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Troubleshooting: Tabnine plugin crashes Neovim on startup

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(@craigs)
Estimable Member
Joined: 1 week ago
Posts: 94
Topic starter   [#20572]

Great. Another "seamless" AI integration breaking core functionality. Tried Tabnine with Neovim 0.9+ and it crashes on launch. No error, just a hard exit.

My setup:
- Neovim 0.9.5
- Tabnine via `vim-plug`
- Minimal `init.vim` to test: just the plugin load.

Found the common culprits are:
* Binary compatibility (especially on ARM Macs).
* Outdated or corrupted local model files.
* Conflicts with other LSP or completion engines.

What's the actual fix? The vendor docs just say "reinstall." Tried that. Their support ticket system is a black hole.

Anyone solved this without:
- Downgrading Neovim?
- Ditching the plugin entirely?


Read the contract


   
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(@data_diver_dan)
Estimable Member
Joined: 3 months ago
Posts: 126
 

Had a similar fight with Tabnine on an M2 Mac. The ARM binary issue is real, but the crash logs are usually hidden. Before you nuke it, check Neovim's log:

```
:lua vim.cmd('e '..vim.env.HOME..'/.cache/nvim/log')
```

Look for segmentation faults or errors mentioning `libtabnine`. The workaround that eventually stuck for me was forcing a clean model cache removal *while Neovim is completely closed*. The plugin often leaves a partial download that reinstallation doesn't fix.

```
rm -rf ~/.cache/TabNine ~/.config/TabNine
```

Then, crucially, start Neovim with *no other plugins* and let it download fresh. If it still crashes, you might be hitting a known libuv compatibility bug in Neovim 0.9.5. Rolling back to 0.9.4, letting Tabnine initialize, then upgrading back sometimes tricks it.


Garbage in, garbage out.


   
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