README.md

Aidermacs: AI Pair Programming in Emacs

Aidermacs brings AI-powered development to Emacs by integrating Aider, one of the most powerful open-source AI pair programming tools. If you're missing Cursor but prefer living in Emacs, Aidermacs provides similar AI capabilities while staying true to Emacs workflows.

Key Features

Intelligent model selection with multiple backends
Built-in Ediff integration for AI-generated changes
Enhanced file management from Emacs
Great customizability and flexible ways to add content

Community Speaks

Here's what the community is saying about Aidermacs:

"Are you using aidermacs? For me superior to cursor." - u/berenddeboer

"This is amazing... every time I upgrade my packages I see your new commits. I feel this the authentic aider for emacs" - u/wchmbo

"Between Aidermacs and Gptel it's wild how bleeding edge Emacs is with this stuff. My workplace is exploring MCP registries and even clients that are all the rage (E.g Cursor) lag behind what I can do with mcp.el and gptel for tool use." - u/no_good_names_avail

"This looks amazing... I have been using ellama with local llms, looks like that will work here too. Great stuff!!" - u/lugpocalypse

"Honestly huge fan of this. Thank you for the updates!" - u/ieoa

Quick Start

Requirements

Emacs ≥ 26.1
Aider or its community fork Aider Community Experimentation.
Transient

Download Aidermacs through Melpa or Non-GNU Elpa, or clone manually
Modify this sample config and place it in your Emacs init.el:

(use-package aidermacs
  :bind (("C-c a" . aidermacs-transient-menu))
  :config
  ; Set API_KEY in .bashrc, that will automatically picked up by aider or in elisp
  (setenv "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" "sk-...")
  ; defun my-get-openrouter-api-key yourself elsewhere for security reasons
  (setenv "OPENROUTER_API_KEY" (my-get-openrouter-api-key))
  :custom
  ; See the Configuration section below
  (aidermacs-default-chat-mode 'architect)
  (aidermacs-default-model "sonnet"))

Open a project and run M-x aidermacs-transient-menu or SPC a a (or your chosen binding).
Add files and start coding with AI!

Spacemacs

For Spacemacs users:

Add aidermacs to your dotspacemacs-additional-packages list in your .spacemacs file:

dotspacemacs-additional-packages '(
  (aidermacs :variables
              aidermacs-default-chat-mode 'architect
              aidermacs-default-model "sonnet")
)

Add the keybinding to your dotspacemacs/user-config function in .spacemacs:

(defun dotspacemacs/user-config ()
  ;; Set leader key for Aide