "<C-A-n>",         -- Select all matches
        ["Skip Region"] = "<C-x>",          -- Skip current match
        ["Remove Region"] = "<C-p>",        -- Go back to previous match
      }
    end,
  },
}

# Gemfile
group :development do
  gem 'ruby-lsp', require: false
end

return {
  {
    "neovim/nvim-lspconfig",
    opts = {
      servers = {
        ruby_lsp = {
          mason = false,
          cmd = { "bundle", "exec", "ruby-lsp" },
          init_options = {
            formatter = "rubocop",
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

That’s It

I’m happy with the setup. Feels good to be back to my roots after months in Cursor. Multi-cursor editing feels natural, clipboard integration via OSC 52 just works, and Ruby LSP provides the autocomplete/diagnostics I need for daily Rails work.

Still figuring some things out though. LSP doesn’t feel as stable as it was in Cursor - not sure if it’s ruby-lsp itself or my config yet. Can’t get Alt+Arrow navigation to work seamlessly between nvim splits and Zellij panes (gave up on zellij-nav.nvim for now). And there’s lots of learning about LazyVim - the plugin ecosystem and configuration approach takes time to internalize.

Overall, it’s great. The friction is acceptable and I’m learning more about my tools in the process.

Resources

Official Documentation:

• LazyVim
• Neovim
• Ruby LSP Official Docs
• vim-visual-multi
• grug-far

Related Posts:

• DevPod: SSH-Based Devcontainers - DevPod setup
• Using Zellij and Claude Code Over SSH - Daily terminal workflow
• Index Caching Feature Request #1040