tiddlywiki-mode

A major mode for Emacs to edit TiddlyWiki .tid files.

Features

• Syntax highlighting for TiddlyWiki wikitext markup:

  • Headings (!, !!, !!!, etc.)
  • Text formatting: bold (''text''), italic (//text//), underline (__text__), strikethrough (~~text~~), superscript (^^text^^), subscript (,,text,,)
  • Inline code (`code`) and code blocks (```)
  • Links ([[link]], [[display|link]])
  • Transclusions ({{tiddler}})
  • Macros (<<macro>>)
  • Widgets (<$widget>)
  • Lists (*, #, -)
  • Definition lists (;, :)

• Header management:

  • Parse and modify .tid file headers
  • Automatic modified timestamp update on save
  • Toggle header visibility (narrowing)

• Multi-wiki support:

  • Configure multiple wikis
  • Switch between wikis easily

• Navigation:

  • Open tiddlers with completion
  • Search in tiddlers with consult-ripgrep
  • Create new tiddlers

Installation

With straight.el and use-package

(use-package tiddlywiki-mode
  :straight (:host github :repo "dionisos2/tiddlywiki-mode")
  :mode "\\.tid\\'"
  :bind (:map tiddlywiki-mode-map
         ("C-p C-p C-o" . tiddlywiki-open-tiddler)
         ("C-p C-p C-s" . tiddlywiki-grep)
         ("C-p C-p C-n" . tiddlywiki-new-tiddler)
         ("C-p C-p C-w" . tiddlywiki-select-wiki)
         ("C-p C-p C-h" . tiddlywiki-toggle-header)
         ("C-p C-p C-t" . tiddlywiki-add-tag)
         ("C-p C-p C-r" . tiddlywiki-remove-tag))
  :custom
  (tiddlywiki-wiki-alist
   '(("my-wiki" . "~/path/to/wiki/tiddlers")
     ("other-wiki" . "~/path/to/other/tiddlers")))
  (tiddlywiki-default-wiki "my-wiki"))

(use-package poly-tiddlywiki
	:demand
	:straight nil
	:mode ("\\.tid\\'" . poly-tiddlywiki-mode))

Manual

Clone this repository and add to your load path:

(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/tiddlywiki-mode")
(require 'tiddlywiki-mode)

Configuration

Wiki list

Configure your wikis in tiddlywiki-wiki-alist:

(setq tiddlywiki-wiki-alist
      '(("personal" . "~/wikis/personal/tiddlers")
        ("work" . "~/wikis/work/tiddlers")
        ("notes" . "~/wikis/notes/tiddlers")))

Default wiki

Set a default wiki:

(setq tiddlywiki-default-wiki "personal")

Disable automatic timestamp update

(setq tiddlywiki-update-modified-on-save nil)

Suggested Key Bindings

The mode does not define default keybindings. Here are the suggested bindings (included in the use-package example above):

Key	Command	Description
C-p C-p C-o	tiddlywiki-open-tiddler	Open a tiddler with completion
C-p C-p C-s	tiddlywiki-grep	Search in tiddlers (requires consult)
C-p C-p C-n	tiddlywiki-new-tiddler	Create a new tiddler
C-p C-p C-w	tiddlywiki-select-wiki	Select active wiki
C-p C-p C-h	tiddlywiki-toggle-header	Toggle header visibility
C-p C-p C-t	tiddlywiki-add-tag	Add a tag to current tiddler
C-p C-p C-r	tiddlywiki-remove-tag	Remove a tag from current tiddler

Use C-u prefix with navigation commands to select a different wiki.

Code Block Support (Polymode)

For proper syntax highlighting and indentation inside code blocks, you can use the polymode integration:

(use-package poly-tiddlywiki
	:demand
	:straight nil
	:mode ("\\.tid\\'" . poly-tiddlywiki-mode))

This enables:

• Syntax highlighting using the language's major mode
• Proper indentation inside code blocks
• All editing features of the associated mode

Note: Code blocks must specify a language (e.g., ```python) to activate the inner mode. Blocks without a language specifier will use the host mode's highlighting.

Hook Filtering

By default, heavy mode hooks (LSP, eglot, flycheck, etc.) are filtered out to avoid starting heavy processes for each code block. Lightweight hooks (show-paren-mode, electric-pair-mode, etc.) run normally.

The default blacklist includes:

• lsp, lsp-deferred, lsp-mode
• eglot-ensure
• flycheck-mode, flymake-mode
• company-mode, corfu-mode
• tree-sitter-mode, copilot-mode
• And others

You can customize the blacklist:

(setq tiddlywiki-code-block-hooks-blacklist
      '(lsp lsp-deferred eglot-ensure my-heavy-hook))

To run ALL hooks (including LSP), disable hook filtering entirely:

(setq tiddlywiki-code-block-run-hooks t)

Language Mapping

Languages are automatically mapped to modes (e.g., python → python-mode). You can customize this:

(add-to-list 'tiddlywiki-language-mode-alist '("my-lang" . my-lang-mode))

Dependencies

• Emacs 27.1 or later
• consult (optional, for tiddlywiki-grep)
• polymode (optional, for code block support)

Development

Running tests

make test

Or with Eldev:

eldev test

Byte-compilation

make compile

License

GPL-3.0-or-later

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or pull request.