Emacs Unified

Comprehensive Emacs emulation for Visual Studio Code

A single extension that consolidates the best Emacs emulation for VS Code into one package — no need to install multiple extensions that overlap, conflict, or accumulate supply-chain risk.

Features

• Emacs-like cursor movements and editing commands
• Customizable meta key assignment (alt, ESC, ctrl+[, or command on macOS)
• Shift-selection with movement commands
• Search behavior like Emacs' isearch
• Multi-cursor support throughout
• Kill-ring integrated with the system clipboard
• Mark-ring
• Prefix argument (C-u)
• Rectangle commands and registers
• Sexp operations with ParEdit commands
• Dired file browser — browse and manage files without leaving VS Code
• Smart tab indentation — reindent for brace languages, indent cycling for Python/YAML
• Available both in Desktop and Web

Attribution

This extension is built on the work of several authors:

• vscode-emacs-mcx by Yuichiro Tsuchiya (whitphx) — the foundation providing 63+ commands, 1200+ keybindings, and the core architecture
• vscode-dired by WAKAYAMA Shirou — the dired file browser
• vscode-emacs-friendly by Sebastian Zaha — keybinding design inspiration
• Emacs Keymap by hiro-sun — the original VS Code Emacs extension

See LICENSE for full license details.

FAQ/Tips

The cursor cannot be moved on the find widget as the widget closes with movement keys.

It's an intended design that simulates the original Emacs' behavior. You can disable it with emacs-mcx.cursorMoveOnFindWidget option described below.

i-search (C-s) is initialized with the currently selected string and the previous search is removed.

Setting editor.find.seedSearchStringFromSelection as "never" can change this behavior. It makes the find widget work similarly to Emacs.

I want to customize the META key (ESC, ctrl+[, alt, or Command key on macOS).

You can configure the key to be used as a META prefix with the following settings.

• emacs-mcx.useMetaPrefixAlt (true by default)
• emacs-mcx.useMetaPrefixEscape
• emacs-mcx.useMetaPrefixCtrlLeftBracket
• emacs-mcx.useMetaPrefixMacCmd

Read the extension settings section below for more details.

I want to use keyboard macro

Check out Keyboard Macro Beta by tshino.

Extension Settings

This extension has custom settings with the prefix emacs-mcx. (See this page to know how to change settings.)

emacs-mcx.moveBeginningOfLineBehavior

Determines the behavior of the move-beginning-of-line command. If set as 'vscode', it works as VS Code's native Home key behavior. If set as 'emacs', it works as the original Emacs' move-beginning-of-line.

emacs-mcx.moveEndOfLineBehavior

Determines the behavior of the move-end-of-line command. If set as 'vscode', it works as VS Code's native End key behavior. If set as 'emacs', it works as the original Emacs' move-end-of-line.

emacs-mcx.scrollUpCommandBehavior

Determines the behavior of the scroll-up-command command. If set as 'vscode', it works as VS Code's native Page Down key behavior. If set as 'emacs', it works as the original Emacs' scroll-up-command.

emacs-mcx.scrollDownCommandBehavior

Determines the behavior of the scroll-down-command command. If set as 'vscode', it works as VS Code's native Page Up key behavior. If set as 'emacs', it works as the original Emacs' scroll-down-command.

emacs-mcx.wordNavigationStyle

Determines the behavior of word navigation and word killing commands such as forward-word, backward-word, kill-word, and backward-kill-word. If set as 'vscode' (default), they work as VS Code's native word navigation. If set as 'emacs', they follow Emacs-like word boundary detection.

emacs-mcx.keepCursorInVisibleRange

If set as true, the cursor is kept in the visible range when scrolling up or down like Emacs.

emacs-mcx.emacsLikeTab

If set as true, tab key works as the Emacs' tab-to-tab-stop command.

