# vscode-neovim

6 Hacker News commenters recommended vscode-neovim and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Runs real Neovim inside VS Code instead of emulating Vim. One critic reports undo history can fall out of sync with VS Code.

## Why people recommend it

- Uses real Neovim, not emulation (3 comments): "connects to an actual Neovim instance via Neovim's MessagePack-RPC API, allowing you to use real Neovim but native in VS Code. Pretty cool!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50296313)) "it works way better then the Vim extension since it passes commands to neovim instead of using emulation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47566124)) "the vscode plugin for neovim is able to provide a near complete vim experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45943097))
- Works surprisingly well these days (2 comments): "the neovim extension in vscode is also very good these days" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48186036)) "so far it works surprisingly well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49823401))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [VS Code Remote SSH](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vs-code-remote-ssh.md): 22 recommend
- [Fresh File Explorer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fresh-file-explorer.md): 9 recommend
- [GitLens](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gitlens.md): 6 recommend
- [Calva](https://hackerapproved.com/p/calva.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "vscode-neovim", https://hackerapproved.com/p/vscode-neovim-extension/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).