emacs.d

An IDE-like Emacs configuration for users more comfortable with Vim/Neovim.

---

Dependencies

• Emacs 30.1+
• libvterm and libtool for vterm
• aider, and the models of your choice (installed via ollama) for an LLM assistant
  • Hosted models also supported if you don't run locally
  • Ollama needs to be running to use Aider within Emacs
  • portaudio-devel (sometimes under different name depending on distribution) for aider voice commmands
• multimarkdown for Markdown preview/compilation
  • Can be installed from most system package managers
• nodejs and npm, to install @emacs-eask/cli (Eask)
• rust, cargo, and emacs-lsp-booster for lsp-mode performance improvements: cargo install emacs-lsp-booster

Setup

Before you launch Emacs

1. Clone this repo into ~/.emacs.d
2. Update env vars or add more in early-init.el

First launch

1. Launch Emacs and wait a bit for everything to install (only once)
2. Run nerd-icons-install-fonts (only needed once)
3. Run treesit-auto-install-all to install Treesitter grammars all at once (optional)
4. Run copilot-install-server to install Copilot
5. As you navigate to lsp-mode-enabled files, you should get prompted (only once) to install a language server

Window position

Under some desktops / window management systems, the initial-frame-alist settings may get ignored, especially for postion (top and left). Under KDE Plasma 6, I did this, for example:

Keybindings

Note that I was a longtime Vim/Neovim user (10 years!), and the keybindings here are meant to mostly mirror my old setup in that editor. Edit init-keys.el as you see fit to change any keybindings.

The guiding philosophy is to lean on the <leader> key as much as possible, and to "namespace" command groups. For example, <leader>d is my prefix for all debugging (dap-mode) keybindings. <leader>db shows breakpoints, for instance.

Theme

Default theme is gruvbox, provided by doom-themes. Edit init-theme.el to change this.

Completion and help

The following packages are relied on for solid help, documentation, and completion behavior:

• embark
• vertico
• consult
• which-key
• marginalia
• corfu
• orderless

I'm still adjusting to these packages and the configuration may change as I learn to get everything synthesized nicely. In addition, lsp-mode will provide more help and navigation tools for language modes where it is enabled.

Navigation

Navigation is also guided by Vim principles. In general, move around with hjkl, use <shift>-[hjkl] to move between windows and the mini-buffer, and <shift>-[ui] to move between tabs (see below).

Tabs

Tabs are managed by centaur-tabs. It takes some getting used to, but provides a nicely organized experience. Tabs are grouped by project / category. Use the left and right arrow keys to move between tab groups.

Tree view

A tree view of files is provided by Treemacs, and integrates with lsp-mode to allow for rich display of errors, symbols, and more.

Language grammars

This config includes some Tree-sitter mappings to allow for standard Vim text manipulation and navigation tools with real language constructs.

For example, just like yiw means "yank in word", yif means "yank in function" when supported. Pretty cool!

Git

I use magit for a nice Git user interface. It will pull TODO comments out into a list as well.

Org mode

I have a minimal but evolving Org configuration, as I'm still learning it.

Gotchas and annoyances

You might consider tweaking the following:

• Disabling keycast-mode by default in the mode line
• Removing centaur-tabs in favor of more standard viewing and navigation of buffers
• Removing copilot

If you don't want to use Evil or all of the <leader>-based mappings, you can rip that stuff out, but at that point you may want to consider a less Vim-centric Emacs config.

Screenshots

Start screen with emacs-dashboard

Flymake at-point diagnostics

Consult + ripgrep with previews

Peek references in lsp-mode

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2025 Lara Kelley. Use with credit.