Emacs Unified

A consolidation fork of Awesome Emacs Keymap (vscode-emacs-mcx) that adds new commands and absorbs related extensions into a single package.

Emacs Unified is a fork of vscode-emacs-mcx by Yuichiro Tsuchiya. It inherits all of the upstream functionality and adds new features, bug fixes, and absorbed extensions that were previously separate installs.

Why fork?

Running vanilla Emacs keybindings in VS Code previously required installing multiple extensions that overlapped, conflicted, or accumulated supply-chain risk. Emacs Unified consolidates them:

Previously separate extension	Status in Emacs Unified
Awesome Emacs Keymap (vscode-emacs-mcx)	Base — all 63+ commands and 1200+ keybindings inherited
vscode-dired	Absorbed — rewritten with async I/O, zero runtime deps
vscode-emacs-tab	Dropped — upstream's TabToTabStop is superior
vscode-emacs-indent	Dropped — redundant
vscode-emacs-delete-horizontal-space	Dropped — upstream already has deleteHorizontalSpace
vscode-json-pretty-printer	Dropped — VS Code has built-in JSON formatting

What's new (beyond upstream)

These features are not in Awesome Emacs Keymap and are original to Emacs Unified:

M-; comment-dwim

A faithful implementation of Emacs' comment-dwim with five behaviors depending on context:

• Region active — toggle comment/uncomment
• Blank line — insert comment at code indentation level (not column 0)
• Code line, no comment — append comment at comment-column
• Code line with existing comment — move cursor into the comment
• Comment-only line — realign to code indentation

Block comment support: C mode uses /* */ (matching cc-mode), C++ and most others use //. Built-in syntax for 40+ languages, user-extensible via emacs-mcx.commentSyntax.

M-g n / M-g p unified next-error

Emacs-like next-error / previous-error that checks for diagnostics first, then falls back to search sidebar results — just like Emacs navigates whatever error source is active.

Dired file browser

Browse and manage files without leaving VS Code. Open with C-x d. See the keybinding reference below for all dired commands.

Additional keybindings

Binding	Command
C-M-u	backward-up-list — move up/out one paren level
C-M-d	down-list — move forward and down into next list
C-x d	Open dired (standard Emacs binding)
C-x C-b	List buffers by most recently used
C-M-\	Format selection / document (indent-region)

Other improvements

• Zero runtime npm dependencies (except paredit-ts) — replaced Winston logger with VS Code's built-in LogOutputChannel
• Sexp operations powered by paredit-ts — a TypeScript rewrite of paredit.js
• Zero npm audit vulnerabilities
• Works as both desktop and web extension

Compatibility with Awesome Emacs Keymap

Emacs Unified retains the emacs-mcx configuration namespace so your existing emacs-mcx.* settings carry over without changes. However, Emacs Unified and Awesome Emacs Keymap cannot be installed at the same time — they share command IDs and keybindings. Uninstall one before installing the other.

New settings (Emacs Unified only)

emacs-mcx.commentColumn

Column at which comment-dwim (M-;) inserts end-of-line comments. Default is 32, matching Emacs' default comment-column.

emacs-mcx.commentSyntax

Map of VS Code language ID to comment delimiter. Overrides or extends the built-in defaults (40+ languages). A plain string means a line comment; an object with start/end means a block comment.

"emacs-mcx.commentSyntax": {
  "python": "#",
  "c": { "start": "/*", "end": "*/" }
}

Complete keybinding reference

All keybindings from the upstream Awesome Emacs Keymap are included plus the additions listed above. The Meta key is Alt by default; configure via emacs-mcx.useMetaPrefixEscape, emacs-mcx.useMetaPrefixCtrlLeftBracket, or emacs-mcx.useMetaPrefixMacCmd.

Movement

Key	Command	Prefix arg
C-f / C-b	forward-char / backward-char	✓
C-n / C-p	next-line / previous-line	✓
C-a / C-e	beginning-of-line / end-of-line	✓
M-f / M-b	forward-word / backward-word	✓
C-<right> / C-<left>	right-word / left-word	✓
M-m	back-to-indentation
C-v / M-v	scroll-up / scroll-down	✓
M-{ / M-}	backward-paragraph / forward-paragraph	✓
M-< / M->	beginning-of-buffer / end-of-buffer
M-g g	goto-line	✓
M-g n / M-g p	next-error / previous-error (diagnostics, then search results)
C-l	recenter-top-bottom

