Usage

Basic setup

Everything in this section assumes you’ve enabled projectile-mode.

To add a project to Projectile’s list of known projects, open a file in the project. If you have a projects directory, you can tell Projectile about all of the projects in it with the command M-x projectile-discover-projects-in-directory.

You can go one step further and set a list of folders which Projectile is automatically going to check for projects on startup:

(setq projectile-project-search-path '("~/projects/" "~/work/"))

You can suppress the auto-discovery of projects on startup by setting projectile-auto-discover to nil. You can manually trigger the project discovery using M-x projectile-discover-projects-in-search-path.

If you’re going to use the default ido completion it’s extremely highly recommended that you install the optional flx-ido package, which provides a much more powerful alternative to ido’s built-in `flex matching.

Check out the "Configuration" section of the manual for a lot more information about configuring Projectile.

Basic Usage

Just open some file in a version-controlled (e.g. git) or a project (e.g. maven) directory that’s recognized by Projectile and you’re ready for action. Projectile happens to recognize out of the box every common VCS and many popular project types for various programming languages. You can learn more about Projectile’s notion of a project here.

The extent of the support for every VCS differs and Git is the best supported one. Projectile supports some advanced features like working with Git submodules and using git-grep instead GNU grep.

You need to know only a handful of Projectile commands to start benefiting from it.

Find file in current project (s-p f)
Switch project (s-p p)
Grep in project (s-p s g)
Replace in project (s-p r)
Invoke a command via the Projectile Commander (s-p m)

The next section lists many more commands, but the basics can get you pretty far.

Interactive Commands

Projectile doesn’t have a default key prefix for its commands, but all the examples in the manual assume you’ve opted for s-p (super-p).

Here’s a list of the interactive Emacs Lisp functions, provided by Projectile:

Keybinding Description

Keybinding	Description
`s-p f`	Display a list of all files in the project. With a prefix argument it will clear the cache first.
`s-p F`	Display a list of all files in all known projects.
`s-p g`	Display a list of all files at point in the project. With a prefix argument it will clear the cache first.
`s-p 4 f`	Jump to a project’s file using completion and show it in another window.
`s-p 4 g`	Jump to a project’s file based on context at point and show it in another window.
`s-p 5 f`	Jump to a project’s file using completion and show it in another frame.
`s-p 5 g`	Jump to a project’s file based on context at point and show it in another frame.
`s-p d`	Display a list of all directories in the project. With a prefix argument it will clear the cache first.
`s-p 4 d`	Switch to a project directory and show it in another window.
`s-p 5 d`	Switch to a project directory and show it in another frame.
`s-p T`	Display a list of all test files(specs, features, etc) in the project.
`s-p l`	Display a list of all files in a directory (that’s not necessarily a project)
`s-p s g`	Run grep on the files in the project.
`M-- s-p s g`	Run grep on `projectile-grep-default-files` in the project.
`s-p v`	Run `vc-dir` on the root directory of the project.
`s-p V`	Browse dirty version controlled projects.
`s-p b`	Display a list of all project buffers currently open.
`s-p 4 b`	Switch to a project buffer and show it in another window.
`s-p 5 b`	Switch to a project buffer and show it in another frame.
`s-p 4 C-o`	Display a project buffer in another window without selecting it.
`s-p a`	Switch between files with the same name but different extensions.
`s-p 4 a`	Switch between files with the same name but different extensions in other window.
`s-p 5 a`	Switch between files with the same name but different extensions in other frame.
`s-p o`	Runs `multi-occur` on all project buffers currently open.
`s-p r`	Runs interactive query-replace on all files in the projects.
`s-p i`	Invalidates the project cache (if existing).
`s-p R`	Regenerates the projects `TAGS` file.
`s-p j`	Find tag in project’s `TAGS` file.
`s-p k`	Kills all project buffers.
`s-p D`	Opens the root of the project in `dired`.
`s-p 4 D`	Opens the root of the project in `dired` in another window.
`s-p 5 D`	Opens the root of the project in `dired` in another frame.
`s-p e`	Shows a list of recently visited project files.
`s-p left`	Switch to the previous project buffer.
`s-p right`	Switch to the next project buffer.
`s-p E`	Opens the root `dir-locals-file` of the project.
`s-p s s`	Runs `ag` on the project, performing a literal search. Requires the presence of `ag.el`. With a prefix argument it will perform a regex search.
`s-p !`	Runs `shell-command` in the root directory of the project.
`s-p &`	Runs `async-shell-command` in the root directory of the project.
`s-p C`	Runs a standard configure command for your type of project.
`s-p c`	Runs a standard compilation command for your type of project.
`s-p P`	Runs a standard test command for your type of project.
`s-p t`	Toggle between an implementation file and its test file.
`s-p 4 t`	Jump to implementation or test file in other window.
`s-p 5 t`	Jump to implementation or test file in other frame.
`s-p z`	Adds the currently visited file to the cache.
`s-p p`	Display a list of known projects you can switch to.
`s-p S`	Save all project buffers.
`s-p m`	Run the commander (an interface to run commands with a single key).
`s-p ESC`	Switch to the most recently selected Projectile buffer.