For brace-delimited languages (C, JS, TS, etc.), tab delegates to VS Code's built-in reindent. For offside-rule languages (Python, YAML, CoffeeScript, Haskell, Nim), tab cycles through valid indent levels — including one level deeper when the previous line opens a block.

emacs-mcx.tab.offsideRuleLanguages

An array of language IDs that use indent-based scoping. Default: ["python", "yaml", "coffeescript", "haskell", "nim"]. Only applies when emacs-mcx.emacsLikeTab is enabled.

emacs-mcx.useMetaPrefixEscape

If set as true, Escape key works as the Meta prefix like original Emacs. If set as false, Escape key works as cancel, the VS Code's native behavior. For example, if set as true, M-f (forward-word) can be issued by both alt+f and escape f.

The only exception is the commands which begin with M-g (M-g g, M-g n, M-g p). It is because VS Code can handle only up to two key strokes as the key bindings. So, as the special case, Escape g works as follows.

Command	Desc
Escape g	Jump to line (command palette)

emacs-mcx.useMetaPrefixCtrlLeftBracket

If set as true, ctrl+[ works as the Meta prefix like original Emacs.

emacs-mcx.useMetaPrefixAlt

If set as true, alt key (option key on macOS) works as the Meta prefix.

emacs-mcx.useMetaPrefixMacCmd

If set as true, Command key works as the Meta prefix on macOS. This option only works on macOS.

emacs-mcx.killRingMax

Configures the maximum number of kill ring entries. The default is 60.

emacs-mcx.killWholeLine

This simulates the original Emacs' kill-whole-line variable. The default is false.

emacs-mcx.cursorMoveOnFindWidget

If set to true, cursor move commands of this extension such as C-f and C-b are disabled when the find widget is focused, to allow the widget to keep open and the cursor to move on it.

emacs-mcx.enableOverridingTypeCommand

Prefix arguments do not work on character inputs with IMEs by default and you can set this config to true in order to enable it. Note that this config makes use of VS Code API's type command under the hood and can cause problems in some cases.

• If you are using IME, text input may sometimes fail.
• If another extension that also uses the type command is installed, an error occurs (See https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/13441).

emacs-mcx.enableDigitArgument

Indicates whether M-<digit> (the emacs-mcx.digitArgument command) is enabled. Set false when M-<digit> conflicts with some other necessary commands.

emacs-mcx.shiftSelectMode

Toggle Shift Selection (Emacs shift-select-mode). When true, holding Shift while running movement commands starts mark mode to extend the selection; the default is false to avoid ctrl+shift+p conflicts with the Command Palette on Windows/Linux.

emacs-mcx.lineMoveVisual

When true, line-move moves point by visual lines (same as Emacs variable line-move-visual).

emacs-mcx.paredit.parentheses

Key-value pairs of parentheses to be used in the ParEdit commands like the following example.

{
  "[": "]",
  "(": ")",
  "{": "}"
}

The parentheses pairs are inherited from a default configuration and merged in order: Default > User-defined global config > User-defined per-language. Each finer-grained config can override individual pair definitions from its parent. You can also override the default pairs or disable them by setting null as the value. For example:

"emacs-mcx.paredit.parentheses": {
  "<": ">",  // New pair
  "{": null,  // Override to disable
}

emacs-mcx.subwordMode

When true, word-oriented move and edit commands, including M-f, M-b, M-d will recognize subwords (same as the Emacs variable subword-mode). It can also be set as per-language flag, for example:

"[go]": {
  "emacs-mcx.subwordMode": true
}

emacs-mcx.debug.*

Configurations for debugging.

Dired Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
dired.fixed_window	boolean	false	Reuse the same editor tab for dired navigation
dired.ask_directory	boolean	true	Prompt for directory when opening dired

'when' Clause Context

This extension provides some contexts that you can refer to in "when" clauses of your keybindings.json.

emacs-mcx.inMarkMode

boolean — Indicates whether mark-mode is enabled.

emacs-mcx.acceptingArgument

boolean — Indicates the editor is accepting argument input following C-u.

emacs-mcx.prefixArgumentExists (experimental)

boolean — Indicates if a prefix argument exists.

emacs-mcx.prefixArgument (experimental)

number | undefined — The currently input prefix argument.

dired.open

boolean — Indicates whether a dired buffer is active. Use this to scope keybindings to dired buffers.

