Enable Ivy via ivy-mode (or (ivy-mode 1) in your Emacs file) and you're set! Issue the execute-extended-command (default keybinding is M-x ) or switch-to-buffer (default keybinding is C-x b ) and you'll notice the difference. Without any setup, Ivy has already worked its way into some of Emacs' commands.

While Ivy works without any configuration there are a couple of lines the maintainers suggest everyone throw in their Emacs' file.

( use-package ivy :demand :config ( setq ivy-use-virtual-buffers t ivy-count-format "%d/%d " ))

ivy-use-virtual-buffers Add recent files and bookmarks to the ivy-switch-buffer ivy-count-format Displays the current and total number in the collection in the prompt

There are a number of other configurations available. Checkout the documentation (listed in Resources) or if you have Ivy installed, play around using M-x customize-group ivy .

Amazing stuff and we've just touched the tip of the iceberg. We can extend the functionality of Ivy to allow us to perform several different actions on our list. We'll go into how to add these actions in the Demo section and then see how we can take advantage of some ready-to-use actions in the Counsel section.