{"slug": "avy", "name": "avy", "category": "editors", "category_name": "Editors and IDEs", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 6, "warners": 1, "score": 2.821, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2025-11-23", "latest": "2026-08-21", "why": "My favorite way to move around in Emacs, and to move text around, is via avy-mode", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "My favorite way to move around in Emacs, and to move text around, is via avy-mode", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": "karthinks.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://github.com/abo-abo/avy", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["avy", "Avy"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 779118305, "item_id": 48694894, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48694894", "by": "christianbryant", "date": "2026-06-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it seems to be the package I've been looking for", "excerpt": "Bedrock is the only Emacs \"customization\" project I've actually tried out since my GNU Emacs journey started in the Nineties. I am very simple in my setup and it was only in 2018 I started trying packages that I never used before to create some modes to manage tasks at work that dealt with commercial testing tools. It forced me to evaluate my init.el in ways I never imagined (which was, to be fair, getting unmanageab", "context": "GNU Emacs user since the Nineties", "use_case": "Emacs navigation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs, how it all started (for me)"}, {"id": 736447744, "item_id": 46027984, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46027984", "by": "lvass", "date": "2025-11-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Avy can be used to select a word, line, or region.", "excerpt": "Definitely not it's purpose. Avy can be used to select a word, line, or region. One action is move to it. But it can also, in it's own words, copy, yank, zap to, transpose, teleport, kill, mark, ispell, org-refile, and custom actions. https://karthinks.com/software/avy-can-do-anything/", "context": "", "use_case": "Jump-to-text navigation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Editing Code in Emacs"}, {"id": 736430896, "item_id": 46026931, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46026931", "by": "globular-toast", "date": "2025-11-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "`avy-goto-char-timer` is amazing", "excerpt": "I don't think this was the first package to use the tree idea, but `avy-goto-char-timer` is amazing and is new since the first time I tried it. After activating goto with a key press you type as many characters as you like to get where you want. Often you can get straight there if it's something unique, but if not then it goes to the tree. It's amazing how quick you get at typing \"def\" or something to get to a Python", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Editing Code in Emacs"}, {"id": 736422720, "item_id": 46026420, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46026420", "by": "dustfinger", "date": "2025-11-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My favorite way to move around in Emacs, and to move text around, is via avy-mode", "excerpt": "My favorite way to move around in Emacs, and to move text around, is via avy-mode: https://github.com/abo-abo/avy. If you have not experienced avy-mode, give it a try, I think you will wonder how you ever got along without it.", "context": "", "use_case": "navigating and moving text in Emacs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Editing Code in Emacs"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 736445264, "item_id": 46027829, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46027829", "by": "Buttons840", "date": "2025-11-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I was excited for avy until I realized its purpose is only to move the cursor to a place visible on the screen.", "excerpt": "I was excited for avy until I realized its purpose is only to move the cursor to a place visible on the screen. It does nothing a mouse can't do with one click. (This is my understanding at least; I'm open to correction.) I'm a lover of Vim bindings, and so I appreciate keyboard controls, but where Vim enables working with files and text in a general and powerful way, avy enables avoiding one click with the mouse. I ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Editing Code in Emacs"}]}], "who": [{"by": "christianbryant", "context": "GNU Emacs user since the Nineties", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48694894", "date": "2026-06-26"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["emacs jump navigation", "emacs navigation", "jump-to-text navigation", "navigating and moving text in emacs"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46024032", "title": "Editing Code in Emacs", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49385296", "title": "Emacs 31.1 will release on 8/24", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48542784", "title": "Emacs, how it all started (for me)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 3, "warn": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 790280785, "item_id": 49392549, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49392549", "by": "dakra", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "avy needs some extra config", "excerpt": "> you can quickly enter a copy-paste mode with C-c C-t. With ace-jump this makes for very efficient copying. You probably know this already, Ghostel tries to make interaction with the Emacs buffer as seamless as possible (obviously all configurable). Of course there's line-mode where everything is just a normal buffer, like a better M-x shell replacement. And in semi-char-mode there's a lot of config options that aut", "context": "", "use_case": "Emacs jump navigation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs 31.1 will release on 8/24"}, {"id": 779118305, "item_id": 48694894, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48694894", "by": "christianbryant", "date": "2026-06-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it seems to be the package I've been looking for", "excerpt": "Bedrock is the only Emacs \"customization\" project I've actually tried out since my GNU Emacs journey started in the Nineties. I am very simple in my setup and it was only in 2018 I started trying packages that I never used before to create some modes to manage tasks at work that dealt with commercial testing tools. It forced me to evaluate my init.el in ways I never imagined (which was, to be fair, getting unmanageab", "context": "GNU Emacs user since the Nineties", "use_case": "Emacs navigation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs, how it all started (for me)"}, {"id": 736447744, "item_id": 46027984, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46027984", "by": "lvass", "date": "2025-11-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Avy can be used to select a word, line, or region.", "excerpt": "Definitely not it's purpose. Avy can be used to select a word, line, or region. One action is move to it. But it can also, in it's own words, copy, yank, zap to, transpose, teleport, kill, mark, ispell, org-refile, and custom actions. https://karthinks.com/software/avy-can-do-anything/", "context": "", "use_case": "Jump-to-text navigation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Editing Code in Emacs"}, {"id": 736445264, "item_id": 46027829, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46027829", "by": "Buttons840", "date": "2025-11-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I was excited for avy until I realized its purpose is only to move the cursor to a place visible on the screen.", "excerpt": "I was excited for avy until I realized its purpose is only to move the cursor to a place visible on the screen. It does nothing a mouse can't do with one click. (This is my understanding at least; I'm open to correction.) I'm a lover of Vim bindings, and so I appreciate keyboard controls, but where Vim enables working with files and text in a general and powerful way, avy enables avoiding one click with the mouse. I ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Editing Code in Emacs"}, {"id": 736430896, "item_id": 46026931, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46026931", "by": "globular-toast", "date": "2025-11-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "`avy-goto-char-timer` is amazing", "excerpt": "I don't think this was the first package to use the tree idea, but `avy-goto-char-timer` is amazing and is new since the first time I tried it. After activating goto with a key press you type as many characters as you like to get where you want. Often you can get straight there if it's something unique, but if not then it goes to the tree. It's amazing how quick you get at typing \"def\" or something to get to a Python", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Editing Code in Emacs"}, {"id": 736422720, "item_id": 46026420, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46026420", "by": "dustfinger", "date": "2025-11-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My favorite way to move around in Emacs, and to move text around, is via avy-mode", "excerpt": "My favorite way to move around in Emacs, and to move text around, is via avy-mode: https://github.com/abo-abo/avy. If you have not experienced avy-mode, give it a try, I think you will wonder how you ever got along without it.", "context": "", "use_case": "navigating and moving text in Emacs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Editing Code in Emacs"}]}