miniline.el

A lightweight mode-line alternative that displays buffer information in the echo area using overlays.

⚠️ Early Development Notice

This project is in its early stages and was developed with significant AI assistance (“vibe coding”). The code quality is not guaranteed and may contain bugs or rough edges. Contributions, suggestions, and improvements are very welcome!

Features

• Lightweight - Minimal overhead using overlays instead of resizing minibuffer
• Mode-line compatible - Fully supports mode-line-format style specs via format-mode-line
• Performant - Caching and throttled updates for smooth experience
• Customizable - Modular segment system for easy configuration
• Clean UI - Optionally hides mode-line with thin GUI separator line

Screenshots

Installation

Manual

Clone this repository and add to your load-path:

(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/miniline.el")
(require 'miniline)
(require 'miniline-segments)

use-package (with straight.el)

(use-package miniline
  :straight (:host github :repo "dezzw/miniline.el")
  :config
  (require 'miniline-segments)
  (setq miniline-format miniline-format-default)
  (miniline-mode 1))

Quick Start

(require 'miniline)
(require 'miniline-segments)

;; Use a predefined format
(setq miniline-format miniline-format-default)

;; Enable miniline
(miniline-mode 1)

Configuration

Basic Options

Variable	Default	Description
miniline-format	nil	Format spec (like mode-line-format)
miniline-position	right	Alignment: right, left, or center
miniline-update-interval	0.5	Update interval in seconds
miniline-hide-mode-line	t	Hide the original mode-line
miniline-display-gui-line	t	Show thin separator line (GUI only)
miniline-minibuffer	t	Show miniline during minibuffer sessions
miniline-second-line	nil	Display on second line of echo area
miniline-right-padding	0	Extra right padding to prevent wrapping

Predefined Formats

;; Default: modal, buffer, vcs, mode, checker
(setq miniline-format miniline-format-default)

;; Minimal: buffer + major mode only
(setq miniline-format miniline-format-minimal)

;; Full: all available segments
(setq miniline-format miniline-format-full)

Custom Format

Create your own format using the segment functions:

(setq miniline-format
      '(:eval (miniline-compose-segments
               #'miniline-segment-modal
               #'miniline-segment-buffer-info
               #'miniline-segment-vcs
               #'miniline-segment-major-mode
               #'miniline-segment-checker
               #'miniline-segment-time)))

Available Segments

Segment	Description
miniline-segment-buffer-info	Buffer state (read-only) + name
miniline-segment-buffer-name	Buffer name only
miniline-segment-buffer-state	Read-only indicator
miniline-segment-major-mode	Major mode icon or name
miniline-segment-vcs	Git branch info
miniline-segment-checker	Flymake/Flycheck diagnostics
miniline-segment-flymake	Flymake diagnostics
miniline-segment-flycheck	Flycheck diagnostics
miniline-segment-lsp	LSP status (eglot/lsp-mode)
miniline-segment-modal	Modal state (meow/evil)
miniline-segment-meow	Meow editing state
miniline-segment-evil	Evil editing state
miniline-segment-project	Project name
miniline-segment-position	Cursor position (line:col %)
miniline-segment-remote-host	TRAMP remote host
miniline-segment-time	Current time
miniline-segment-encoding	Buffer encoding (non-UTF-8 only)

Faces

Customize the appearance by modifying these faces:

• miniline-mode-line - Active window separator line
• miniline-mode-line-inactive - Inactive window separator line
• miniline-buffer-name - Buffer name
• miniline-buffer-read-only - Read-only indicator
• miniline-major-mode - Major mode
• miniline-vcs - VCS/git info
• miniline-error / miniline-warning / miniline-info - Diagnostics
• miniline-project - Project name
• miniline-position - Position info
• miniline-lsp - LSP indicator
• miniline-meow-normal / miniline-meow-insert / miniline-meow-motion - Modal states

Optional Dependencies

• nerd-icons - For beautiful icons in segments

Acknowledgments

This package was inspired by and learned from these excellent projects:

• mini-modeline by Kien Nguyen
• awesome-tray by Andy Stewart
• doom-modeline by Vincent Zhang

License

GPL-3.0. See LICENSE for details.