config-auditing_skill

Overview

This skill audits Neovim configurations to find issues, deprecated API usage, performance pitfalls, and optimization opportunities. It provides checklists, headless validation commands, and a version-aware detection of removed or deprecated APIs. Use it to generate a clear health score and actionable remediation items for any Neovim setup.

How this skill works

The skill inspects the user's Neovim environment, config layout, and plugin manager by running headless validation commands and grep-style detection patterns against Lua and vimscript files. It cross-references the detected Neovim version with a curated deprecated-API list to flag incompatible or removed calls. Findings are categorized by severity and summarized with a grade, stats, and concrete fixes.

When to use it

• Performing a first-time or periodic health check of a Neovim configuration
• Reviewing configs before upgrading Neovim to a newer major/minor version
• Checking for deprecated or removed API usage that may break startup
• Optimizing startup time and plugin loading strategies
• Validating config syntax and detecting runtime errors during headless startup

Best practices

• Run headless validation commands to capture startup errors and startup time before manual testing
• Prefer vim.opt and lazy.nvim patterns recommended for modern Neovim setups
• Use grep patterns to detect deprecated APIs and flag them by Neovim version
• Modularize config into vetted modules to simplify audits and isolate failures
• Document plugin manager type and plugin count in the audit report for reproducibility

Example use cases

• Quickly assess whether a config will break after a Neovim upgrade by scanning for removed APIs
• Generate an audit report with grade, critical issues, warnings, and suggestions for a client or team
• Optimize a slow startup by identifying heavy plugins and measuring startuptime
• Validate Lua syntax and capture runtime errors with headless dofile and qa checks
• Create automated CI checks that fail when critical deprecated API usage is introduced