Keybindings

Alt key is mapped to the Meta prefix (M) by default and you can configure for Escape, ctrl+[, or Command key (macOS only) to work as it with the settings above.

Move Commands

Command	Prefix argument	Desc
C-f	✓	Move forward (forward-char)
C-b	✓	Move backward (backward-char)
C-n	✓	Move to the next line (next-line)
C-p	✓	Move to the previous line (previous-line)
C-a	✓	Move to the beginning of line (move-beginning-of-line)
C-e	✓	Move to the end of line (move-end-of-line)
M-f	✓	Move forward by one word unit (forward-word)
M-b	✓	Move backward by one word unit (backward-word)
C-<right>, M-<right>	✓	This command (right-word) behaves like M-f
C-<left>, M-<left>	✓	This command (left-word) behaves like M-b
M-m		Move (forward or back) to the first non-whitespace character on the current line (back-to-indentation)
C-v	✓	Scroll down by one screen unit (scroll-up-command)
M-v	✓	Scroll up by one screen unit (scroll-down-command)
M-S-[ (M-{ with US keyboard), C-<up>	✓	Move back to previous paragraph beginning (backward-paragraph)
M-S-] (M-} with US keyboard), C-<down>	✓	Move forward to next paragraph end (forward-paragraph)
M-S-, (M-< with US keyboard)		Move to the top of the buffer (beginning-of-buffer)
M-S-. (M-> with US keyboard)		Move to the end of the buffer (end-of-buffer)
M-g g (M-g M-g)	✓	Read a number n and move point to the beginning of line number n (goto-line)
M-g n (M-g M-n, C-x `)		Jump to next error
M-g p (M-g M-p)		Jump to previous error
C-l		Center screen on current line (recenter-top-bottom)

Search Commands

Command	Desc
C-s	Incremental search forward (isearch-forward).
C-r	Incremental search backward (isearch-backward).
C-M-s	Begin incremental regexp search (isearch-forward-regexp).
C-M-r	Begin reverse incremental regexp search (isearch-backward-regexp).
M-S-5 (M-% with US keyboard)	Replace (query-replace)
C-M-S-5 (C-M-% with US keyboard)	Replace with regexp (query-replace-regexp)
C-M-n	Add selection to next find match
C-M-p	Add selection to previous find match
M-s o	Open Quick Search, which is like Emacs' occur command.
M-c	Toggles the case sensitivity of the find widget.

Edit Commands

Command	Prefix argument	Desc
C-d	✓	Delete right (DEL)
C-h	✓	Delete left (BACKSPACE)
M-\	✓	Delete spaces and tabs around point (delete-horizontal-space)
C-x C-o		Delete blank lines around (delete-blank-lines)
C-t	✓	Transpose characters (transpose-chars)
C-x C-t	✓	Transpose lines (transpose-lines)
M-S-6 (M-^ with US keyboard)		Join two lines cleanly (delete-indentation)
M-d	✓	Kill the next word (kill-word)
M-Bksp	✓	Kill one word backwards (backward-kill-word)
M-z	✓	Kill up to and including the given character (zap-to-char)
C-k	✓	Kill rest of line or one or more lines (kill-line)
C-S-Bksp		Kill an entire line at once (kill-whole-line)
C-w		Kill the region (kill-region)
M-w		Copy the region into the kill ring (kill-ring-save)
C-y	✓	Yank the last kill into the buffer (yank)
M-y	✓	Replace just-yanked text with earlier kill (yank-pop)
C-c y		Browse kill ring
C-o		Open line
C-j	✓	New line
C-m	✓	New line
C-x h		Select All
C-x u, C-/, C-S-- (C-_ with US keyboard)		Undo
C-;		Toggle line comment
M-;		Toggle region comment
C-M-\		Format selection (indent-region), or format document if no selection
C-x C-l (M-l)		Convert to lower case
C-x C-u (M-u)		Convert to upper case
M-c		Convert to title case

