Speed up git log

[arnold-c]

Is there a way to speed up git log? I've noticed that recently it's been rather slow to launch (regardless of the rendering type - ascii, kitty, unicode). See clip below.

Screen.Recording.2025-07-16.at.19.11.34.mov

My plugin setup below

Currently on commit 5972552

❯ nvim --version
NVIM v0.11.3
Build type: Release
LuaJIT 2.1.1748459687

return {
  'NeogitOrg/neogit',
  dependencies = {
    'nvim-lua/plenary.nvim', -- required
    'sindrets/diffview.nvim', -- optional - Diff integration
    -- Only one of these is needed, not both.
    'nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim', -- optional
  },
  event = 'VeryLazy',
  cmd = { 'Neogit' },
  branch = 'master',
  config = function()
    local neogit = require 'neogit'
    neogit.setup {
      -- disable_line_numbers = false,
      disable_relative_line_numbers = false,
      graph_style = 'kitty',
    }

    -- Neogit viewer
    nmap('<leader>ge', neogit.open, 'neogit buffer')
    nmap('<leader>gh', function()
      neogit.open { kind = 'split' }
    end, 'neogit horizontal split')
    nmap('<leader>gs', function()
      neogit.open { kind = 'vsplit' }
    end, 'neogit vertical split')

    -- Neogit commands
    nmap('<leader>gc', function()
      neogit.open { 'commit' }
    end, 'commit')

    nmap('<leader>gf', function()
      neogit.open { 'fetch' }
    end, 'fetch')

    nmap('<leader>gl', function()
      neogit.action('log', 'log_all_branches', { '--max-count=256', '--graph', '--decorate', '--topo-order', '--color' })()
    end, 'log all branches')

    nmap('<leader>gL', function()
      neogit.action('log', 'log_current', { '--max-count=256', '--graph', '--decorate', '--topo-order', '--color' })()
    end, 'log current branch')

    nmap('<leader>gp', function()
      neogit.open { 'pull' }
    end, 'pull')

    nmap('<leader>gP', function()
      neogit.open { 'push' }
    end, 'push')

    local head_color = '#7AA2F8'
    local local_branch_color = '#A6E3A1'
    local remote_branch_color = '#F38BA8'

    vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, 'NeogitBranch', { fg = local_branch_color, bold = true })
    vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, 'NeogitBranchHead', { fg = head_color, bold = true, underline = true })
    vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, 'NeogitRemote', { fg = remote_branch_color, bold = true, italic = true })
  end,
}

[CKolkey]

Oh good find. Turns out that vim.hl.range() is substantially slower than vim.api.nvim_buf_add_highlight().

I've reverted the usage of the new API. Let me know if that helps :)

[arnold-c]

Thanks very much @CKolkey - the update seems to have resolved the speed issue!

[CKolkey]

Thats great to hear - and quite surprising that it's so much slower