# vim-evanesco clears the search highlight the moment the cursor moves

> Evanesco is a small Vim plugin with no dependencies that drops search highlighting as soon as the cursor moves or insert mode begins, and adds three star-search behaviours on top. The author's case against vim-oblique is code size, and the one rough edge is a star-search feature with no switch to turn it off.

**pgdouyon/vim-evanesco** — Automatically clears search highlight

- Repository: https://github.com/pgdouyon/vim-evanesco
- Stars: 50 · Forks: 6
- Language: Vim script
- License: MIT
- Published: 2026-08-17 · Updated: 2026-08-18 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/pgdouyon-vim-evanesco

## The core behaviour is two triggers and one autocommand

Evanesco does one thing by default: it clears Vim's search highlighting whenever the cursor moves, or when insert mode is entered.

That is the whole pitch. The rest of the plugin is additions on top of that behaviour rather than a broader design.

The motivation is stated plainly in the README. The author had problems with vim-oblique, which has a similar feature set, and found it simpler to re-implement the subset of features he actually used. That framing matters for reading the rest of the documentation, because a plugin written to replace one specific habit is not trying to cover every case anyone ever wanted from the original.

For most Vim users the failure being avoided is familiar. Leave a search highlight on screen after moving away from the match, and the highlight becomes a decoration that keeps drawing the eye. Evanesco removes it on the first motion instead of leaving it until the next search.

## Three of the four features are star-search, and one of those has no off switch

The feature list is short enough to read as four items, and they are not equal.

The first is the core behaviour, clearing search highlight when the cursor is moved. The second draws attention to a search under the cursor with a different highlight group, which is a visual distinction between the match you are sitting on and matches elsewhere.

The third is star-search highlighting without moving: the match lights up when the cursor lands on it rather than requiring a separate command. The parenthetical note on that line is the important part, and it says the plugin does not yet have an option to easily disable this feature.

The fourth is visual star-search, the same idea in visual mode.

So the plugin is not only a clearer. Three of its four features are about adding highlighting back in a more convenient place, and one of those three is unconditional as far as the documentation says. Anyone who wants the clearing without the rest is dealing with a package that does not currently offer that configuration.

## vim-oblique is the comparison, and the argument is about size

The README names its alternative and states the case for itself in one paragraph, which is worth quoting in substance rather than inflating.

The only reasons given for choosing Evanesco over vim-oblique are three: it is arguably less of a hack, it has no plugin dependencies, and its code is significantly smaller.

Each of those is a claim a reader can check differently. The dependency claim is structural and easy to verify, and the tree bears it out: the repository holds `LICENSE`, `README.md`, an `autoload/` directory and a `plugin/` directory. There is no dependency file, no submodule, no vendored library.

The size claim is the kind that ages badly, since it was true when written and vim-oblique may have changed since. The character of the author's relationship to the alternative is the more durable fact: this is a re-implementation of a subset, built after hitting problems, which tells you the goal was a working personal setup rather than a general replacement.

## Three installation paths, and the manual one names a Windows directory

The installation section covers the usual Vim plugin managers and then falls back to copying files.

With Pathogen, the clone happens in the bundle directory:

```bash
cd ~/.vim/bundle && git clone https://github.com/pgdouyon/vim-evanesco.git
```

With Vim-Plug, it is a single declaration added to the plugin list:

```vim
Plug 'pgdouyon/vim-evanesco'
```

And the manual route is to copy all the files into the appropriate directory under `~/.vim`, or `$HOME/_vimfiles` on Windows. That last detail is the one people get wrong on the wrong platform, and it is the only place in the README where a Windows path is mentioned at all.

Nothing in the installation section asks you to fetch anything else. Whatever you use, the plugin is the two directories that are already in the repository.

## The <char> mapping conflict has three documented answers

Evanesco takes over `<char>`, which is a mapping many Vim users rely on, and the README has a dedicated FAQ entry for the collision with three answers in order of preference.

The first is to move your mapping into `~/.vim/after/plugin` and read `:h after-directory`, which is Vim's own mechanism for loading a file after the plugin has defined its own version of the same mapping.

The second is an explicit autocommand in your vimrc that re-sources the plugin file and then applies your mapping:

```vim
autocmd SourceCmd *plugin/evanesco.vim source <afile> | <your_mapping_here>
```

The third is to raise it on the issue tracker with a compelling use case, which is the author's way of saying that a cleaner solution belongs upstream rather than in your configuration.

That ordering is a good guide to the trade. The `after/plugin` route is the maintainable one, the autocommand works but leaves a re-source in your config, and the third option costs nothing but your time.

## The tree is four entries and the last commit is from 2021

The repository is as small as its feature list suggests. At the top level there are four entries: `LICENSE`, `README.md`, `autoload/` and `plugin/`. The SourceCmd autocommand in the FAQ confirms the expected filename, `plugin/evanesco.vim`, which is also the path the conflict workaround depends on.

Licensing is straightforward. The README states copyright 2015 Pierre-Guy Douyon, distributed under the MIT License, and the repository metadata agrees.

What is worth noting is the date. The last push to the repository landed on 2021-08-05, and there have been no GitHub releases, so there is no version to pin and no release history to read. For a plugin whose whole purpose is to clear a highlight, that staleness matters less than it would for something structural, but it does mean the feature list above, including the admission that star-search cannot be disabled, is the best description of current behaviour that exists.

The default branch is `master`, not `main`, which matters if you write your own `Plug 'pgdouyon/vim-evanesco'` line and your plugin manager clones the default branch.

## Conclusion

vim-evanesco suits a Vim user who wants search highlighting gone the instant the cursor moves and who would rather not carry a dependency tree to get it. It does not suit someone who wants the star-search behaviour switched off, since the feature list states there is no option to disable it yet. Before adopting it over vim-oblique, check that your own `<char>` mapping still fires after the SourceCmd autocmd runs, and note that the last push to the repository was on 2021-08-05.

## FAQ

### What does vim-evanesco do in Vim?

It automatically clears Vim's search highlighting when the cursor moves or when insert mode is entered, and it draws attention to a match under the cursor with a separate highlight group.

### How do I install vim-evanesco?

With Pathogen, cd ~/.vim/bundle and clone the repository. With Vim-Plug, add Plug 'pgdouyon/vim-evanesco'. Or copy all the files into the right directory under ~/.vim, or $HOME/_vimfiles on Windows.

### vim-evanesco conflicts with my <char> mapping, what should I do?

Three options are given: put the mapping in ~/.vim/after/plugin and read :h after-directory, add autocmd SourceCmd *plugin/evanesco.vim source <afile> | <your_mapping_here> to your vimrc, or raise it on the issue tracker with a compelling use case.

### Should I use vim-evanesco instead of vim-oblique?

The author gives three reasons: Evanesco is arguably less of a hack, has no plugin dependencies, and has significantly smaller code. It was written after the author hit problems with vim-oblique, re-implementing only the subset of features he used.

### Can I turn off star-search highlighting in vim-evanesco?

Not according to the feature list, which notes that star-search highlighting without moving the cursor does not yet have an option to easily disable this feature.

## Sources

- [Official README](https://github.com/pgdouyon/vim-evanesco#readme)
- [Project repository](https://github.com/pgdouyon/vim-evanesco)
- [README](https://github.com/pgdouyon/vim-evanesco/blob/master/README.md)
- [Releases](https://github.com/pgdouyon/vim-evanesco/releases)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/pgdouyon-vim-evanesco