Two nvim-tree defaults that were quietly getting in the way.
filters.git_ignored defaults to true, so gitignored files are hidden. The
symptom was .env being absent from a project while .env.example sat right
there, which reads as a dotfile filter but is not: filters.dotfiles is already
false, so dotfiles show. The filter is git-aware, and .env was simply reported
ignored. Verified in a throwaway repo ignoring .env and vendor/ — both appear
now, and neither did before, with the ignored glyph to distinguish them.
The trade-off is real and is the reason for the default: vendor/ and
node_modules/ now show too. filters.exclude = { '.env' } was the narrower
option, exempting one name while keeping the rest hidden. Chose the broad
setting deliberately; `I` in the tree hides them again per session.
update_focused_file.enable defaults to false, so the tree never moved when a
file was opened from fzf-lua. Enabling it reveals the current buffer on
BufEnter, uncollapsing folders to reach it. Verified on a nested fixture:
opening src/deep/nested/target.php expanded all three folders and put the tree
cursor on the file. Focus stays in the file window, so it reveals rather than
steals, and it follows every buffer switch, not just fzf-lua.
Left update_root off. It would re-root the tree at files outside the current
root, which makes the tree wander into vendor/ — worse now that ignored files
are visible and easier to open by accident.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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