# Calva

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Calva and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend Calva as a quick way to start with Clojure, giving a REPL inside VSCode with little setup. The quotes raise no caveats.

## Why people recommend it

- Easy to install and start (5 comments): "it's as easy as installing Calva extention for VSCode - that's all one needs to mess around with Clojure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46062131)) "These days you can just download the Calva VSCode extension and start playing with it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48339988)) "It is as easy as installing Calva vscode extension for Clojure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47956462))
- Good for learning and tinkering (4 comments): "it's as easy as installing Calva extention for VSCode - that's all one needs to mess around with Clojure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46062131)) "These days you can just download the Calva VSCode extension and start playing with it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48339988)) "When teaching Clojure, I direct everybody to either VSCode + Calva" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47802700))
- REPL inside your editor (2 comments): "the most excellent Calva extension which give me REPL-everywhere in my editing experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46257950)) "Calva, a fantastic REPL with excellent linter Kondo" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47589748))
- Quickstart guide and Kondo linter (2 comments): "VSCode's Calva extension has great "Quickstart guide"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47532817)) "Calva, a fantastic REPL with excellent linter Kondo" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47589748))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [VS Code Remote SSH](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vs-code-remote-ssh.md): 22 recommend
- [Fresh File Explorer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fresh-file-explorer.md): 9 recommend
- [vscode-neovim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vscode-neovim-extension.md): 6 recommend
- [GitLens](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gitlens.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Calva", https://hackerapproved.com/p/calva/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).