My Emacs Configuration

Introduction

These are my Emacs customizations. I am in the process of learning and using Emacs as my primary text editor (amongst all the other things that Emacs seems to do for you).

System Requirements

Installed via Homebrew:

• cmake and libtool - Required for vterm compilation
• ghostscript - Required for PDF rendering
• git - Required for tree-sitter grammar compilation
• pandoc - Required for Markdown processing

Philosophy

The important thing to understand is that learning Emacs isn’t just learning the particulars of a text editor. Learning Emacs means learning a framework written in Emacs Lisp that is all about taking actions on buffers of text. Learning the Emacs basics are important, but that only scratches the surface of the different interaction modes.

My configuration follows the philosophy of better-defaults - starting simple and adding functionality as needed, rather than using a large framework like Spacemacs or Doom Emacs.

Current Setup

Package Management

• Uses use-package for declarative package configuration
• Configured with MELPA, Org, and GNU ELPA repositories

Core Packages

Editor Enhancements

• better-defaults - Sensible defaults for Emacs
• which-key - Discover keybindings as you type
• ido-mode - Enhanced minibuffer completion
• ido-completing-read+ - Ido everywhere
• ido-vertical-mode - Vertical display for Ido
• global-auto-revert-mode - Automatically reload files when changed on disk
• visual-line-mode - Soft line wrapping in text modes
• visual-fill-column - Wrap text at fill-column with visual indicator

Appearance

• doom-themes - Modern color themes (using doom-one)
• solaire-mode - Visual distinction between code and UI buffers
• doom-modeline - Clean, informative modeline
• anzu - Search match count display
• Font: SF Mono at 12.4pt (when available)

Project & Version Control

• project.el (built-in, C-c p) - Project management and navigation
• magit - Git interface
• gist - GitHub gist integration
• exec-path-from-shell - Inherit shell environment (important on macOS, optimized for fast startup)
• direnv - Automatically load direnv environments (essential for nix/devenv projects)

Development Tools

• eglot (built-in) - Language Server Protocol support using standard Emacs bindings
• flymake (built-in, M-g n/p) - On-the-fly syntax checking, displays LSP diagnostics
• tree-sitter (built-in) - Advanced syntax highlighting and code navigation (Emacs 30)
• company-mode - In-buffer completion
• treemacs (C-c t) - File tree sidebar with git status indicators
• vterm - Terminal emulator
• claude-code-ide (C-c C-') - Claude AI integration

Language Support

TypeScript/TSX

• Uses built-in typescript-ts-mode with tree-sitter (Emacs 30)
• Automatically compiles and installs tree-sitter grammars from source on first use
• Eglot provides LSP features (go-to-definition, find-references, completion, diagnostics)
• Requires: npm install -g typescript-language-server typescript

Ruby

• inf-ruby - REPL integration
• yari - Documentation lookup

Rust

• rust-mode - Rust language support

Nix

• nix-mode - Nix expression editing

Lisp

• paredit - Structural editing for Lisp and Scheme

Markdown

• markdown-mode - Markdown editing with pandoc support

Docker

• dockerfile-mode - Dockerfile syntax
• docker - Docker management

Document Formats

• nov.el - EPUB reader

AI Assistant

• gptel - ChatGPT/Claude interface

Key Bindings Reference

Essential Emacs

Key	Command	Description
C-h t	help-with-tutorial	Emacs tutorial
C-h a	apropos-command	Search for command
C-h m	describe-mode	Current mode help
C-h k	describe-key	Describe key binding
C-h .	display-local-help	Help at point

Project Management (project.el)

Key	Command	Description
C-c p f	project-find-file	Find file in project
C-c p p	project-switch-project	Switch project
C-c p g	project-find-regexp	Search in project
C-c p b	project-switch-to-buffer	Switch to project buffer
C-c p d	project-find-dir	Find directory in project

Flymake (Syntax Checking)

Key	Command	Description
M-g n	flymake-goto-next-error	Jump to next error
M-g p	flymake-goto-prev-error	Jump to previous error
C-h .	display-local-help	Show error at point
M-x	flymake-show-buffer-diagnostics	List all errors

Eglot (LSP)

Key	Command	Description
M-.	xref-find-definitions	Go to definition
M-?	xref-find-references	Find references
M-,	xref-go-back	Go back
C-h .	eldoc-doc-buffer	Show documentation
C-c r	eglot-rename	Rename symbol
C-c a	eglot-code-actions	Execute code action
C-c f	eglot-format	Format buffer/region

Other Tools

Key	Command	Description
C-c t	treemacs	Toggle file tree sidebar
M-x magit-status	magit-status	Git status
C-c C-'	claude-code-ide-menu	Claude Code menu

Treemacs (File Tree)

Inside the treemacs buffer:

Key	Command	Description
n/p	next/previous	Navigate files/folders
RET	treemacs-RET-action	Open file or toggle dir
TAB	treemacs-TAB-action	Expand/collapse directory
q	quit-window	Close treemacs
?	treemacs-helpful-hydra	Show all keybindings

Learning Resources

Books & Guides

• Mastering Emacs by Mickey Petersen - Comprehensive guide
• Emacs Lisp Guide by Chris Done

Community Resources

• http://emacslife.com/
• http://planet.emacslife.org/
• http://orgmode.org/

Configuration Examples

People whose configs I’ve learned from:

• https://github.com/flyingmachine/emacs.d
• https://github.com/bodil/emacs.d
• https://github.com/magnars/.emacs.d
• https://github.com/howardabrams/dot-files (uses Literate Programming in Org-mode)
• https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude
• https://github.com/bodil/ohai-emacs

Key Advice

The key is to keep C-h a (pattern-matching help) and C-h m close at hand. C-h everything!

Future Enhancements

Some things I’m considering adding:

• More language modes as needed
• Org-mode configuration for note-taking and planning
• Custom keybindings as I discover my workflow patterns
• Performance optimizations (compile, lazy loading tweaks)

Eventually, I’ll get the hang of it.