Paredit
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 10 of 24 Emacs packages by recommenders
An Emacs mode that edits Lisp code by structure, keeping parentheses balanced and letting you move through code as a tree.
An Emacs mode that edits Lisp code by structure, keeping parentheses balanced and letting you move through code as a tree.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Best editing experience for Lisp
“Lisp + Paredit in Emacs is the most pleasant code-wrangling experience I've ever had”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “After two years of vibecoding, I'm back to writing by hand” “Emacs with Paredit makes editing s-expressions flow”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “Things I don't like in configuration languages” “Paredit / Parinfer ruined other languages for me.”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “My thoughts after using Clojure for about a month” - Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Ki Editor - an editor that operates on the AST”
- Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Rhombus v1.0”
- Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Racket v9.1”
- Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “Why vibe code in Common Lisp?”
Fast navigation and manipulation of code
“nobody in any language in any ide will come even close to how quickly you can manipulate the codebase”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Bringing Clojure programming to Enterprise (2021)” “Navigating and manipulating code as a tree, directly in your editor. There is nothing like it.”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “My thoughts after using Clojure for about a month” “Structural editing turns the parentheses into a huge plus so navigating feels like flying.”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?” - Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?”
Manages parentheses automatically
“My editor balances my parentheses (Emacs Paredit). I rarely think about them. I just think structurally and the editor manages the details.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Rhombus v1.0” “Structural editing turns the parentheses into a huge plus so navigating feels like flying.”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?” “just hit ) and it moves me past any kind of paren/bracket”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “My thoughts after using Clojure for about a month”
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 |
| PareditThis page | 11 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
16 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“paredit all the way, baby”
“works in clojure (with Emacs/cider/paredit)”
“My editor balances my parentheses (Emacs Paredit). I rarely think about them. I just think structurally and the editor manages the details.”
“Structural editing turns the parentheses into a huge plus so navigating feels like flying.”
“Navigating and manipulating code as a tree, directly in your editor. There is nothing like it.”
“Paredit / Parinfer ruined other languages for me.”
“It’s pretty much a lifesaver for this kind of thing.”
“That’s making me really thankful to be a paredit user.”
“moving your cursor along the AST or moving expressions around with nice hotkeys”
“just hit ) and it moves me past any kind of paren/bracket”
“nobody in any language in any ide will come even close to how quickly you can manipulate the codebase”
“proper editor support such as Paredit in EMacs”
“I reeaally miss slurp! and other paredit commands”
“Paredit and SLIME are addictive.”
“Lisp + Paredit in Emacs is the most pleasant code-wrangling experience I've ever had”
“Emacs with Paredit makes editing s-expressions flow”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.