Nvim replays macro incorrectly, possible caused by spellcheck?

[alikhan-ab]

Hi! I don’t know if this is the correct place to post this, so feel free to delete if it’s not.

I have a list of URLs as follows:

2025-11-22: (Color Palette Pro — A Synthesizer for Color Palettes)[https://colorpalette.pro]  
2025-11-22: (A Trail Tale)[https://atrailtale.com/#/]  
2025-11-22: (Stickertop)[https://stickertop.art/main/]  

They are formatted incorrectly in Markdown, and I want to record a macro that would correct them — that is, change parentheses to square brackets and vice versa. For example, 2025-11-22: (A Trail Tale)[https://atrailtale.com/#/] should become 2025-11-22: [A Trail Tale](https://atrailtale.com/#/).

In Neovim with the MiniMax configuration (with the most recent commits), I recorded the following macro:
0f(%r]<80><fd>5``r[<80><fd>5f[%r)<80><fd>5``r(
(By the way, does anybody know why <80>5 is recorded and what keypress it represents?)

However, when I replay the macro, I get an unexpected result:

# Macro replayed from the second URL
2025-11-22: [Color Palette Pro — A Synthesizer for Color Palettes](https://colorpalette.pro)  
2025-11-22: [A Trail Tale][https://atrailtale.com/#/]  
(025-11-22: )Stickertop)[https://stickertop.art/main/]

When I record the same macro in Neovim started with the --clean argument, the following command is recorded:
0f(<80><fd>5%r]<80><fd>5``r[<80><fd>5f[<80><fd>5%r)<80><fd>5``r(
There are additional <80><fd>5 sequences added, but I don’t think they affect anything. When this macro is replayed in Neovim with the default configuration, everything works as expected.

Can anyone recommend how to troubleshoot this situation or has any idea what might be causing the problem? A potential hint is that in one of my previous attempts, the macro replaced parentheses with square brackets, but then threw E756: spellcheck is not possible and did not change the square brackets to parentheses.

[echasnovski]

Not sure about the problem with this particular macro, but here is the macro I'd do it with: 0srn)]srn])j . What it does:

• 0 - move to line start.
• srn)] - replace next ) surrounding with ] surrounding.
• srn]) - replace next ] surrounding with ) surrounding.
• j - go to the next line (helps with "chaining" macro).

[alikhan-ab]

Thank you! I was going to use/learn mini.surround next, but I was just confused about what I was doing wrong.

[echasnovski]

(By the way, does anybody know why <80>5 is recorded and what keypress it represents?)

The <80><fd>5 is a keycode for <Ignore> special word. It is probably used in % mapping that comes from 'matchit.vim' (plugin bundled and enabled by Neovim itself, not MiniMax).

Is 0f(%r]``r[f[%r)``r( a sequence of keys that you pressed? I indeed can reproduce this. After some debugging, it looks like an issue with combination of 'mini.clue' and 'mini.jump'. Disabling either one makes it work as expected.

Although enabled 'mini.clue' might lead to problems with macros, I don't remember I encountered this issue. I'll take a closer look.

Anyway, this is not a MiniMax issue and there is a workaround that uses 'mini.surround' (which I'd recommend using in this case anyway).

[echasnovski]

@alikhan-ab, this should now be fixed on the latest main of 'mini.nvim'. Update it with :DepsUpdate mini.nvim + confirm and restart Neovim.

[alikhan-ab]

It does work now, thanks! However, there is still some unexpected behavior when you execute the macro once for each visually selected line using :'<,>normal @q. TBH, I prefer the mini.surround way, but I still wanted to mention it just in case.

[echasnovski]

However, there is still some unexpected behavior when you execute the macro once for each visually selected line using :'<,>normal @q. TBH, I prefer the mini.surround way, but I still wanted to mention it just in case.

Thanks! The 'mini.clue' workaround to make it work with macros is unfortunate, but unavoidable at this point. I made a PR to Neovim a long time ago to make a proper fix possible (add dedicated ReplayEnter and ReplayLeave events for macros), but it got stalled. Maybe I should get back to it.