nuwiki/development/ONBOARDING.md

# nuwiki Developer Onboarding

## Overview

nuwiki is a vimwiki-compatible Vim/Neovim plugin backed by a Rust language server. It provides full vimwiki syntax support while keeping the original file format, keymaps, and command surface intact. The substantive work happens in a Rust LSP daemon — Vim and Neovim are thin client layers that wire up keystrokes and display results.

## Repository Structure

```
nuwiki/
├── Cargo.toml                  # Rust workspace root
├── Cargo.lock
├── crates/
│   ├── nuwiki-ls/              # Binary crate — thin main.rs, starts stdio LSP server
│   │   ├── Cargo.toml
│   │   └── src/main.rs
│   │
│   ├── nuwiki-core/            # Library crate — parser, AST, renderer (no editor deps)
│   │   ├── Cargo.toml
│   │   └── src/
│   │       ├── lib.rs
│   │       ├── syntax/         # Syntax plugins (vimwiki, future markdown)
│   │       │   ├── mod.rs
│   │       │   ├── registry.rs
│   │       │   └── vimwiki/
│   │       │       ├── mod.rs
│   │       │       ├── lexer.rs
│   │       │       └── parser.rs
│   │       ├── ast/            # Abstract Syntax Tree node definitions
│   │       │   ├── mod.rs
│   │       │   ├── block.rs
│   │       │   ├── inline.rs
│   │       │   └── link.rs
│   │       └── render/         # Renderers (HTML, etc.)
│   │           ├── mod.rs
│   │           └── html.rs
│   │
│   └── nuwiki-lsp/             # Library crate — LSP protocol bridge
│       ├── Cargo.toml
│       └── src/lib.rs
│
├── plugin/                     # Universal Vim/Neovim entry point
│   └── nuwiki.vim
│
├── lua/                        # Neovim-specific Lua layer
│   └── nuwiki/
│       ├── init.lua
│       ├── config.lua
│       ├── lsp.lua
│       └── install.lua         # Binary download / build-from-source logic
│
├── autoload/                   # Lazy-loaded VimL (Vim compat layer)
│   └── nuwiki/
│       └── lsp.vim
│
├── ftdetect/                   # Filetype detection for .wiki files
│   └── nuwiki.vim
│
├── ftplugin/                   # Per-filetype buffer settings
│   └── nuwiki.vim
│
├── syntax/                     # Static fallback syntax highlighting (no LSP required)
│   └── nuwiki.vim
│
├── doc/                        # Vim help documentation
│   └── nuwiki.txt
│
├── scripts/                    # Plugin-runtime scripts only
│   └── download_bin.vim        # VimL binary download (used by Dein/vim-plug build hooks)
│
├── development/                # Developer-only tooling and docs (not shipped)
│   ├── ONBOARDING.md           # This file
│   ├── SPEC.md                 # Technical reference (architecture, LSP, commands)
│   ├── nuwiki-architecture.html
│   ├── start-nvim.sh           # Launch Neovim against a generated sample wiki
│   ├── start-vim.sh            # Launch Vim against a generated sample wiki
│   ├── syntax-diag.vim         # Dump highlighting state for debugging
│   └── tests/                  # Editor keymap/command harnesses (run in CI)
│       ├── test-keymaps.sh     # Neovim keymap harness
│       ├── test-keymaps.lua
│       ├── test-keymaps-vim.sh # Vim keymap harness
│       └── test-keymaps-vim.vim
│
└── .gitea/
    └── workflows/
        ├── ci.yaml             # Lint, test, fmt check on every push/PR
        └── release.yaml        # Cross-compile + release on v* tag
```

## Key Crates

1. **nuwiki-core**: Contains the parser, lexer, AST, and renderer. This is the pure-Rust core with no editor dependencies.
2. **nuwiki-lsp**: Bridges the core to the LSP protocol using tower-lsp. Handles LSP requests/responses and manages the document store.
3. **nuwiki-ls**: Binary crate that starts the stdio LSP server. Very thin — just initializes the LSP server and runs it.

## Build & Installation

### Prerequisites
- Rust toolchain (1.83+ stable)
- Cargo
- For editor integration: Vim 9+ or Neovim 0.5+ with an LSP client (vim-lsp recommended for Vim, built-in for Neovim 0.11+)

### Development Build
```bash
# From the repository root
cargo build --release -p nuwiki-ls   # Builds the LSP binary
```

The binary will be placed at `target/release/nuwiki-ls`.

