whisk.nvim

Smooth motion animations for Neovim. Provides 60fps fluid animations for cursor movement, word navigation, text objects, and viewport scrolling — all in one plugin.

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Features

Motion coverage — animates every standard Vim motion:

Category	Motions
Basic	h, j, k, l, 0, $
Word	w, b, e, W, B, E
Find/Till	f, F, t, T
Text Objects	{, }, (, ), %
Line Jumps	gg, G, |
Search	n, N
Screen Lines	gj, gk
Viewport	<C-d>, <C-u>, <C-f>, <C-b>, zz, zt, zb

• Works in Normal and Visual modes with count prefixes (position motions zz/zt/zb are Normal mode only)
• Separate duration and easing for cursor vs scroll animations
• Performance mode with automatic large file detection
• Object pooling (up to 10 reusable animation objects) to reduce garbage collection pressure
• Extensible — define your own keymaps via the orchestrator API, or register custom motions and traits through the registry

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Requirements

• Neovim >= 0.8

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Installation

The plugin auto-calls require("whisk").setup() on load. To disable this and call setup manually, set g:whisk_auto_setup = 0 before the plugin loads.

lazy.nvim

{
  "josstei/whisk.nvim",
  event = "VeryLazy",
  opts = {},
}

vim-plug

Plug 'josstei/whisk.nvim'

require("whisk").setup()

---

Configuration

All options with their defaults:

require("whisk").setup({
  cursor = {
    duration = 150,
    easing = "ease-out",
    enabled = true,
  },
  scroll = {
    duration = 200,
    easing = "ease-in-out",
    enabled = true,
  },
  keymaps = {
    cursor = true,
    scroll = true,
  },
  performance = {
    enabled = false,
    disable_syntax_during_scroll = true,
    ignore_events = { "WinScrolled", "CursorMoved", "CursorMovedI" },
    reduce_frame_rate = false,
    frame_rate_threshold = 60,    -- not currently read by any code path
    auto_enable_on_large_files = true,
    large_file_threshold = 5000,
  },
})

Easing options: linear, ease-in, ease-out, ease-in-out

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Commands

Command	Description
:WhiskEnable	Enable all animations
:WhiskDisable	Disable all animations
:WhiskToggle	Toggle all animations
:WhiskEnableCursor	Enable cursor animations
:WhiskDisableCursor	Disable cursor animations
:WhiskEnableScroll	Enable scroll animations
:WhiskDisableScroll	Disable scroll animations
:WhiskPerformanceEnable	Enable performance mode
:WhiskPerformanceDisable	Disable performance mode
:WhiskPerformanceToggle	Toggle performance mode

---

Lua API

local whisk = require("whisk")

whisk.enable()
whisk.disable()
whisk.toggle()

whisk.enable_cursor()
whisk.disable_cursor()
whisk.enable_scroll()
whisk.disable_scroll()

whisk.toggle_performance()

whisk.reset()              -- tear down keymaps, stop animations, clear registries, remove lifecycle autocmds

Performance module

local performance = require("whisk.performance")

performance.enable()
performance.disable()
performance.is_active()
performance.get_current_fps()
performance.get_frame_interval()
performance.should_ignore_event(event)

Manual motion execution

For custom keymaps, use the orchestrator directly:

local orchestrator = require("whisk.engine.orchestrator")

orchestrator.execute("basic_j", { count = 5, direction = "j" })
orchestrator.execute("word_w", { count = 3, direction = "w" })
orchestrator.execute("find_f", { char = "x", count = 1, direction = "f" })

Motion IDs

Category	IDs
Basic	basic_h, basic_j, basic_k, basic_l, basic_0, basic_$
Word	word_w, word_b, word_e, word_W, word_B, word_E
Find	find_f, find_F, find_t, find_T
Text Object	text_object_{, text_object_}, text_object_(, text_object_), text_object_%
Line	line_gg, line_G, line_|
Search	search_n, search_N
Screen	screen_gj, screen_gk
Scroll	scroll_ctrl_d, scroll_ctrl_u, scroll_ctrl_f, scroll_ctrl_b, position_zz, position_zt, position_zb

---

Examples

Custom keymaps

require("whisk").setup({
  keymaps = { cursor = false, scroll = false },
})

local orchestrator = require("whisk.engine.orchestrator")
vim.keymap.set("n", "j", function()
  orchestrator.execute("basic_j", { count = vim.v.count1, direction = "j" })
end)

Different speeds for cursor vs scroll

require("whisk").setup({
  cursor = { duration = 100, easing = "linear" },
  scroll = { duration = 400, easing = "ease-out" },
})

Performance-oriented

require("whisk").setup({
  cursor = { duration = 100, easing = "linear" },
  scroll = { duration = 150, easing = "linear" },
  performance = { enabled = true },
})

---

Performance mode

When enabled, performance mode:

• Disables syntax highlighting when disable_syntax_during_scroll is set (default: on)
• Optionally reduces frame rate from 60fps to 30fps (reduce_frame_rate = true)
• Auto-enables on BufEnter/BufWinEnter for files larger than large_file_threshold lines (default: 5000)
• Exposes a configurable ignore_events list (default: WinScrolled, CursorMoved, CursorMovedI) for callers to check via should_ignore_event()

Toggle at runtime with :WhiskPerformanceToggle or require("whisk").toggle_performance().

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Behavior notes

• If a motion category is disabled, whisk falls back to native normal! motion behavior.
• When a new motion starts while any of its traits are already animating, all active animations complete instantly at their final positions before the new animation begins (domination).
• Animations are automatically cancelled when the buffer is deleted (BufDelete), the window is closed (WinClosed), or the buffer is left (BufLeave).
• gg with a count (e.g., 5gg) goes to line N. | with a count (e.g., 5|) goes to column N.

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Comparison

Feature	whisk.nvim	neoscroll.nvim	vim-smoothie
Cursor movement	Yes	No	No
Scroll movement	Yes	Yes	Yes
Word navigation	Yes	No	No
Find/Till	Yes	No	No
Text objects	Yes	No	No
Search navigation	Yes	No	No
Visual mode	Yes	Scroll only	Scroll only
Count prefixes	Yes	Scroll only	Scroll only

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Migrating from nvim-luxmotion

whisk.nvim was previously published as nvim-luxmotion. A deprecation shim is included:

• require("luxmotion") forwards to require("whisk") with a warning.
• All :LuxMotion* commands forward to their :Whisk* equivalents.
• g:luxmotion_auto_setup forwards to g:whisk_auto_setup.

Update your config to use whisk directly — the shim will be removed in a future release.

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Documentation

• Usage Guide
• Architecture

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.