s-p f

Display a list of all files in the project. With a prefix argument it will clear the cache first.

s-p F

Display a list of all files in all known projects.

s-p g

Display a list of all files at point in the project. With a prefix argument it will clear the cache first.

s-p 4 f

Jump to a project’s file using completion and show it in another window.

s-p 4 g

Jump to a project’s file based on context at point and show it in another window.

s-p 5 f

Jump to a project’s file using completion and show it in another frame.

s-p 5 g

Jump to a project’s file based on context at point and show it in another frame.

s-p d

Display a list of all directories in the project. With a prefix argument it will clear the cache first.

s-p 4 d

Switch to a project directory and show it in another window.

s-p 5 d

Switch to a project directory and show it in another frame.

s-p T

Display a list of all test files(specs, features, etc) in the project.

s-p l

Display a list of all files in a directory (that’s not necessarily a project)

s-p s g

Run grep on the files in the project.

M-- s-p s g

Run grep on projectile-grep-default-files in the project.

s-p v

Run vc-dir on the root directory of the project.

s-p V

Browse dirty version controlled projects.

s-p b

Display a list of all project buffers currently open.

s-p 4 b

Switch to a project buffer and show it in another window.

s-p 5 b

Switch to a project buffer and show it in another frame.

s-p 4 C-o

Display a project buffer in another window without selecting it.

s-p a

Switch between files with the same name but different extensions.

s-p 4 a

Switch between files with the same name but different extensions in other window.

s-p 5 a

Switch between files with the same name but different extensions in other frame.

s-p o

Runs multi-occur on all project buffers currently open.

s-p r

Runs interactive query-replace on all files in the projects.

s-p i

Invalidates the project cache (if existing).

s-p R

Regenerates the projects TAGS file.

s-p j

Find tag in project’s TAGS file.

s-p k

Kills all project buffers.

s-p D

Opens the root of the project in dired.

s-p 4 D

Opens the root of the project in dired in another window.

s-p 5 D

Opens the root of the project in dired in another frame.

s-p e

Shows a list of recently visited project files.

s-p left

Switch to the previous project buffer.

s-p right

Switch to the next project buffer.

s-p E

Opens the root dir-locals-file of the project.

s-p s s

Runs ag on the project, performing a literal search. Requires the presence of ag.el. With a prefix argument it will perform a regex search.

s-p !

Runs shell-command in the root directory of the project.

s-p &

Runs async-shell-command in the root directory of the project.

s-p C

Runs a standard configure command for your type of project.

s-p c

Runs a standard compilation command for your type of project.

s-p P

Runs a standard test command for your type of project.

s-p t

Toggle between an implementation file and its test file.

s-p 4 t

Jump to implementation or test file in other window.

s-p 5 t

Jump to implementation or test file in other frame.

s-p z

Adds the currently visited file to the cache.

s-p p

Display a list of known projects you can switch to.

s-p S

Save all project buffers.

s-p m

Run the commander (an interface to run commands with a single key).

s-p ESC

Switch to the most recently selected Projectile buffer.

If you ever forget any of Projectile’s keybindings just do a:

s-p C-h

It is possible to add additional commands to projectile-command-map referenced by the prefix key in projectile-mode-map. You can add multiple keymap prefix for all commands. Here’s an example that adds super-, as a command prefix:

(define-key projectile-mode-map (kbd "s-,") 'projectile-command-map)

You can also bind the projectile-command-map to any other map you’d like (including the global keymap).

For some common commands you might want to take a little shortcut and leverage the fairly unused Super key (by default Command on Mac keyboards and Windows on Win keyboards).

Here’s something you can add to your Emacs config:

(define-key projectile-mode-map [?\s-d] 'projectile-find-dir)
(define-key projectile-mode-map [?\s-p] 'projectile-switch-project)
(define-key projectile-mode-map [?\s-f] 'projectile-find-file)
(define-key projectile-mode-map [?\s-g] 'projectile-grep)

Note that the Super keybindings are not usable in Windows, as Windows makes heavy use of such keybindings itself. Emacs Prelude already adds those extra keybindings.