Mark Commands

Command	Desc
C-SPC, C-S-2 (C-@ with US keyboard)	Set the mark at point, and activate it (set-mark-command).
C-SPC C-SPC	Set the mark, pushing it onto the mark ring, without activating it.
C-u C-SPC	Move point to where the mark was, and restore the mark from the ring of former marks.
C-x C-x	Set the mark at point, and activate it; then move point where the mark used to be (exchange-point-and-mark).

See this page and this page about the mark and the mark ring.

Intellisense

Command	Desc
C-M-i, M-TAB, M-/, C-'	Trigger suggest. These keybindings call editor.action.triggerSuggest, alternating Emacs' completion-at-point or dabbrev-expand

Text Registers

Command	Desc
C-x r s r	Copy region into register r (copy-to-register).
C-x r i r	Insert text from register r (insert-register).

See this page about the text registers.

Position Registers

Command	Desc
C-x r SPC r	Record the position of point and the current buffer in register r (point-to-register).
C-x r j r	Jump to the position and buffer saved in register r (jump-to-register).

Rectangles

Command	Desc
C-x r k	Kill the text of the region-rectangle, saving its contents as the last killed rectangle (kill-rectangle).
C-x r M-w	Save the text of the region-rectangle as the last killed rectangle (copy-rectangle-as-kill).
C-x r d	Delete the text of the region-rectangle (delete-rectangle).
C-x r y	Yank the last killed rectangle with its upper left corner at point (yank-rectangle).
C-x r p	Replace last kill ring to each line of rectangle if the kill ring top only contains one line.
C-x r o	Insert blank space to fill the space of the region-rectangle (open-rectangle).
C-x r c	Clear the region-rectangle by replacing all of its contents with spaces (clear-rectangle).
C-x r t	Replace rectangle contents with string on each line (string-rectangle).
C-x SPC	Toggle Rectangle Mark mode (rectangle-mark-mode).

Rectangle Registers

Command	Desc
C-x r r r	Copy the region-rectangle into register r (copy-rectangle-to-register). With prefix argument, delete it as well.
C-x r i r	Insert the rectangle stored in register r (if it contains a rectangle) (insert-register).

File Commands

Command	Desc
C-x C-f	QuickOpen a file (find-file). Uses VS Code's quick file navigation as the closest analog to Emacs' minibuffer find.
C-x C-s	Save (save-buffer)
C-x C-w	Save as (write-file)
C-x s	Save all files (save-some-buffers)
C-x C-n	Open new window

Tab / Buffer Commands

Command	Desc
C-x b	Switch to another open buffer (switch-to-buffer)
C-x C-b	List all open buffers by most recently used (list-buffers)
C-x k	Close current tab / buffer (kill-buffer)
C-x 0	Close the current editor group (delete-window)
C-x 1	Close editors in other groups (delete-other-windows)
C-x 2	Split editor below (split-window-below)
C-x 3	Split editor right (split-window-right)
C-x 4	Toggle split layout (vertical to horizontal)
C-x o	Focus another editor group (other-window)
C-x LEFT	Select the previous tab (previous-buffer)
C-x RIGHT	Select the next tab (next-buffer)

Dired (File Browser)

Open dired with C-x C-d (or run the command extension.dired.open). Dired shows a directory listing similar to Emacs dired mode.

Command	Desc
RET	Open file or enter directory
^	Go up to parent directory
.	Toggle display of dot files
g	Refresh the directory listing
m	Mark/select the file at point
u	Unmark the file at point
+	Create a new directory
C-x f	Create a new file
R	Rename the file at point
C	Copy the file at point
D	Delete the file at point
q	Close the dired buffer

Prefix Argument

See https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Arguments.html for detail.

