Start it, forget it, keep the same URL.

Three papercuts, fixed

The usual live-reload workflow works right up until it doesn’t.

Install

Neovim 0.9+ and at least one backend. The plugin finds whichever you have.

{
  "G00380316/live-server.nvim",
  cmd = "LiveServer",
  keys = {
    { "<leader>ls", "<Cmd>LiveServer toggle<CR>", desc = "Toggle live server" },
    { "<leader>lm", "<Cmd>LiveServer<CR>",        desc = "Live server manager" },
    { "<leader>lo", "<Cmd>LiveServer open<CR>",   desc = "Open in browser" },
  },
  opts = {},
}

Backends

Commands

One command with subcommands and real Tab completion. A bare port or backend name is treated as a start request.

In the manager

Every one of these is also a :LiveServer subcommand — nothing is keyboard-only.

Next.js, Vite, Express & friends

In a framework project, :LiveServer toggle runs the dev server the repository already defines — rather than serving your source tree as files, which would just render a page of raw JSX.

:LiveServer toggle    # -> pnpm run dev --port 3000 --host 127.0.0.1

It asks before it runs anything

Serving files reads files. Starting a dev server executes code the repository wrote, so the first time it shows you exactly what that is.

Run the Next.js dev server defined by this repository?

  script:  dev = next dev
  via:     pnpm

Defined in ~/code/shop/package.json. This executes code from the repository.

The answer is remembered against that script, not the whole file — a dependency bump won’t ask again, but changing what dev runs will. Recognised frameworks also get a longer startup budget, because a cold Next.js compile can take a minute before the port answers.

Ports that stay put

By default the port a project ends up with is remembered and reused. Availability is checked against the operating system, so a port held by a stray Docker publish or another editor is correctly seen as taken.

Per-project configuration

Drop a .liveserverrc.json in the project root and everyone on the team gets the same setup.

{
  "server": "live_server",
  "port": 4321,
  "root": "public",
  "open": "index.html",
  "entry_file": "index.html"
}

Over SSH

When SSH_CONNECTION or SSH_TTY is set, the plugin stops pretending a browser will open and prints what you can actually act on.

Serving portfolio at http://127.0.0.1:5500/ (on build-box)

Forward it from your machine:
  ssh -N -L 5500:127.0.0.1:5500 you@build-box

URL copied to your clipboard via OSC 52.

OSC 52 means the URL lands on your local clipboard even when the remote machine has no clipboard tool at all.

Security

A dev server serves your working tree, including files you have not committed. Two decisions follow from that.

Configuration

Unknown keys, wrong types and out-of-range values are reported in one message and then ignored — a typo never breaks your init.lua.

require("live_server").setup({
  server = "auto",            -- or "live_server" | "browser_sync" | "serve" | "python"
  host = "127.0.0.1",
  expose = "ask",             -- true | false | "ask"

  port = {
    strategy = "pin",         -- "pin" | "scan" | "stable" | "fixed"
    range = { 5500, 5599 },
  },

  browser = {
    auto_open = true,
    open_current_file = true, -- open the page for the buffer you are in
  },

  ui = {
    icons = "auto",           -- "auto" | "nerd" | "ascii" | "text"
    spinner = true,           -- false removes all motion
  },
})

Accessibility

Status is always spelled out as a word next to the icon — nothing is conveyed by colour or glyph alone. ui.icons = "text" removes glyphs entirely, "ascii" avoids non-ASCII, and ui.spinner = false removes all motion. Highlight groups are default links to standard groups, so the panel follows your colorscheme’s contrast in light and dark. On a narrow terminal the panel opens as a split rather than a cramped float, and lines never exceed the window width.