TRAMP for Emacs
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 2 of 24 Emacs packages by recommenders
Built into Emacs, it edits remote files over SSH and containers without installing anything remotely. Common caveat: it is slow on high-latency connections.
Built into Emacs, it edits remote files over SSH and containers without installing anything remotely. Common caveat: it is slow on high-latency connections.
35 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 25
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 25 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 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
No install needed on remote machine
“It does not install emacs on the target, but instead use a somewhat permanent connection as a tunnel for most emacs commands”
Comment from 3 May 2026 in “VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage” “it doesn't require the installation of anything onto the computer you're connecting to”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “IDEmacs: A Visual Studio Code clone for Emacs” “does it without installing anything on remote machine, just SSH, and shell commands”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “VSCode's SSH Agent Is Bananas (2025)” - Comment from 30 Aug 2026 in “Emacs vs. Vim 2026: 24.3% vs. 8% Usage, 20x Memory Gap”
Edits remote files from local Emacs
“It allows you to use emacs just to author text and to use the remote for everything else.”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good” “TRAMP is built-in and can open remote files in a local instance over SSH”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “The vi family” “Run Emacs on your local machine and use Tramp to edit the remote files”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “IDEmacs: A Visual Studio Code clone for Emacs” - Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Two Years of Emacs Solo: 35 Modules, Zero External Packages, and a Full Refactor”
Works well and integrates into Emacs
“interacting with the containers is of course just using TRAMP to "connect" to them, and that of course works just fine.”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Aurora: The Linux-based ultimate workstation” “it works nicely and is surprisingly well integrated into the rest of Emacs”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good” “Note that tramp will kvetch if you do this, but it still works fine.”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Two Years of Emacs Solo: 35 Modules, Zero External Packages, and a Full Refactor” Multi-hop SSH and container editing
“The fact it can do multi-hop edits is far too much power for us mere mortals.”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Two Years of Emacs Solo: 35 Modules, Zero External Packages, and a Full Refactor” “You can edit files over ssh hops or docker hops using tramp.”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “Txt: A fast, keyboard-driven terminal text editor for engineers”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow and laggy on high latency
“the main downside is if your connection is laggy Emacs will lock up momentarily”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “IDEmacs: A Visual Studio Code clone for Emacs” “The drawback of the emacs approach in my case is the tramp latency.”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving” “I know people say it's slow (it is) and synchronous (yes, it is)”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Editing Code in Emacs” - Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Rebasing in Magit”
- Comment from 13 May 2026 in “The vi family”
- Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “VSCode's SSH Agent Is Bananas (2025)”
- Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Writing Lisp Is AI Resistant and I'm Sad”
- Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “How I am deeply integrating Emacs”
Poor with large projects
“Using TRAMP with large projects is not a pleasant experience.”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “IDEmacs: A Visual Studio Code clone for Emacs” “this is experience with monorepo + tramp”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Rebasing in Magit” Hangs or crashes Emacs
“the main downside is if your connection is laggy Emacs will lock up momentarily”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “IDEmacs: A Visual Studio Code clone for Emacs” “the ssh connection underlying Tramp can get downright creative in the ways it crashes or hangs emacs”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “VSCode's SSH Agent Is Bananas (2025)” Less functional than alternatives
“I've used TRAMP to open single files over SSH, but it seems less functional than mounting with FUSE.”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good” “TRAMP is way behind feature-wise.”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “IDEmacs: A Visual Studio Code clone for 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 |
| TRAMP for EmacsThis page | 25 | 10 | 71% | 8 | — | Approved |
| agent-shell | 25 | 6 | 81% | 11 | — | Approved |
| gptel | 20 | 1 | 95% | 12 | — | Approved |
| SLIME | 19 | 2 | 90% | 11 | — | Approved |
What people said
32 of the 38 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“What is way better than the vim's solution.”
“the ssh connection underlying Tramp can get downright creative in the ways it crashes or hangs emacs”
“TRAMP actions are also rather slow (high latency)”
“does it without installing anything on remote machine, just SSH, and shell commands”
“You can edit files over ssh hops or docker hops using tramp.”
“just use tramp and if you have ssh access to the files, so does emacs”
“It just needs ssh access and doesn't require emacs to be installed remotely.”
“The drawback of the emacs approach in my case is the tramp latency.”
“connection / file path completion in TRAMP is annoyingly slow if the server is far enough”
“I'm sure I don't inadvertently edit the local version of the file instead of the remote one”
“TRAMP is built-in and can open remote files in a local instance over SSH”
“It does not install emacs on the target, but instead use a somewhat permanent connection as a tunnel for most emacs commands”
“Emacs TRAMP was super slow to work with”
“try tramp mode to edit files in containers and VMs”
“this is experience with monorepo + tramp”
“if you need to go via more than 1 hop, it can get slow though”
“Tramp runs in your local Emacs and edits files remotely.”
“The fact it can do multi-hop edits is far too much power for us mere mortals.”
“Note that tramp will kvetch if you do this, but it still works fine.”
“interacting with the containers is of course just using TRAMP to "connect" to them, and that of course works just fine.”
“I've used TRAMP to open single files over SSH, but it seems less functional than mounting with FUSE.”
“it works nicely and is surprisingly well integrated into the rest of Emacs”
“It allows you to use emacs just to author text and to use the remote for everything else.”
“I know people say it's slow (it is) and synchronous (yes, it is)”
“Run Emacs on your local machine and use Tramp to edit the remote files”
“Using TRAMP with large projects is not a pleasant experience.”
“TRAMP is way behind feature-wise.”
“it doesn't require the installation of anything onto the computer you're connecting to”
“the main downside is if your connection is laggy Emacs will lock up momentarily”
“the latency is unbearable”
“Tramp on Emacs is not ideal.”
“my experience with TRAMP has been pretty awful”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.