feat(#1851): add bookmarks.persist, default path: vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/nvim-tree-bookmarks.json", disabled by default by xiantang · Pull Request #3033 · nvim-tree/nvim-tree.lua

xiantang · 2024-12-22T06:28:24Z

close #1851 (comment)

alex-courtis

This looks great! I'll give it a full review and test in the next few days.

Initial thoughts:

Should we be using vim.json.encode instead of the fn ?
Please don't move existing methods (constructor, toggle)
This should be an optional feature in nvim-tree-opts, disabled by default
This needs checking and safety
- Use a pcall or similar to prevent an error being raised
- Report failures to the user

alex-courtis · 2025-02-16T01:10:55Z

any updates?

I'm happy with this providing the above is addressed.

xiantang · 2025-02-16T09:58:26Z

@alex-courtis updated

alex-courtis · 2025-02-16T23:32:32Z

Proposed help, please correct indexes and run make help-update when done.

==============================================================================
 5.19 OPTS: BOOKMARKS                               *nvim-tree-opts-bookmarks*

*nvim-tree.bookmarks.persist*
Persist bookmarks to a json file containing a list of absolute paths.
Type: `boolean` | `string`, Default: `false`

`true`: use default: `stdpath("data") .. "/nvim-tree-bookmarks.json"`
`string`: absolute path of your choice.

alex-courtis

This is looking fantastic! It's very robust and works well.

Please

lua/nvim-tree/marks/init.lua

alex-courtis · 2025-02-16T22:54:44Z

lua/nvim-tree/explorer/filters.lua

  if explorer then
-    for _, node in pairs(explorer.marks:list()) do
-      status.bookmarks[node.absolute_path] = node.type
+    for key, node in pairs(explorer.marks.marks) do


This is private and should not be accessed, see CI failure

Please use Marks:list()

I know this is not your code, but we can clean this up by using self.explorer (guaranteed not null) instead of calling core.

Edit: it appears that self.explorer.marks:list() is now returning an array of booleans instead of an array of nodes.

alex-courtis · 2025-02-16T23:16:41Z

lua/nvim-tree.lua

+  marks = {
+    enable_persistence = false,
+    save_path = nil, -- nil will default to stdpath("data") .. "/nvim-tree-bookmarks.json"
+  },


Suggested change

marks = {

enable_persistence = false,

save_path = nil, -- nil will default to stdpath("data") .. "/nvim-tree-bookmarks.json"

},

bookmarks = {

persist = false,

},

Rather than a toggle and path, we can use just one option that is boolean or string. This is consistent with other options.

See proposed help

We then add the type explitictly so that it may be validated. Add to ACCEPTED_TYPES:

bookmarks = { persist = { "boolean", "string" }, },

alex-courtis · 2025-02-22T00:38:10Z

I've added you to this repository so that you may push branches and run CI in the future.

alex-courtis · 2025-02-22T01:25:21Z

Apologies, I was not clear about my request to simplify options and proposed help

Attached is a patch with those changes

gunzip simplify_options.diff.gz
git apply simplify_options.diff

simplify_options.diff.gz

bburgess19 · 2025-05-16T14:45:25Z

@xiantang I was looking for this feature! Could you kindly add the patched changes so we can all benefit from your implementation?

Thank you and @alex-courtis for working on this :)

alex-courtis · 2025-05-18T01:00:05Z

@xiantang I was looking for this feature! Could you kindly add the patched changes so we can all benefit from your implementation?

