Using clojure-ts-mode

clojure-ts-mode is a tree-sitter-powered major mode for editing Clojure, and the eventual successor to the classic clojure-mode. CIDER works with it, so you can pair CIDER’s interactive-programming features with a tree-sitter editing experience.

clojure-ts-mode support was introduced in CIDER 1.14.

Enabling cider-mode

Just as with clojure-mode, CIDER’s minor mode isn’t forced on you - enable it by adding it to the mode hook:

(add-hook 'clojure-ts-mode-hook #'cider-mode)

There’s no need to enable it explicitly for modes derived from clojure-ts-mode (such as clojure-ts-clojurescript-mode) - those inherit the hook.

Once cider-mode is on, the usual commands are available and the CIDER menu and keybindings are installed in clojure-ts-mode buffers. Starting a REPL works the same way too: visit a project file and run M-x cider-jack-in (see Quick Start).

Current state and limitations

CIDER has solid, but still-evolving, support for clojure-ts-mode. The important thing to know is that it still depends on clojure-mode for some of its work - notably for extracting information about the Clojure code in a buffer. So even when you edit with clojure-ts-mode, you should keep clojure-mode installed (it’s a hard dependency of CIDER anyway, so it will be).

The long-term plan is to make clojure-ts-mode capable of providing CIDER with everything it needs directly, at which point the clojure-mode dependency for buffer analysis will fall away. That work is ongoing and will take some time, so if you hit a rough edge with clojure-ts-mode that clojure-mode handles smoothly, that mismatch is the usual cause.

If you’re deciding whether to switch, clojure-ts-mode’s own README tracks its maturity and feature coverage. CIDER will keep supporting `clojure-mode for the foreseeable future, so there’s no rush.