Blogs » Use Vim as a Clojure IDE

This is a general guide for using SpaceVim as a Clojure IDE, including layer configuration and usage. Each of the following sections will be covered:

• Enable language layer
• code completion
• Language server
  • neovim(>=0.5.0)
  • vim or neovim(<0.5.0)
• alternate file jumping
• code running
• REPL support
• code format
• Tasks manage

Enable language layer

lang#clojure layer provides clojure language specific features for SpaceVim. This layer is not enabled by default. To write clojure language, you need to enable the lang#clojure layer. Press SPC f v d to open SpaceVim configuration file, and add following configuration:

[[layers]]
  name = 'lang#clojure'

for more info, you can read the lang#clojure layer documentation.

code completion

By default the autocomplete layer has been enabled, so after loading lang#clojure layer, the code completion for clojure language should work well.

Language server

There are two ways to configure the clojure language server protocol.

neovim(>=0.5.0)

If you are using nvim(>=0.5.0). You need to use enabled_clients to specific the language servers. for example:

[[layers]]
    name = 'lsp'
    enabled_clients = ['clojure_lsp']

To override the command of client, you may need to use override_client_cmds option:

[[layers]]
  name = "lsp"
  enabled_clients = ['clojure_lsp']
  [layers.override_client_cmds]
    clojure_lsp = ['clojure-lsp']

You need to install clojure-lsp.

scoop install clojure-lsp

vim or neovim(<0.5.0)

To enable language server protocol support, you may need to enable lsp layer.

[[layers]]
  name = "lsp"
  filetypes = [
    "clojure"
  ]
  [layers.override_cmd]
    clojure = ['clojure-lsp']

alternate file jumping

To manage the alternate file for a project, you may need to create a .project_alt.json file in the root of your project.

for example, add following content into the .project_alt.json file:

{
  "src/*.clj": {"alternate": "test/{}.clj"},
  "test/*.clj": {"alternate": "src/{}.clj"}
}

with this configuration, you can jump between the source code and test file via command :A

code running

The default code running key binding is SPC l r. It will run clojure -M current_file asynchronously. And the stdout will be shown on a runner buffer.

REPL support

lang#clojure layer provides key bindings for REPL support of clojure language. You can Start a clojure inferior REPL process with SPC l s i. After REPL process started, you can send code to clojure process via key bindings:

code format

The format layer use neoformat as default tool to format code, it will run cljfmt on current file. And the default key binding is SPC b f.

[[layers]]
  name = "format"

Tasks manage

SpaceVim will detect lein project tasks automatically. If there is project.clj file in the root directory of your project. following tasks will be detected:

To select a task to run, use key binding SPC p t r, you can also use SPC p t l to list all the tasks in the tasks manager window.