telescope-frecency.nvim

Frecency is a telescope.nvim extension that offers a more intelligent way to select files from your editing history.

Using an implementation of Mozilla's Frecency algorithm, files that you edit often and/or recently are given higher precedence in the list index. As the extension 'learns' your editing habits over time, the sorting of the list is dynamically altered to priotize the files you're likely to need.

• Scores shown in finder for illustration purposes only

Frecency: sorting by "frequency" and "recency"

Frecency is a score given to each unique file loaded into a Neovim buffer.

A timestamp is recorded to a database on each file load.

The score is calculated using the age of the 10 most recent timestamps and the total amount of times the file has been loaded:

Recency values (per timestamp)

Timestamp age	Value
4 hours	100
1 day	80
3 days	60
1 week	40
1 month	20
90 days	10

Score calculation

score = frequency * recency_score / max_number_of_timestamps

Requirements

• telescope.nvim (required)
• sql.nvim (required)

Timestamps and file records are stored in an SQLite3 database for persistence and speed. This plugin uses sql.nvim to perform the database transactions.

Installation

TODO: add installation instructions for other package managers

use {
  "sunjon/telescope-frecency",
  config = function()
    require"telescope".load_extension("frecency")
  end
}

Configuration

Function for keymaps

lua require("telescope").extensions.frecency.frecency(opts)

:Telescope frecency

References

• Mozilla Frecency algorithm
• Stack Engineering: A faster smarter quick switcher