--- title: Two Years of Emacs Solo: 35 Modules, Zero External... description: A two-year retrospective on Emacs Solo, a daily-driver Emacs configuration that uses zero external packages. The project recently underwent a major... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/two-years-of-emacs-solo-35-modules-zero-external-packages-and-a-full-refactor-xbmfuenga twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Two Years of Emacs Solo: 35 Modules, Zero External Packages, and a Full Refactor | daily.dev og:description: A two-year retrospective on Emacs Solo, a daily-driver Emacs configuration that uses zero external packages. The project recently underwent a major... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/two-years-of-emacs-solo-35-modules-zero-external-packages-and-a-full-refactor-xbmfuenga og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/XBmFUEnga.png og:image:alt: Two Years of Emacs Solo: 35 Modules, Zero External Packages, and a Full Refactor og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Two Years of Emacs Solo: 35 Modules, Zero External Packages, and a Full Refactor **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 21 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A two-year retrospective on Emacs Solo, a daily-driver Emacs configuration that uses zero external packages. The project recently underwent a major architectural refactor splitting the config into two layers: init.el for configuring built-in Emacs features only, and a lisp/ directory containing 35 self-contained custom modules. These modules reimplement popular packages like ace-window, olivetti, diff-hl, eldoc-box, and others in small, understandable Elisp files. The post walks through every section of init.el, describes all 35 modules, previews upcoming Emacs 31 features that will simplify the config, and shares lessons learned about Emacs's built-in capabilities, Elisp development, and contributing upstream. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Is anyone still using Emacs?](https://daily.dev/posts/is-anyone-still-using-emacs--h5edbbhim) · Lobsters · 10 upvotes · 2 comments - [Emacs salmagundi, 2026-09-06](https://daily.dev/posts/emacs-salmagundi-2026-09-06-kwv62kdwq) · Planet Haskell · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [editing](https://daily.dev/posts/editing-pyhyv9zyp) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Already Daily Driving](https://daily.dev/posts/emacs-31-is-around-the-corner-the-changes-i-m-already-daily-driving-3tjpkrvpn) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#devtools](https://daily.dev/tags/devtools), [#version-control](https://daily.dev/tags/version-control) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/two-years-of-emacs-solo-35-modules-zero-external-packages-and-a-full-refactor-xbmfuenga) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Two Years of Emacs Solo: 35 Modules, Zero External Packages, and a Full Refactor","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/two-years-of-emacs-solo-35-modules-zero-external-packages-and-a-full-refactor-xbmfuenga","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/two-years-of-emacs-solo-35-modules-zero-external-packages-and-a-full-refactor-xbmfuenga"},"datePublished":"2026-03-10T02:37:24.122Z","dateModified":"2026-03-10T02:37:49.797Z","description":"A two-year retrospective on Emacs Solo, a daily-driver Emacs configuration that uses zero external packages. 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