Command	Desc
C-u	universal-argument
M-<number>	digit-argument
M--	negative-argument

Sexp

Command	Prefix argument	Desc
C-M-f	✓	Move forward over a balanced expression (forward-sexp)
C-M-b	✓	Move backward over a balanced expression (backward-sexp)
C-M-S-2 (C-M-@ with US keyboard)	✓	Set mark after end of following balanced expression (mark-sexp). This does not move point.
C-M-k	✓	Kill balanced expression forward (kill-sexp)
C-M-Bksp	✓	Kill balanced expression backward (backward-kill-sexp)
C-S-k	✓	Kill a line as if with kill-line, but respecting delimiters (paredit-kill)

Sexp operations are powered by paredit-ts.

Looking Up Identifiers

Command	Desc
M-.	Find definitions (xref-find-definitions). Bound to VS Code's "Go to Definition".
M-,	Go back (xref-go-back). Bound to VS Code's "Go Back".
C-M-,	Go forward (xref-go-forward). Bound to VS Code's "Go Forward".
M-S-/ (M-? with US keyboard)	Find references (xref-find-references). Bound to VS Code's "Find All References".

Other Commands

Command	Desc
C-g (ESC)	Quit
ESC ESC ESC	Quit (keyboard-escape-quit)
M-x	Open command palette
C-M-SPC	Toggle SideBar visibility
C-x z	Toggle Zen Mode
C-x C-c	Close window

Other Commands/APIs

emacs-mcx.executeCommandWithPrefixArgument

This command calls another command with the prefix argument. This is mainly for extension developers who want to make extensions collaborative with this extension's prefix argument.

For example, if you define the keybinding below,

• C-x e will call the command foo with the argument {}.
• C-u C-x e will call the command foo with the argument { prefixArgument: 4 }.

{
  "key": "ctrl+x e",
  "command": "emacs-mcx.executeCommandWithPrefixArgument",
  "args": {
    "command": "foo"
  }
}

You can pass arguments to the target command:

{
  "key": "ctrl+x e",
  "command": "emacs-mcx.executeCommandWithPrefixArgument",
  "args": {
    "command": "foo",
    "args": {
      "baz": 42
    }
  }
}

You can change the key name of the prefix argument:

{
  "key": "ctrl+x e",
  "command": "emacs-mcx.executeCommandWithPrefixArgument",
  "args": {
    "command": "foo",
    "prefixArgumentKey": "repeat"
  }
}

Overriding the Prefix Argument

When you define a keybinding for emacs-mcx.* commands, you can override the prefix argument by specifying prefixArgument in the keybinding's arguments.

{
  "key": "alt+shift+y",
  "command": "emacs-mcx.yankPop",
  "args": {
    "prefixArgument": -1
  }
}

Conflicts with Default Key Bindings

• ctrl+d: editor.action.addSelectionToNextFindMatch — Use ctrl+alt+n instead
• ctrl+g: workbench.action.gotoLine — Use alt+g g instead
• ctrl+b: workbench.action.toggleSidebarVisibility — Use ctrl+alt+space instead
• ctrl+j: workbench.action.togglePanel — Use ctrl+x j instead
• ctrl+space: toggleSuggestionDetails — Use ctrl+' instead
• ctrl+x: editor.action.clipboardCutAction — Use ctrl+w instead
• ctrl+v: editor.action.clipboardPasteAction — Use ctrl+y instead
• ctrl+k: various editor actions
• ctrl+k z: workbench.action.toggleZenMode — Use ctrl+x z instead
• ctrl+y: redo
• ctrl+m: editor.action.toggleTabFocusMode
• ctrl+/: editor.action.commentLine — Use ctrl+; instead
• ctrl+p & ctrl+e: workbench.action.quickOpen — Use ctrl+x ctrl+f instead
• ctrl+o: workbench.action.files.openFileFolder

Contributions/Development

Your contributions are very welcome!

Please see CONTRIBUTING.md about development of this extension.