vim-elisp

July 19, 2026 · View on GitHub

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`[VIM PLUGIN // NEON SYNTAX // STANDALONE EMACS LISP GRAMMAR // LSP + DAP]`

"Emacs Lisp, everywhere but Emacs — driven by the elisprs runtime."

vim-elisp adds Vim / Neovim support for Emacs Lisp, targeting elisprs — an Emacs Lisp implementation written in Rust that lowers .el to the fusevm bytecode VM with a three-tier Cranelift JIT (the same engine behind zshrs, stryke, arb, and awkrs).

`Read the Docs` · `Engineering Report`

[0x00] OVERVIEW

vim-elisp is a standalone runtime-files bundle — syntax, ftdetect, ftplugin, indent, compiler, and LSP/DAP wiring — for editing Emacs Lisp with the elisp binary as the language backend. The syntax grammar mirrors the elisprs LSP corpus (src/lsp.rs SPECIAL_FORMS + SUBRS), so what Vim highlights is exactly the surface the language server knows.

[0x01] FEATURE MATRIX

Capability	Mechanism
Filetype detection	`*.el`, `.emacs`, `_emacs`, `elisp` shebang
Syntax highlighting	standalone `syntax/elisp.vim` (special forms + subrs)
Indentation	Vim built-in `lisp` indenter + `lispwords`
Run / `:make`	`elisp %` (evaluate the file)
Language server	vim-lsp / coc.nvim via `elisp --lsp`
Debug adapter	nvim-dap via `elisp --dap`

[0x02] INSTALL

" vim-plug
Plug 'MenkeTechnologies/vim-elisp'

# native packages
git clone https://github.com/MenkeTechnologies/vim-elisp \
  ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start/vim-elisp
# then inside vim:  :Helptags

Install the backend binary:

brew install menketechnologies/menketech/elisprs

[0x03] SYNTAX // TOKEN CATEGORIES

Comments (;), shebang, TODO/FIXME markers
Strings, char literals (?a, ?\C-x), keyword symbols (:foo)
Quote sugar: ', `, ,, ,@, #'
Numbers, including #x / #o / #b radices and floats
The 18 special forms (defun, let, cond, lambda, ...)
The built-in subr set exposed by the elisp LSP corpus
Names introduced by defun / defmacro / defvar / defconst

[0x04] RUN

:ElispRun            " evaluate the current file via elisp
:make                " same, into the quickfix list

elisp FILE.el evaluates the file (lowered to fusevm and run); there is no separate lint mode, so evaluation surfaces both parse and runtime errors.

{
  "languageserver": {
    "elisp": { "command": "elisp", "args": ["--lsp"], "filetypes": ["elisp"] }
  }
}

[0x06] DEBUG ADAPTER

local dap = require('dap')
dap.adapters.elisp = { type = 'executable', command = 'elisp', args = { '--dap' } }
dap.configurations.elisp = {
  { type = 'elisp', request = 'launch', name = 'Run Emacs Lisp program', program = '${file}' },
}

[0x07] OPTIONS

Variable	Effect
`g:vim_elisp_no_maps`	skip the `<LocalLeader>r` mapping
`g:vim_elisp_no_lsp`	skip the vim-lsp server registration

[0x08] LAYOUT

ftdetect/elisp.vim    filetype detection
ftplugin/elisp.vim    buffer-local settings, :ElispRun
indent/elisp.vim      lisp indentation (lispwords)
syntax/elisp.vim      standalone Emacs Lisp grammar
compiler/elisp.vim    :make wiring (elisp %)
plugin/elisp.vim      vim-lsp / coc / nvim-dap wiring
doc/elisp.txt         :help vim-elisp

[0xFF] LICENSE

MIT.

Read the Docs · Engineering Report

`Read the Docs` · `Engineering Report`