LazyVim/Q/Does LazyVim support indenting with tabs the way Logseq expects? If so, how do I indent and de-indent with tabs in markdown?

• Does LazyVim support indenting with tabs the way Logseq expects? If so, how do I indent and de-indent with tabs in markdown?

  • AI Answer

    • Short answer: Not out of the box. Logseq writes one literal tab per nesting level, but LazyVim opens markdown with expandtab on and shiftwidth=2, so >> inserts two spaces. Drop an .editorconfig with indent_style = tab at the graph root and the same keys — >> / <<, visual > / <, insert-mode Ctrl-T / Ctrl-D — start writing real tabs.

    • Why the default is spaces

      • Neovim's own ftplugin/markdown.vim would force setlocal expandtab tabstop=4 softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4, but only when g:markdown_recommended_style is truthy.
      • LazyVim sets vim.g.markdown_recommended_style = 0 in lua/lazyvim/config/options.lua, so markdown buffers skip that block and simply inherit LazyVim's globals from the same file: expandtab = true, shiftwidth = 2, tabstop = 2, smartindent = true.
      • Net effect in a markdown buffer: expandtab on, shiftwidth=2, tabstop=2, softtabstop=0 — two spaces per level. :verbose set expandtab? reports ftplugin.vim as the last setter.

    • Switching the graph to tabs

      • Answer/Official from :help editorconfig: "after running ftplugins and FileType autocommands, the EditorConfig feature searches all parent directories of that file for .editorconfig files, parses them, and applies their properties." Running last is what makes it win over both the runtime ftplugin and the LazyVim globals. An .editorconfig at the graph root scopes the change to the graph and carries to other editors:
        • ini

          [*.md]
          indent_style = tab

      • With that in place >> on a bullet writes a literal \t, and :verbose set expandtab? names editorconfig.lua as the setter.
      • Per-machine alternative — ~/.config/nvim/after/ftplugin/markdown.lua with vim.opt_local.expandtab = false. Simpler, but it applies to every markdown file, not just the graph.
      • Keep shiftwidth equal to tabstop and leave softtabstop=0, so one indent level is exactly one tab and Vim never pads a level with a mix of tabs and spaces.

    • Indenting and de-indenting

      • Normal mode: >> indents the line one level, << outdents. Take a count or a motion for more: 3>> for three lines, >ip for the paragraph. See vim/Keyshort/Indent.
      • Visual mode: V to select whole lines, then > / <. LazyVim remaps these to >gv / <gv in lua/lazyvim/config/keymaps.lua, so the selection survives the shift — >>> walks a whole subtree out three levels without reselecting.
      • Insert mode: Ctrl-T indents and Ctrl-D outdents the current line. This is the closest analogue to Logseq's Tab / Shift-Tab, and it beats <Tab> in practice because it works from anywhere in the line rather than only at column 1. Neither key is remapped by LazyVim.
      • Insert-mode <Tab> at the start of a line does insert one indent level, but blink.cmp claims <Tab> first for completion accept and snippet jumps and only falls through to a literal tab when no menu is open — so it is the least predictable of the three.
      • > and < shift the entire line including the - bullet marker, which is exactly the nesting move Logseq performs.
      • :set list renders tabs as visible glyphs, useful for confirming a page really uses tabs rather than spaces.