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emacs-helm
helm
Emacs Lisp2012–2025
emacs-helm / helm

helm

Emacs incremental completion and selection narrowing framework

Developer ToolsLanguages & Compilers
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
27Distinct people
30Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
3.5KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Emacs incremental completion and selection narrowing framework

GitHub

Where it is used

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

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

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

Also in these discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

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 year30 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2012-08-10 21:47:24 UTC to 2025-07-09 10:58:56 UTC.

02462012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments20122013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 5 mentions; 0 submissions, 5 comments2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments20182019-01-01 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): 7 mentions; 2 submissions, 5 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025

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
20122012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20132013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC505
20142014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
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 UTC303
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
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 UTC725
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

From the project README

An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.

Read the project’s introduction
Emacs-Helm Helm is an Emacs framework for incremental completions and narrowing selections. It provides an easy-to-use API for developers wishing to build their own Helm applications in Emacs, powerful search tools and dozens of already built-in commands providing completion to almost everything. It is a must-have for anyone using Emacs as a main work environment. Helm has been widely adopted by many Emacs power-users. It is available in Melpa and can be easily installed from the Emacs package manager. Homepage | Downloads | Get started | Helm wiki | FAQ Helm in action browsing images Maintainance of Helm is a lot of work please consider making a donation, thank you!
Read the full README on GitHub

What Hacker News says

30 sources
jiehong·Nov 28, 2021
Emacs always has an embryonic version of that with M-x, but with a simple autocomplete. That’s is, until Helm arrived in 2011: it made everything that is a list something to be dynamically filtered (commands, shortcuts, buffers, files, etc). IntelliJ has a command palette too (Ctrl-Shift-a), but it’s horribly slow and has many items with the same name doing different things (try looking for “settings” for example). But it does allow you to add a shortcut to a command you find on the fly, which is great. [0] https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm
In Command palettes: how typing commands became the norm again
mapolone·Mar 25, 2021
There are a few IMHO: magit [1] is a nice piece for Git. And there's vterm, if you wish to use a (usable) term or tmux/screen without leaving the editor, tramp mode [2] for remote files and last but not least ergoemacs [3] if you prefer the CUA style for generic commands (and reduce RSI). Oh, and forgot to mention helm [4] too... [1] https://magit.vc [2] https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TrampMode [3] https://ergoemacs.github.io/ [4] https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm
In Emacs 27.2
skulk·Nov 20, 2020
Every X window is a buffer, so you have all of emacs's powerful buffer switching programs (see: ido, helm [1], ivy [2]) for focusing windows. Also there are multiple interesting solutions to managing window splits [6], moving windows [3][4], saving their configuration [5], etc. [1]: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm [2]: https://github.com/abo-abo/swiper [3]: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/WindMove [4]: https://github.com/abo-abo/ace-window [5]: https://github.com/Bad-ptr/persp-mode.el [6]: winner-mode, one of my favorite things. https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/WinnerMode
In EXWM (Emacs X Window Manager)
Cyphase·Sep 12, 2020
Nineteen minutes before opening the linked issue announcing that the development had been stalled, he removed a chunk of text from the README: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm/commit/9a5258db9c7bb12698... Here's how it looked before that change: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm/blob/23f32ec37dadea5656fb... Here's a representation of the text for those who don't want to click through: > Maintaining Helm requires a [lot of work](https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm/commits?author=thierryvol...), Thanks to all the people that are helping or have helped Helm development, > but they are actually too few. > If you feel Helm is making your daily work easier, > please consider making a donation. > Thank you! — Thierry Volpiatto > [PayPal link image][Pateron link image] The Patreon link doesn't seem to be working (the page is mostly blank, which
Read the rest
seems like a bit of a bug on Patreon's end if nothing else). The PayPal link is still active. --- There was also this README change in May that removed some text: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm/commit/3be1389e3912d6580a... Which looked like this prior to the change: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm/blob/1fbb3a9f6da328519162... Compressed representation: > Maintaining Helm requires a lot of work, which I have done voluntarily since 2011. As it demands lots of my time it gets increasingly difficult maintaining it without financial help. Thanks to all the people that are helping or have helped Helm development, but they are actually too few to continue serenely. By the way, after the release of version 3.0 I will have to stop developing Helm seriously until I get enough financial support, only providing a minimal bugfix maintenance. Thanks for your understanding > If you feel Helm is making your daily work easier, please consider making a donation. Thank you! — Thierry Volpiatto Development was also apparently stalled for a time in 2018-2019: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm/issues/2083 From my brief skimming, it seems like this has been coming on for a while, which is a sad thought. --- One more thing that might be meaningless, but which I think indicates a level of ongoing care about the project (which is not surprising given his past work on it). The commit that most recently modified the README accidentally undid the latest change he'd made, from two days before. He added another commit a minute later to re-apply it. A small thing, but I figured I'd mention it.
In Emacs-Helm development is now stalled
drng·Dec 4, 2018
> The real gripe for me about emacs is that it is single threaded. So a long grep launched off will freeze the entire editor. Are you running grep with `shell-command` (M-!)? Using M-x grep, `async-shell-command` (M-&), and invoking grep directly in shell, eshell, term and ansi-term all leave emacs as responsive as normal for me. shell-command is the only one that seems to hang. I'll also add ivy[1] and helm[2] as alternatives to Ido which are very popular completion systems with integrations that span the package ecosystem. [1]: https://github.com/abo-abo/swiper [2]: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm
In Absolute Beginner's Guide to Emacs (2012)
klibertp·Mar 2, 2017
Interesting. I would give it a try if I weren't using Sunrise Commander (an Emacs plugin[1]). On a related note: it's good to see more and more apps include a command line, where you can invoke any function of the program. Menu + icons + hotkeys strategy may be a good UI for normal users, but the command line - especially with good completion, like with Helm[2] - is much more convenient if the program has more than just a couple functions. Emacs (M-x) and Vim (:) worked like that since the beginning, I wonder what happened, what caused even programmers' tools to shed their command lines for more than twenty years? [1] https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Sunrise_Commander Screenshot: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SunriseCommanderScreenshotOn... [2] Screenshot: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm/blob/master/images/helm-b...
In Show HN: fman – file manager for programmers

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