Search

Key	Command
C-s / C-r	isearch-forward / isearch-backward
C-M-s / C-M-r	isearch-forward-regexp / isearch-backward-regexp
M-%	query-replace
C-M-%	query-replace-regexp
C-M-n / C-M-p	add selection to next/previous find match
M-s o	Quick Search (like occur)

Editing

Key	Command	Prefix arg
C-d / C-h	delete forward / backward	✓
M-\	delete-horizontal-space	✓
C-x C-o	delete-blank-lines
C-t / C-x C-t	transpose-chars / transpose-lines	✓
M-^	delete-indentation
M-d / M-Bksp	kill-word / backward-kill-word	✓
M-z	zap-to-char	✓
C-k	kill-line	✓
C-S-Bksp	kill-whole-line
C-w	kill-region
M-w	kill-ring-save
C-y	yank	✓
M-y	yank-pop	✓
C-c y	browse kill ring
C-o / C-j / C-m	open-line / newline	✓
C-x h	select all
C-/ / C-_	undo
C-;	toggle line comment
M-;	comment-dwim
C-M-\	indent-region / format document
M-l / M-u / M-c	lowercase / uppercase / titlecase word

Mark and region

Key	Command
C-SPC	set-mark-command
C-SPC C-SPC	set mark, push to ring, deactivate
C-u C-SPC	pop mark ring
C-x C-x	exchange-point-and-mark

Sexp / ParEdit

Key	Command	Prefix arg
C-M-f / C-M-b	forward-sexp / backward-sexp	✓
C-M-u / C-M-d	backward-up-list / down-list
C-M-@	mark-sexp	✓
C-M-k / C-M-Bksp	kill-sexp / backward-kill-sexp	✓
C-S-k	paredit-kill	✓

Powered by paredit-ts.

Registers and rectangles

Key	Command
C-x r s r	copy-to-register
C-x r i r	insert-register
C-x r SPC r	point-to-register
C-x r j r	jump-to-register
C-x r k	kill-rectangle
C-x r M-w	copy-rectangle-as-kill
C-x r d	delete-rectangle
C-x r y	yank-rectangle
C-x r o	open-rectangle
C-x r c	clear-rectangle
C-x r t	string-rectangle
C-x r r r	copy-rectangle-to-register
C-x SPC	rectangle-mark-mode

Files, buffers, and windows

Key	Command
C-x C-f	find-file (Quick Open)
C-x C-s	save-buffer
C-x C-w	write-file (Save As)
C-x s	save-some-buffers
C-x C-n	new window
C-x b	switch-to-buffer
C-x C-b	list-buffers (MRU)
C-x k	kill-buffer
C-x 0	delete-window
C-x 1	delete-other-windows
C-x 2 / C-x 3	split below / right
C-x 4	toggle split layout
C-x o	other-window
C-x LEFT / C-x RIGHT	previous-buffer / next-buffer

Dired (file browser)

Open with C-x d.

Key	Command
RET	Open file or enter directory
^	Go up to parent directory
.	Toggle dot files
g	Refresh
m / u	Mark / unmark
+	Create directory
C-x f	Create file
R / C / D	Rename / copy / delete
q	Close dired

Other

Key	Command
C-g / ESC	quit
M-x	command palette
C-M-SPC	toggle sidebar
C-x z	toggle Zen Mode
C-x C-c	close window
C-u	universal-argument
M-<digit>	digit-argument
M--	negative-argument
M-.	find definitions
M-,	go back
C-M-,	go forward
M-?	find references
C-M-i / M-/	trigger suggest

Settings reference

Most emacs-mcx.* settings from Awesome Emacs Keymap are supported. See the upstream documentation for inherited configuration options, when clause contexts, and the prefix argument API.

Dired settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
emacs-mcx.dired.fixedWindow	boolean	false	Reuse the same editor tab for dired navigation
emacs-mcx.dired.askDirectory	boolean	true	Prompt for directory when opening dired

Attribution

This extension is built on the work of several authors:

• vscode-emacs-mcx by Yuichiro Tsuchiya (whitphx) — MIT license, the foundation
• vscode-dired by WAKAYAMA Shirou — Apache 2.0, the dired file browser
• vscode-emacs-friendly by Sebastian Zaha — Apache 2.0, keybinding design inspiration
• Emacs Keymap by hiro-sun — the original VS Code Emacs extension

See LICENSE for full details.

Install

• VS Code Marketplace: Search "Emacs Unified" in Extensions, or code --install-extension kshartman.emacs-unified
• GitHub Release (VSIX): Download from latest release and code --install-extension emacs-unified.vsix

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, build commands, and release workflow.