Ivy (Emacs package)
Shares rank 22 of 24 Emacs packages by recommenders
Quick filtering of files and buffers in Emacs, with a fully featured interface that works alongside other Emacs tools. Some find it weak for dependency management.
Quick filtering of files and buffers in Emacs, with a fully featured interface that works alongside other Emacs tools. Some find it weak for dependency management.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not 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: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.5 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
Quick filtering of files and buffers
“I love using ido/ivy for file navigation, quickly filtering through buffers”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Emacs and Vim in the Age of AI” Fully featured, UI-changing completion
“Ivy and Counsel are kind of game changers to the UI”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: Where to begin with "modern" Emacs?” “Helm and Ivy are fully featured”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Emacs Turns 50” Works with projectile and flycheck
“features that I've come to know and love (like projectile, flycheck, ivy”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Even More Batteries Included with Emacs”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor for dependency management
“I haven't had good luck using Ivy for dependency management.”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “Gradle Is Javamaxxing”
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 |
| Ivy (Emacs package)This page | 5 | 2 | 71% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Helm and Ivy are fully featured”
“features that I've come to know and love (like projectile, flycheck, ivy”
“I haven't had good luck using Ivy for dependency management.”
“I love using ido/ivy for file navigation, quickly filtering through buffers”
“If you use things like that depend on something like ivy/vertico/...”
“Ivy and Counsel are kind of game changers to the UI”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.