local-vimrc-exrc-nosecure

LOCAL VIMRC, GLOBAL SANITY

There is a quiet engineering problem most Vim users eventually run into:
where should project-specific behavior live?

If every tweak goes into your global vimrc, it turns into an uncurated junk
drawer. If you avoid customization entirely, you lose speed and consistency
inside projects that clearly benefit from local semantics.

The combination of set exrc and set nosecure gives you
an honest middle path.

With exrc, Vim reads a local .vimrc from the working
directory. That means project concerns stay in the project. A blog repo can
have commands for post scaffolding. A Go service can have build/test mappings.
A docs repo can have prose-friendly text settings. None of that needs to leak
into your universal editing defaults.

The payoff is immediate:

- a lean global vimrc that remains understandable months later;
- faster onboarding when you return to old repositories;
- fewer accidental keymap collisions between unrelated domains;
- configuration that documents project intent in a practical way.

In short, local config is not about being clever. It is about reducing mental
load. Every repository can carry only the behaviors that make sense for that
repository.

For this blog, that can include things like a :NewPost command
that creates files using YYYYMMDD_slug.txt, plus insert helpers for
HTML anchors like <a href=""></a>. That is exactly the
kind of ergonomics you want nearby, not globally active while editing unrelated
code.

There is, however, one rule that matters more than convenience: trust boundary.
A local vimrc is executable configuration. If you enable this workflow, you
should do it only for repositories you trust and understand.

Used responsibly, local vimrc via exrc and nosecure
is one of the cleanest ways to keep your editor sharp: stable global defaults,
local project power, and no permanent clutter.