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abo-abo
avy
Emacs Lisp2015–2026
abo-abo / avy

avy

Jump to things in Emacs tree-style

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Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
17Distinct people
18Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
2KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Jump to things in Emacs tree-style

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

My favorite way to move around in Emacs, and to move text around, is via avy-mode: https://github.com/abo-abo/avy. If you have not experienced avy-mode, give it a try, I think…

dustfinger used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year18 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2015-08-18 17:55:26 UTC to 2026-07-15 13:27:57 UTC.

02462015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments20152016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments20202021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 7 mentions; 0 submissions, 7 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments. Incomplete calendar period.2026*

* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC707
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
2026 (partial)2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

18 sources
neeasade·Oct 9, 2022
> I can't see how this is functionally significantly different than EasyMotion[1] or Sneak[2]. from the readme: > it maps possible futures, and shows you which key(s) you will need to press before you actually need to do that. In the preview gif it's showing the matched hintkeys LIVE as you search. I think this is actually a huge different in UX. I'm using the emacs equivalent in avy, avy-goto-char-timer[1], and that small pause between searching and acting (typing the hints) makes the experience jarring enough that I don't want end up using goto-char-timer in motions that much (only for jumping across windows and panes) With no delay between <leap key> and <hint key>, the UX of d<leap key><hint key> is much smoother [1] https://github.com/abo-abo/avy#avy-goto-char-timer
In Leap: Neovim’s Answer to the Mouse
wging·Oct 8, 2022
By "substructure jump" do you mean jumping to a character inside a word? Avy can do that! Compare avy-goto-char and avy-goto-word-1 (or avy-goto-word-0). I have a prefix arg setup working with avy that I stole from ace-jump-mode to jump to either words (avy-goto-word-1), subwords (avy-goto-subword-1, jump to the 'K' in ThisKindOfText, but not the 'x'), or arbitrary characters (avy-goto-char). If you don't already have muscle memory for ace-jump-mode, which is IIRC why I did it that way, you can just bind the different things to separate combinations, like the avy readme suggests: https://github.com/abo-abo/avy/blob/master/README.md
In Leap: Neovim’s Answer to the Mouse
mjrusso·Jan 12, 2022
Hi HN! I started building Scoot as an experiment, to see if it was possible to meaningfully reduce my reliance on a physical mouse and trackpad during day-to-day usage of my Mac. Quick backstory: I was experiencing pain in my ulnar nerve, which was definitely exacerbated by using a mouse. I was making a lot of changes to get that under control, but was curious if there was also a software-based solution that I could throw into the mix. As it happens, I had recently started using the excellent avy [0] Emacs package, and wondered if some of the ideas in avy could be brought to the operating system level. (Quick sidenote: some physical keyboards, e.g. those running the QMK firmware, support mouse emulation, which allows you to move your mouse by pressing keys. I like this feature, but it's not as efficient as what I had in mind.) I threw tog
Read the rest
ether a prototype, to see what was possible. The initial version subdivided the screen into a grid of equally-sized cells, and assigned each cell a unique character sequence. Type the character sequence, and your mouse cursor moves right to that location. (You can also move the mouse cursor up, down, left, and right, using similar keyboard shortcuts for text editing. The app also lets you click and drag with your keyboard.) Over the holiday break, I added a new navigation mode that leverages the Mac OS accessibility APIs (like a screenreader) to find relevant UI elements on the screen (buttons, hyperlinks, etc.). Each element is assigned a unique character sequence, just like the grid-based navigation mode. Now, with element-based navigation, Scoot feels much more useful, and I thought it would be worth sharing more broadly in case anyone else finds it useful. (Note that Scoot is Mac only, relying heavily on Apple-provided frameworks.) Usage details (and a more detailed description) are available in the README. [1] Feedback is much appreciated! (And the app is open source, with a lot of missing features and bugs to squash. All contributions are welcome.) [0]: https://github.com/abo-abo/avy [1]: https://github.com/mjrusso/scoot
In Show HN: Scoot – efficiently move your mouse cursor using keyboard shortcuts
quicknir·Mar 13, 2017
I use vim style bindings but agree that vimmers tend to exaggerate about the benefits. I think it works fine and so does a mouse and it's a small impact in the grand scheme. However, with regards to your example, things like easy motion/avy solve this exact problem, I think no slower than a mouse. You basically punch in one, two, or more characters at the place you want to jump (depending which package/command you call), and then every match on the screen is highlighted and replaced with a different letter. Then you press that letter and jump there. Not arguing that's it's much better, just that's approximately the same. Check it out: https://github.com/abo-abo/avy.
In Show HN: Nomouse
molloy·Mar 12, 2017
> but what about "I want to move the cursor to the open brace character right there"? Check out avy-goto-char! In my setup, `<SPC> j j {` and then one or two homerow keys would move the cursor there. And the rest of the avy functions are useful as well: https://github.com/abo-abo/avy/blob/master/README.md There are other options too that can be situationally more efficient, but avy-goto-char is faster than reaching for your mouse (at least anecdotally) and you don't have to think about.
In Show HN: Nomouse

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