diff --git a/lua/custom/plugins/additional_keymaps.lua b/lua/custom/plugins/additional_keymaps.lua
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0276df2b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lua/custom/plugins/additional_keymaps.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+-- mgua: here are my additional keymaps
+
+-- .o. / .wo. ecc are the "scopes"
+-- .o. is the general settings
+-- .wo. are the windows scoped options
+-- .bo. are the buffer scope
+-- see https://vonheikemen.github.io/devlog/tools/configuring-neovim-using-lua/
+vim.cmd [[
+	set cc=90			" column where to put vertical bar
+	set shiftwidth=4
+	set tabstop=4
+	set scrolloff=4 	" never allow curson closer than 4 lines from upper/bottom borders
+	set encoding=UTF-8	" default encoding
+	set nowrap!
+	set list
+	"next two lines are the same: in unicode and in equivalente representations
+	"set listchars=eol:⏎,tab:▸·,trail:·,space:·,nbsp:⎵	" center dot: alt-250
+	"set listchars=eol:\\u23ce,tab:\\u25b8\\u2500,trail:\\u00b7,space:\\u00b7,nbsp:\\u23b5
+	"let g:python3_host_prog='~/venv_nvim/bin/python'						" linux
+	let g:python3_host_prog='c:\Users\mgua0\venv_nvim\Scripts\python.exe'	" windows
+
+]]
+vim.opt.relativenumber = true
+vim.opt.cursorline = true
+vim.opt.listchars = { eol = '↲', tab = '▸-', trail = '·', space = '·', nbsp = '_' }
+--vim.opt.listchars = {eol = '\\u23ce', tab = '\\u25b8\\u2500', trail = '\\u00b7', space = '\\u00b7', nbsp = '\\u23b5'}
+
+-- i want to make <leader>tt to toggle nvtree
+vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>tt", ":NvimTreeToggle<Enter>")
+-- vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>r", ":%s/<C-r><C-w>//g<Left><Left>")
+vim.keymap.set("n", "<C-Left>", "<C-w>gT")    -- go to previous tab
+vim.keymap.set("n", "<C-Right>", "<C-w>gt")   -- go to next tab
+vim.keymap.set("n", "<C-Up>", ":bprev<CR>")   -- change current tab to previous buffer
+vim.keymap.set("n", "<C-Down>", ":bnext<CR>") -- change current tab to next buffer
+
+return {}
diff --git a/lua/custom/plugins/alpha._lua b/lua/custom/plugins/alpha._lua
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..544294eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lua/custom/plugins/alpha._lua
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+-- modern alternative to startify
+-- this loader does not work
+
+return {
+    'goolord/alpha-nvim',
+    requires = { 'nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons' },
+    config = function ()
+        require'alpha'.setup(require'alpha.themes.startify'.config)
+    end,
+}
+
+return {}
diff --git a/lua/custom/plugins/nvim-tree.lua b/lua/custom/plugins/nvim-tree.lua
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..701894c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lua/custom/plugins/nvim-tree.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+-- this is from https://github.com/nvim-tree/nvim-tree.lua
+
+return {
+  "nvim-tree/nvim-tree.lua",
+  version = "*",
+  dependencies = {
+    "nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons",
+  },
+  config = function()
+    require("nvim-tree").setup {}
+    --require("nvim-web-devicons").setup {}
+  end,
+}
+
diff --git a/lua/custom/plugins/nvim-web-devicons.lua b/lua/custom/plugins/nvim-web-devicons.lua
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..abe11585
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lua/custom/plugins/nvim-web-devicons.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+-- this is from https://github.com/nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons
+-- required for nvim-tree
+
+return {
+	"nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons",
+	version = "*",
+	config = function()
+		require("nvim-web-devicons").setup {
+			 -- your personnal icons can go here (to override)
+			 -- you can specify color or cterm_color instead of specifying both of them
+			 -- DevIcon will be appended to `name`
+			 override = {
+			  zsh = {
+			    icon = "",
+			    color = "#428850",
+			    cterm_color = "65",
+			    name = "Zsh"
+			  }
+			 };
+			 -- globally enable different highlight colors per icon (default to true)
+			 -- if set to false all icons will have the default icon's color
+			 color_icons = true;
+			 -- globally enable default icons (default to false)
+			 -- will get overriden by `get_icons` option
+			 default = true;
+			 -- globally enable "strict" selection of icons - icon will be looked up in
+			 -- different tables, first by filename, and if not found by extension; this
+			 -- prevents cases when file doesn't have any extension but still gets some icon
+			 -- because its name happened to match some extension (default to false) 
+			 strict = true;
+			 -- same as `override` but specifically for overrides by filename
+			 -- takes effect when `strict` is true
+			 override_by_filename = {
+			  [".gitignore"] = {
+			    icon = "",
+			    color = "#f1502f",
+			    name = "Gitignore"
+			  }
+			 };
+			 -- same as `override` but specifically for overrides by extension
+			 -- takes effect when `strict` is true
+			 override_by_extension = {
+			  ["log"] = {
+			    icon = "",
+			    color = "#81e043",
+			    name = "Log"
+			  }
+			};
+		}
+		end,
+	}
+
diff --git a/lua/custom/plugins/startify.lua b/lua/custom/plugins/startify.lua
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b232385a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lua/custom/plugins/startify.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+-- the classical startify 
+return { 
+	'mhinz/vim-startify' 
+	}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lua/custom/plugins/vim-oscyank.txt b/lua/custom/plugins/vim-oscyank.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..06152ac7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lua/custom/plugins/vim-oscyank.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+-- this is for support of clipboard across remote ssh
+-- I need to bring it to lua
+--
+-- This does not have prerequirements on windows. It works if you use windows terminal
+-- and works across ssh sessions. does not currently (apr 2023) work with mremote nor putty
+--
+--
+
+-- Plug 'ojroques/vim-oscyank', {'branch': 'main'}				" enables Clipboard across SSH mgua 8 apr 2023
+--	" OSC52 compatibility is required in ssh terminal and in tmux if used
+--	" see https://github.com/ojroques/vim-oscyank
+--
+
+" the next settings are for OSCYank (see :h oscyank-config) ----------------
+" to copy the line <leader>cc
+" to copy all: ggVG<leader>c	(ggVG selects everything in visual mode)
+" leader-c yanks visually selected
+"
+lua << EOFOSCYANK
+	-- keymapping defined in lua mode
+	vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>c', '<Plug>OSCYankOperator')
+	vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>cc', '<leader>c_', {remap = true})
+	vim.keymap.set('v', '<leader>c', '<Plug>OSCYankVisual')
+EOFOSCYANK
+let g:oscyank_max_length = 0  " maximum length of a selection
+let g:oscyank_silent     = 0  " disable message on successful copy
+let g:oscyank_trim       = 1  " trim surrounding whitespaces before copy
+let g:oscyank_osc52      = "\x1b]52;c;%s\x07"  " the OSC52 format string to use
+"The following commands are also available:
+"    :OSCYank(text): copy text text
+"    :OSCYankRegister(register): copy text from register register
+"For instance, to automatically copy text that was yanked into register +:
+autocmd TextYankPost *
+    \ if v:event.operator is 'y' && v:event.regname is '+' |
+    \ execute 'OSCYankRegister +' |
+    \ endif
+"OSCYank cfg end -----------------------------------------------------------
+"