Avy for Emacs
Hacker ApprovedRanked 12 of 24 Emacs packages by recommenders
Emacs package that jumps the cursor to visible text by typing a few characters, which people find fast and efficient. Its main limit is that it only moves the cursor to text on screen.
Emacs package that jumps the cursor to visible text by typing a few characters, which people find fast and efficient. Its main limit is that it only moves the cursor to text on screen.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 91%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 10 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast jumping with few keystrokes
“instantly turns that into one or two keystrokes to filter down”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Editing Code in Emacs” “you can even get a faster flow of jumping around”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “Shell Tricks That Make Life Easier (and Save Your Sanity)” “It is extremely easy to use and very efficient.”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “Editing Code in Emacs” Becomes muscle memory via keybindings
“my normal-mod binding for avy-goto-char and my other evil-leader stuff is muscle memory now”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good” “press the chord to jump with avy”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “10 years building vertical software: are we cooked?” Good for moving and selecting text
“My favorite way to move around in Emacs, and to move text around, is via avy-mode”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “Editing Code in Emacs” “Avy can be used to select a word, line, or region.”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “Editing Code in Emacs”
Other Emacs packages people recommend
The four most recommended other Emacs packages, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evil mode for Emacs | 39 | 7 | 85% | 11 | — | Approved |
| agent-shell | 25 | 6 | 81% | 11 | — | Approved |
| TRAMP for Emacs | 25 | 10 | 71% | 8 | — | Approved |
| gptel | 20 | 1 | 95% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Avy for EmacsThis page | 10 | 1 | 91% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
12 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it seems to be the package I've been looking for.”
“you can even get a faster flow of jumping around”
“press the chord to jump with avy”
“my normal-mod binding for avy-goto-char and my other evil-leader stuff is muscle memory now”
“But the you'd need to take the hands off keyboard, also it might be slightly more precise as a typo is less likely than a less-than-perfect mouse movement”
“instantly turns that into one or two keystrokes to filter down”
“it makes it appear the first step to doing something in avy is to position all my files”
“It's power comes from combining it with other tools.”
“Avy can be used to select a word, line, or region.”
“It is extremely easy to use and very efficient.”
“its purpose is only to move the cursor to a place visible on the screen”
“My favorite way to move around in Emacs, and to move text around, is via avy-mode”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.