Thank you and @alex-courtis for working on this :)

If we don't hear back from @xiantang I would be most grateful for a new PR from you @bburgess19 with all the changes.

alex-courtis · 2025-06-14T07:29:10Z

@xiantang

Would you like me to complete this and merge it?

xiantang · 2025-06-14T08:31:28Z

ok i will continue it

…

On Sat, 14 Jun 2025 at 3:29 PM, Alexander Courtis ***@***.***> wrote: *alex-courtis* left a comment (nvim-tree/nvim-tree.lua#3033) <#3033 (comment)> @xiantang <https://github.com/xiantang> Would you like me to complete this and merge it? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3033 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AIHB3TZ3Y5GOG3S2QK5HYUT3DPFNZAVCNFSM6AAAAABUBK6ZJGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDSNZSGQZDGOBVGY> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

xiantang · 2025-06-14T08:32:33Z

sorry for misunderstanding, u can complete this merge request.

…

On Sat, 14 Jun 2025 at 3:29 PM, Alexander Courtis ***@***.***> wrote: *alex-courtis* left a comment (nvim-tree/nvim-tree.lua#3033) <#3033 (comment)> @xiantang <https://github.com/xiantang> Would you like me to complete this and merge it? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3033 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AIHB3TZ3Y5GOG3S2QK5HYUT3DPFNZAVCNFSM6AAAAABUBK6ZJGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDSNZSGQZDGOBVGY> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

alex-courtis · 2025-06-15T04:49:01Z

sorry for misunderstanding, u can complete this merge request.

I would be very grateful if you completed. You deserve all the credit for this great feature.

xiantang · 2026-01-05T05:07:44Z

i will work on this feature.

Co-authored-by: Alexander Courtis <alex@courtis.org>

- Rename opts.marks to opts.bookmarks for better clarity - Simplify persist option to boolean | string (true uses default path) - Implement lazy node resolution for loaded bookmarks - Update documentation with new bookmarks configuration - Improve bulk operations to use public list() method consistently

Co-authored-by: Alexander Courtis <alex@courtis.org>

…rmsg variable

xiantang · 2026-01-05T05:45:40Z

@alex-courtis i think its ready for review now

alex-courtis · 2026-01-05T06:40:00Z

Many thanks for getting onto this one. I'll get to a review by this weekend.

Please, please don't create copilot reviews :)

alex-courtis · 2026-01-05T06:44:18Z

I can't block the copilot user. I have tried to limit it at the org level.

I guess the next step is Add Copilot custom instructions

xiantang · 2026-01-05T06:53:10Z

Many thanks for getting onto this one. I'll get to a review by this weekend.

Please, please don't create copilot reviews :)

It's really annoying; I've already disabled it.

alex-courtis

Looking good! A couple of small fixes and we're good to merge.

Test cases

1. Persist one mark then restart:

OK - mark is shown

2. Remove one mark then restart:

OK - mark not shown, file empty

3. Persist mark on file, quit, delete it, restart:

OK - mark is still in file

4. `chmod 444 ~/.local/share/nvim/nvim-tree-bookmarks.json` and mark:

FAIL - error shows "Invalid bookmarks.save_path" not "Invalid bookmarks.persist"

5. Repeat above and mark:

OK - no messages, persistence disabled

6. `echo foobarbaz > ~/.local/share/nvim/nvim-tree-bookmarks.json`:

OK - correct behaviour

message doesn't match the style of save failures, containing some stack: "Failed to load bookmarks: ...ker/start/nvim-tree.lua.dev/lua/nvim-tree/marks/init.lua:49: Expected value but found invalid token at character 1"

However there's not much we can do about that due to lua's poor exception handling. We'd need to check each and every io, file, vim.json call which is just not practical. It's fine: the save case will likely be the most common and has a nice message.

7. Reopen tree:

OK - no messages, persistence disabled for explorer instance

Error message will appear when you creat a new explorer instance however that seems like reasonable behaviour.

