Install neovim-qt with Homebrew, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, scoop, winget

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• nvim-qt

Project history

The `equalsraf/neovim-qt` repository was created on 2014-05-26, only months after the Neovim repository itself. Its README describes a Neovim client library and GUI in Qt5 and frames the application as available wherever Qt is supported.

The project has a long 0.2.x release line: v0.2.0 appeared in 2016, v0.2.18 in 2023, and v0.2.19 in 2025. The README documents an important packaging transition: before Neovim 0.10.0, Neovim Qt was bundled with Neovim releases on Windows; starting with Neovim 0.10.0, users install Neovim and Neovim Qt separately.

Adoption history

Neovim Qt had 1,995 stars and 181 forks when queried on 2026-07-01. It is listed on Neovim's site among popular GUIs, but its Homebrew analytics are modest: 44 installs in 30 days, 130 in 90 days, and 646 in 365 days.

Its broader adoption story is distribution packaging rather than hype: the README lists Homebrew, Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo, OpenSUSE, winget, Chocolatey-era Neovim bundles, and Windows binaries.

How it is used

Users run `nvim-qt`, which starts or points at a Neovim binary. GUI-specific configuration goes in `ginit.vim`, where users set fonts, GUI tabline behavior, popup menu behavior, scrollbar options, and context-menu mappings.

The practical niche is conservative GUI Neovim: Qt widgets, native-ish packaging, stable cross-platform behavior, and a familiar Vim/Neovim configuration model instead of a heavily opinionated editor shell.

Why package nerds care

Neovim Qt matters historically because it arrived early enough to validate Neovim's decoupled UI architecture. Its formula is less fashionable than newer GUI clients, but it remains a useful package-manager marker for the mature Neovim GUI ecosystem.

Timeline

• {'date': '2014-05-26', 'event': 'The `equalsraf/neovim-qt` repository was created.'}
• {'date': '2016-05-18', 'event': 'Release v0.2.0 was published.'}
• {'date': '2024-05-16', 'event': 'Neovim v0.10.0 was tagged; Neovim Qt documents separate Windows installation from this Neovim version onward.'}
• {'date': '2025-01-22', 'event': 'Release v0.2.19 was published.'}

Related projects

• Neovim
• Neovim third-party GUIs
• equalsraf/neovim-gui-shim

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/equalsraf/neovim-qt
• https://api.github.com/repos/equalsraf/neovim-qt/releases?per_page=100
• https://formulae.brew.sh/api/formula/neovim-qt.json
• https://github.com/equalsraf/neovim-qt
• https://github.com/equalsraf/neovim-qt/releases
• https://github.com/equalsraf/neovim-qt/wiki
• https://neovim.io/