bug: LocList, QuickFixList and Snacks picker aren't finding TODOs

[dandyrow]

Did you check docs and existing issues?

• I have read all the todo-comments.nvim docs
• I have updated the plugin to the latest version before submitting this issue
• I have searched the existing issues of todo-comments.nvim
• I have searched the existing issues of plugins related to this issue

Neovim version (nvim -v)

v0.11.3

Operating system/version

Arch Linux

Describe the bug

When I have a buffer containing TODO comments and I trigger the LocList or QuickFixList commands or try to use the snacks picker to find them I get a warning saying no todo_comments found.

Steps To Reproduce

1. Open a file
2. Create a Todo comment
3. See it highlights correctly
4. Try to run one of the commands to list all Todos
5. No todo comments are found

Expected Behavior

The Todo comments which are present to be found and displayed

Repro

vim.env.LAZY_STDPATH = ".repro"
load(vim.fn.system("curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/folke/lazy.nvim/main/bootstrap.lua"))()

require("lazy.minit").repro({
  spec = {
    { "folke/todo-comments.nvim", opts = {} },
    -- add any other plugins here
  },
})

[tim-forrer]

I appreciate that this doesn't solve your core issue, but if you want this functionality now before a proper fix comes in, you can try the following:

return {
	"folke/todo-comments.nvim",
	dependencies = { "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim" },
	opts = {},
	keys = {
		{
			"<space>pt",
			function()
				Snacks.picker.todo_comments()
			end,
			desc = "Pick from TODO, BUG, etc. comments",
		},
	},
}

I took this from here.

Hope this is helpful (at least for the time being)!

[dandyrow]

I appreciate that this doesn't solve your core issue, but if you want this functionality now before a proper fix comes in, you can try the following:

return {
"folke/todo-comments.nvim",
dependencies = { "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim" },
opts = {},
keys = {
{
"pt",
function()
Snacks.picker.todo_comments()
end,
desc = "Pick from TODO, BUG, etc. comments",
},
},
}
I took this from here.

Hope this is helpful (at least for the time being)!

This was one of the keybindings I had but the snacks picker is also unable to find todos as I said above. I'm not sure why it just doesn't work for me. It's happened in the past as well but I just ignored it back then. Now I'm rewriting my config and trying to make sure everything works as it should. I used to have trouble and telescope installed and got the same issue with them too.

[tim-forrer]

I see, that is odd.

Btw I tried to use the minimal config you provided. It didn't work because dependencies = { "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim" }, was missing. Are you using that dependency?

When I added that both :TodoQuickFix and :TodoLocList work.

Here is the minimal init.lua that worked for me:

vim.env.LAZY_STDPATH = ".repro"
load(vim.fn.system("curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/folke/lazy.nvim/main/bootstrap.lua"))()

require("lazy.minit").repro({
	spec = {
		{
			"folke/todo-comments.nvim",
			opts = {},
			dependencies = { "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim" },
		},
	},
})

[jkniest]

Update: Nevermind! It didn't find any todos in hidden files (any my nvim config is in a hidden directory). After setting a global RipGrep config (using the RIPGREP_CONFIG_PATH) variable it is working now!

---

Hey, I got the same issue on a current macOS setup using the newest neovim version. Neither quickfix, loclist nor trouble results in any todos found. The highlighting works though 😅

This is my plugin config:

return {
	"folke/todo-comments.nvim",
	dependencies = {
		"nvim-lua/plenary.nvim",
	},
	lazy = false, -- TODO: Not false
	opts = {},
}

For debugging purposes I turned of lazy loading.

[msouza-dti]

I am having a similar issue on macOS.
The plugin finds todo items on a language and not when using another.

Couldn't test in other languages since I just installed, but on lua files it has found TODO items without any issues, but on Terraform files it doesn't

Gravacao.de.Tela.2025-07-29.as.02.09.44.mp4

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open 30 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[JoaoVitorMaia]

Hello, @msouza-dti , had the same issue, turns out you have to write a : after the keyword:

Wrong:
#TODO do x, y, z

Right:

#TODO: do x, y, z

[Msouza91]

Hey @JoaoVitorMaia thanks for the workaround, but I don't believe that this is on the user, specially since the behavior is intermittent, sometimes the plugin recognizes the terms, sometimes it doesn't.

I will try explicitly using colons, but I still believe this should be looked at sometime for reliability. Or at least be mentioned as a caveat on the docs.

EDIT: The workaround indeed seems to work, but would the match work sometimes without it is intriguing.

[emiham]

You can customize the format and whether you need a colon or not in the config.

Back to the original issue, first I had to disable lazy loading to even get it to work at all again, and then it turned out setting any rg args at all broke the Telescope integration. I tried args = {} and that did the same thing.

Actually, it seems if I don't set keys at all lazy loading is not required.

  {
    "folke/todo-comments.nvim",
    lazy = false, -- BUG Not sure why this should be required
    dependencies = { "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim" },
    opts = {
      highlight = {
        pattern = [[.*<(KEYWORDS)\s*:?]],
        keyword = "bg",
      },
      search = {
        command = "rg",
        -- BUG https://github.com/folke/todo-comments.nvim/issues/371
        -- args = {
        --   "--color=never",
        --   "--no-heading",
        --   "--with-filename",
        --   "--line-number",
        --   "--column",
        --   "--",
        -- },
        pattern = [[(?:--|//|/\*|#|;):? \b(KEYWORDS)\b]],
      },
    },
    keys = {
      {
        "<leader>ft",
        ":TodoTelescope<CR>",
        desc = "Find TODOs",
      },
    },
  },

[Msouza91]

You can customize the format and whether you need a colon or not in the config.

Back to the original issue, first I had to disable lazy loading to even get it to work at all again, and then it turned out setting any rg args at all broke the Telescope integration. I tried args = {} and that did the same thing.

Actually, it seems if I don't set keys at all lazy loading is not required.

{
"folke/todo-comments.nvim",
lazy = false, -- BUG Not sure why this should be required
dependencies = { "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim" },
opts = {
highlight = {
pattern = [[.<(KEYWORDS)\s:?]],
keyword = "bg",
},
search = {
command = "rg",
-- BUG #371
-- args = {
-- "--color=never",
-- "--no-heading",
-- "--with-filename",
-- "--line-number",
-- "--column",
-- "--",
-- },
pattern = [[(?:--|//|/*|#|;):? \b(KEYWORDS)\b]],
},
},
keys = {
{
"ft",
":TodoTelescope",
desc = "Find TODOs",
},
},
},

I get that, but I am using the default settings, it matches with or without the colon and is intermittent just when I am editing some filetypes, might be some weird precedence thing with LSP? I am not sure, but since I haven't customized the match patterns this behaviour isn't intended.
Thanks for taking the time to provide an example configuration!

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open 30 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.