QUESTION: Call API (`add`, `add_directory`, etc) programmatically

[Nekketsu]

Did you check the docs?

• I have read all the docs.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I'd like to integrate neo-tree with other plugins. I'd like to call methods like add_directory and show the neo-tree interface to create a directory from another plugin. How can I do that?

Describe the solution you'd like.

I'd like to call add_directory programmatically. All the tests I have tried thinks like this:

local manager = require("neo-tree.sources.manager")
local commands = require("neo-tree.sources.filesystem.commands")

local state = manager.get_state_for_window()
commands.add_directory(state)

But I get errors like:

   Error  02:40:56 notify.error ...y/neo-tree.nvim/lua/neo-tree/sources/common/commands.lua:25: attempt to index field 'config' (a nil value)

In addition, I think that my implementation focuses on filesystem, but I'd like it to work with buffer or git too.

Any clue or example on how to implement that?

Describe alternatives you've considered.

No response

Additional Context

No response

[pynappo]

currently neo-tree's commands aren't really meant to be called outside the neo-tree window, they're only part of the API in that users are allowed to use them in various combinations for custom mappings within neo-tree and they're not supposed to break until a new major version. in this particular case it would probably be quicker to implement creating the directory yourself with vim.uv.fs_mkdir and vim.ui.input and then use :Neotree reveal_file=..., or something like that.

i'll think about making it easier but I'm still new-ish to the codebase so apologies.

Also, what's the behavior you would want? currently add_directory assumes that you want to do it from the node the cursor is on in neo-tree but i imagine what you'd actually want is to have add_directory work from the root node of neo-tree?

[rywng]

I ran into a similar problem as OP.

I want to make a keybind that mimicks vim's behavior in quickfix-window, which means the keybind will 1. opens the node or file and 2. close the Neotree window.

Currently I have the following code that should achieve what I want:

open_and_close_neotree = function(state)
	require("neo-tree.sources.common.commands").open(state)

	local tree = state.tree
	local success, node = pcall(tree.get_node, tree)

	if not success then
		return
	end

	if node.type == "file" then
		require("neo-tree.command").execute({ action = "close" })
	end
end

However, since I can't use the internal commands directly (like the open function for this keybind, the open function will only work on sources that doesn't modify the default implementation in sources/common/commands.lua, for filesystem source, the open will break.

So, my question is:

1. Is there any plan on refactoring that area of codebase (ui/renderer.lua:817), so that those API functions can become available for end users to call?
2. Is there any way of implementing these features (check which type of buffer we are currently in), so we can work around these by using if else statements and use the specific function in specific sources (like filesystem source's special open command)?

[pynappo]

However, since I can't use the internal commands directly (like the open function for this keybind, the open function will only work on sources that doesn't modify the default implementation in sources/common/commands.lua, for filesystem source, the open will break.

You can access the commands directly, use the state.commands table to access the currently available commands. that's just more of a documentation/lack of internal typing issue

[dennypenta]

I have same issue.
My idea is to auto toggle preview on open.
I don't see an available config for it, so tried using private API.
is there a trick I could use to call it right after executing?