NOTE: I am no longer actively developing this modeline, though its design is now largely incorporated into Lambda-line.

A simple custom modeline for emacs. This started as a fork of Nicolas Rougier’s excellent nano-modeline, but has evolved somewhat to include several extra (or simply different) features.

The modeline is less conservative/minimal than nano-modeline, in the sense that it has a broader color palette and provides more configuration options.

The user is strongly encouraged to use bespoke-modeline with bespoke-themes (see that repo for more sample images of the modeline), but it should be, in principle, compatible with any theme.

Features/Options

• The modeline may be set as a header line (similar in style to nano-emacs), or as the normal footer line, setting (bespoke-modeline-position) to top, bottom, or nil.
• You can set the size of the mode line with (bespoke-modeline-size)
• Set the buffer status symbol in the modeline. This is configurable separately for GUI and terminal. Default symbols are, respectively, read-only: (⨂)/(RO), modified: (⨀)/(**), and read-write: (◯)/(RW).
  • NOTE: If you use symbols you should make sure you are using a font that will display them properly. Here is one reliable way, using Symbola font:

    (use-package fontset
      :straight (:type built-in) ;; only include this if you use straight
      :config
      ;; Use symbola for proper unicode
      (when (member "Symbola" (font-family-list))
        (set-fontset-font
         t 'symbol "Symbola" nil)))
            

• Show both vc project and branch in the modeline
• Set the symbol for vc-mode with bespoke-modeline-vc-symbol and bespoke-modeline-space-bottom.
• Show git diff in modeline with (bespoke-modeline-git-diff-mode-line)
• Substitute any major mode symbol for its designated one by setting (bespoke-modeline-cleaner) to ‘t (and the related variable (bespoke-modeline-cleaner-alist)
• Truncate the buffer-name to a specific value (default is 30) using (bespoke-modeline-truncate-value)
• The modeline is treated as a minor mode, so that it may be toggled on or off with (bespoke-modeline-mode)
• Toggle between the top or bottom mode line with (bespoke-modeline-toggle)
• There is a useful footer line visual alert “bell” inspired by DOOM emacs. To use include (setq bespoke-modeline-visual-bell t) in your setup of the theme.
• You can control spacing in the modeline with bespoke-modeline-space-top

Setup

I dont know if/when this will appear on MELPA. In the meantime to use this mode-line you’ll have to clone or otherwise download the repo and put it into your load path. Here’s one possible way of setting it up using use-package and straight.

(use-package bespoke-modeline
  :straight (:type git :host github :repo "mclear-tools/bespoke-modeline") 
  :init
  ;; Set header line
  (setq bespoke-modeline-position 'top)
  ;; Set mode-line height
  (setq bespoke-modeline-size 3)
  ;; Show diff lines in mode-line
  (setq bespoke-modeline-git-diff-mode-line t)
  ;; Set mode-line cleaner
  (setq bespoke-modeline-cleaner t)
  ;; Use mode-line visual bell
  (setq bespoke-modeline-visual-bell t)
  ;; Set vc symbol
  (setq  bespoke-modeline-vc-symbol "G:")
  :config
  (bespoke-modeline-mode))