How do I highlight only the line number of the current line without highlighting the entire line?

Explanation

When cursorline is enabled, Vim highlights the entire line the cursor is on. In dense code, this full-line highlight can be visually overwhelming. Setting cursorlineopt=number limits the highlight to just the line number column — giving you a clear cursor position indicator without washing out the whole line.

How it works

cursorlineopt controls which parts of the current line are highlighted when cursorline is active (Vim 8.2+ and Neovim):

Requires both set cursorline and set number (or set relativenumber) to be visible.

Example

Add to your config:

set cursorline
set number
set cursorlineopt=number

Result: the number column highlights the current line's number in CursorLineNr color, while the text of the line remains unhighlighted — subtle but effective.

Tips

• Combine with a distinct CursorLineNr highlight for maximum visibility: :hi CursorLineNr guifg=#ffdd44 gui=bold
• cursorlineopt=number pairs well with relativenumber so both the absolute number and relative offsets are highlighted
• Use cursorlineopt=line,number if you want both effects simultaneously
• The screenline value is useful when wrap is on and a single logical line spans multiple screen rows