neovim-ide: the GIGACHAD of NvChad is a tmux layout (ollama ASCII, cursor-agent reality)

Who

I wanted a project IDE without buying another Electron shell: open a folder, get Neovim in the middle, and already have an agent, Taskwarrior, LazyGit, and spare shells in panes around it.

If you live in tmux + NvChad, you already know the ritual: split, title, send-keys, forget which pane had lazygit. I wanted that ritual to be one command.

This is the outer layout story. The sibling nvibe pack is the inner Neovim one (Lua + nvchad.term). Different repos. Different layers. Same operator itch.

What

I keep michaelmonetized/neovim-ide public. GitHub linguist says JavaScript. The product that actually lays out panes is ~7.5 KB of zsh under src/.

src/neovim-ide.sh is the entry: sanitize a session name from argv, basename, or .neovim JSON .name via jq; offer attach/rename if the session exists; tmux new -s detached; cd into the project; then fire ~/.local/bin/nvide-layout and ~/.local/bin/nvide-init.

The banner at the top of that file still draws the intended grid:

- ollama -|- nvim ---------------------|- Tasks -
- ChtSh - |                            |- Git ---
          |- Console ----|- Terminal - |

src/neovim-ide-layout.sh splits and titles panes: Agent, Cheatsheet, Neovim, Tasks, Git, Console, Terminal. It aliases tmux to /opt/homebrew/bin/tmux (Homebrew-shaped, not portable).

src/neovim-ide-init.sh is where the honesty check bites: it send-keys cursor-agent into the Agent pane (banner still says ollama), starts nvim on pane 2, task list && tasksh on Tasks, lazygit on Git when .git exists, then sleeps and punches :Minimap + C-n for nvim-tree.

License stack at HEAD 38ed773:

• README footer + script header: MIT
• LICENSE.md: full GNU GPL v3 text (GitHub licenseInfo agrees)
• ts/package.json: "license": "ISC", version 1.0.0

install.sh is 0 bytes. README still says it moves src/ to ~/bin/, config to ~/.config/neovim-ide/, and links nvide-* into ~/.local/bin. Without that, the entry script's nvide-layout / nvide-init calls are wishful.

TypeScript side: ts/cli.tsx is an Ink path wizard (123 lines). It can mkdir or execa('mkproject', …). It never calls tmux. On success it prints Project path ready and exits. ts/neovim-ide.mjs is a 1.7MB React/Ink-style bundle. ts/REVIEW.md is a FALLOW dump over that bundle (Total LOC 39772, Dead Files 100%, CRAP scores in the tens of thousands on React internals). About 4095 tracked paths live under ts/node_modules/; only 29 tracked files sit outside it.

PLAN.md (Jan 2026) lists Critical Core IDE Features (LSP, nvim-cmp, Treesitter, neo-tree, Telescope) as if this repo were a Neovim config. It is not. sitrep.md says Status SHIPPED, stack Shell, Lua, last commit 2026-01-31, Fully functional. HEAD is a June 22 nightly.

src/neovim-ide-tmux.sh is the fzf project picker over $HOME/Projects/ with a shebang typo: #1/usr/bin/env zsh. Config default: ide_project_path="$HOME/Projects/".

Where

Code: github.com/michaelmonetized/neovim-ide, public. Stars: 0. No homepage URL. No hosted demo.

Runtime expectations from the tree/header: tmux, jq, mkproject, lazygit, ollama (still listed), tasksh, Neovim 0.9+ / NvChad, optional minimap + nvim-tree. Bun only if you insist on the Ink CLI.

Screenshots section in README is still a TODO stub.

When

• 2024-08-25–28. 2b79f59 mkproject scaffold, then 57e0164 initial commit, then .neovim session-name support (f159d67, retrievin), then 5290d69 tmux support. Four commits; the shell layout product lands.
• 2026-01-08. d81f21b PLAN.md improvement opportunities (LSP wishlist).
• 2026-01-31. 52f0e4a chore sync (sitrep still points here).
• 2026-02-27. 915f5d6 README install instructions + structure (still describing empty install.sh).
• 2026-06-22. 2976b7e / HEAD 38ed773 nightlies. Last push 2026-06-22T21:56:52Z. 9 commits total.

Why

My IDE was already panes I pay for: tmux, nvim, lazygit, an agent CLI. I wanted one command that refuses to start a project session half-empty. Keep the diary honest: the ASCII still says ollama while init starts cursor-agent; the license badges disagree; the installer file is empty; the Ink CLI is a path form, not a launcher; PLAN.md dreams of an LSP IDE this repo is not. Leave those in the draft next to the GIGACHAD one-liner.

Engagement Q: Would you trust a GIGACHAD of NvChad launcher whose banner still says ollama, whose init starts cursor-agent, whose README says MIT while LICENSE.md is GPL-3.0, and do you want that layout outside Neovim in tmux, or inside via something like nvibe?