How do I get improved syntax highlighting with Tree-sitter in Neovim?

Explanation

nvim-treesitter provides Tree-sitter integration for Neovim, offering faster and more accurate syntax highlighting, indentation, and text objects.

How it works

• Install the nvim-treesitter plugin
• :TSInstall python installs the Python parser
• Tree-sitter parses code into an AST for precise highlighting
• Replaces regex-based syntax highlighting

Example

require('nvim-treesitter.configs').setup {
  ensure_installed = { 'python', 'javascript', 'go', 'lua' },
  highlight = { enable = true },
  indent = { enable = true },
}

Tips

• Requires Neovim 0.5+
• :TSInstall all installs all parsers
• :TSUpdate updates installed parsers
• Tree-sitter text objects (via nvim-treesitter-textobjects) provide language-aware selection
• Significantly faster than regex-based highlighting for large files