Spacemacs

Spacemacs is a configuration framework for GNU Emacs.^[6] It can take advantage of all of GNU Emacs' features, including both graphical and command-line user interfaces, and being executable under X Window System and within a Unix shell terminal.^[7] It is free and open-source software (FOSS) released under the GPL-3.0-or-later license.^[3][4][5]

Spacemacs

Spacemacs with recent files and editing windows open
Original author(s)	Sylvain Benner[1]
Developer(s)	Sylvain Benner and many others[2]
Initial release	30 October 2014; 10 years ago (2014-10-30)
Repository	github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs
Written in	Emacs Lisp
Operating system	Unix, Linux, Windows NT, macOS
Available in	English (by default)
Type	Text editor
License	GPL-3.0-or-later[3][4][5]
Website	www.spacemacs.org

Spacemacs consists mainly of configuration files, pre-defined internal commands, and configurations for various plug-ins (called 'packages').^[8][9][10] It features a novel mnemonic key binding design (e.g., commands for file manipulation often start with "f",) which attempts to improve ergonomics (and avoid emacs pinky), a system for adding or excluding pre-configured features called 'layers', and includes verbose software documentation. It has three user-selectable input modes: Emacs mode, Vim mode (based on the evil Emacs package for Vim emulation), and Hybrid mode.

Spacemacs has a light and dark theme that are the fifth most downloaded emacs theme as of 2025 based on MELPA downloads.^[11]

As of 2021^[update], its repository on GitHub has been starred over 21,100 times and has over 11,300 commits.^[12]

See also

• Vim
• Emacs
• Comparison of text editors
• Editor war
• Doom Emacs