`persist = "/tmp/foo.json"`

OK - persists

`persist = "/foo/bar/foo.json"`

OK - error

Recommendations

4: fix message

Small Fixes

Please use a string.format for all notify calls.

notify.warn("Failed to load bookmarks: " .. loaded_marks) string concatenation can throw an exception on nils

See https://github.com/xiantang/nvim-tree.lua/blob/3fc8de198c15ec4e5395f57b70579b3959976960/lua/nvim-tree/git/runner.lua#L219

Remove "Enabling this is not useful as there is no means yet to persist bookmarks" from help

This is now useful :)

xiantang · 2026-01-10T07:55:01Z

im fixing it

…ation - Replace string concatenation with string.format in bookmark error messages - Remove outdated comment about bookmark persistence from documentation

xiantang · 2026-01-10T07:57:57Z

d49cf10 @alex-courtis, please check this commit, if u have small changes to make, just apply them on this PR and merge it. tks

alex-courtis

Many thanks for your contribution!

xiantang added 3 commits December 22, 2024 14:23

Support Persist Bookmarks

51d262b

Fix node new open error

6ec9fc1

Fix filter marks index issue

318f0ba

alex-courtis reviewed Dec 22, 2024

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xiantang added 4 commits February 16, 2025 16:44

Merge branch 'master' into master

6a0b187

Made saving/loading conditional on enable_persistence,

464930d

add method comments

fbfa65b

Use a pcall to prevent an error being raised

69f5a63

xiantang requested a review from alex-courtis February 16, 2025 11:03

alex-courtis changed the title ~~WIP: Support Persist Bookmarks~~ feat(#1851): persist bookmarks Feb 16, 2025

alex-courtis requested changes Feb 16, 2025

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Merge branch 'master' into master

7108587

Merge branch 'master' into master

6e9b5f3

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings January 5, 2026 05:07

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of xiantang January 5, 2026 05:08 View session

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Print errmsg and disable persistence on a bad path

27e794a

Co-authored-by: Alexander Courtis <alex@courtis.org>

xiantang and others added 6 commits January 5, 2026 13:17

fix: use public list() method instead of accessing private marks field

4343b8b

add errmsg in return

2d456cc

Co-authored-by: Alexander Courtis <alex@courtis.org>

fix: correct indentation in filters.lua to match codestyle

f344ae9

fix: add missing else block to handle bookmark save errors and use er…

ddd23b9

…rmsg variable

xiantang requested a review from alex-courtis January 5, 2026 05:45

alex-courtis requested changes Jan 10, 2026

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alex-courtis mentioned this pull request Jan 10, 2026

add enable/disable option to api.tree.toggle functions #3237

Open

refactor: use string.format for bookmark warnings and update document…

d49cf10

…ation - Replace string concatenation with string.format in bookmark error messages - Remove outdated comment about bookmark persistence from documentation

xiantang requested a review from alex-courtis January 10, 2026 08:08

Merge branch 'master' into master

4ff19bd

alex-courtis approved these changes Jan 11, 2026

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alex-courtis changed the title ~~feat(#1851): persist bookmarks~~ feat(#1851): add bookmarks.persist, default path: vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/nvim-tree-bookmarks.json", disabled by default Jan 11, 2026

alex-courtis merged commit c89215d into nvim-tree:master Jan 11, 2026
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github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Jan 11, 2026

chore(master): release nvim-tree 1.15.0 #3195

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Test cases

1. Persist one mark then restart:

2. Remove one mark then restart:

3. Persist mark on file, quit, delete it, restart:

4. chmod 444 ~/.local/share/nvim/nvim-tree-bookmarks.json and mark:

5. Repeat above and mark:

6. echo foobarbaz > ~/.local/share/nvim/nvim-tree-bookmarks.json:

7. Reopen tree:

persist = "/tmp/foo.json"

persist = "/foo/bar/foo.json"

Recommendations

Small Fixes

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xiantang commented Dec 22, 2024 •

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4. `chmod 444 ~/.local/share/nvim/nvim-tree-bookmarks.json` and mark:

6. `echo foobarbaz > ~/.local/share/nvim/nvim-tree-bookmarks.json`:

`persist = "/tmp/foo.json"`

`persist = "/foo/bar/foo.json"`