### Installation via Plugin Managers

#### lazy.nvim
```lua
{
  'gffranco/nuwiki',
  build = ":lua require('nuwiki').install()",
  ft = { 'vimwiki' },
  opts = {
    wiki_root = '~/vimwiki',
  },
}
```

#### vim-plug
```vim
Plug 'gffranco/nuwiki', { 'do': 'vim -e -s -c \"source scripts/download_bin.vim\" -c \"q\"' }
```

#### Dein
```vim
call dein#add('gffranco/nuwiki', {
\ 'build': 'vim -e -s -c \"source scripts/download_bin.vim\" -c \"q\"'
\ })
```

### Manual Installation (Plain Vim)
```bash
git clone https://code.gfran.co/gffranco/nuwiki ~/.vim/pack/gffranco/start/nuwiki
cd ~/.vim/pack/gffranco/start/nuwiki
cargo build --release -p nuwiki-ls
mkdir -p bin && ln -s ../target/release/nuwiki-ls bin/nuwiki-ls
```

Plain Vim users also need an LSP client — vim-lsp is recommended.

## Development Workflow

### Testing
```bash
# Run all tests (workspace)
cargo test --workspace

# Run tests for a specific crate
cargo test -p nuwiki-core
cargo test -p nuwiki-lsp
cargo test -p nuwiki-ls
```

### Linting & Formatting
```bash
# Check formatting
cargo fmt -- --check

# Run Clippy
cargo clippy --workspace -- -D warnings
```

### Running the LSP Server Manually (for debugging)
```bash
# Build and run the binary
cargo run -p nuwiki-ls -- --help
```

The LSP server communicates over stdio. You can test it with an LSP client like `lspci` or by connecting from Neovim.

### Health Check (Neovim)
After installing the plugin, run:
```
:checkhealth nuwiki
```
This verifies:
- Binary exists at `{plugin_dir}/bin/nuwiki-ls`
- Binary is executable and responds to `--version`
- LSP client is running
- Filetype detection works for `.wiki` files

## Editor Layers

### VimL Layer (`plugin/nuwiki.vim`, `autoload/`)
- Universal entry point for all plugin managers
- Detects whether running in Neovim or Vim
- For Neovim: delegates to Lua layer
- For Vim: starts the LSP server via `nuwiki#lsp#start()`

### Neovim Lua Layer (`lua/nuwiki/`)
- `init.lua`: Main setup function
- `config.lua`: Configuration schema and defaults
- `lsp.lua`: Starts the LSP client using `vim.lsp.start()`
- `install.lua`: Handles binary download/build and places it in the plugin's `bin/` directory

### Vim Compatibility Layer (`autoload/nuwiki/lsp.vim`)
- Provides the `nuwiki#lsp#start()` function for Vim
- Handles binary location and LSP client startup via vim-lsp or coc.nvim

## Important Notes

- The core library (`nuwiki-core`) is completely editor-agnostic and can be tested independently.
- The LSP layer (`nuwiki-lsp`) depends only on the core and tower-lsp.
- The binary crate (`nuwiki-ls`) is intentionally thin — it just initializes and runs the LSP server.
- Editor layers (VimL/Lua) contain zero logic — they are pure wiring only.
- All syntax-specific code lives in `nuwiki-core/src/syntax/<syntax>/` making it easy to add new syntaxes (e.g., markdown) in the future.
- The project uses a workspace Cargo.toml with resolver v2 (edition 2021).

## Getting Started

1. Clone the repository:
   ```bash
   git clone https://code.gfran.co/gffranco/nuwiki
   cd nuwiki
   ```

2. Build the LSP binary:
   ```bash
   cargo build --release -p nuwiki-ls
   ```

3. Set up a test wiki directory:
   ```bash
   mkdir -p ~/test-wiki
   echo "# Test Wiki" > ~/test-wiki/index.wiki
   ```

4. Install the plugin in your Neovim/Vim configuration using your preferred plugin manager (see above examples).

5. Open a .wiki file and verify:
   - Syntax highlighting works
   - `:VimwikiIndex` opens the index page
   - LSP features (go-to-definition, hover, completions) work via `:checkhealth nuwiki`

## CI/CD

The project uses Gitea Actions:
- CI (`.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml`): Runs on every push/PR — checks formatting, Clippy, and runs tests.
- Release (`.gitea/workflows/release.yaml`): Triggers on `v*` tag — cross-compiles for Linux targets and creates a Gitea release.

## License

Dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0 at your option.