panel

A small Emacs startup panel focused on recent files, startup info, and optional weather.

What it does

• Shows up to 9 recent files with icons and numeric shortcuts.
• Shows a terminal-friendly ASCII intro block by default in TTY Emacs.
• Highlights the [n] shortcut for the current line.
• Opens the current line with RET or o.
• Shows startup time and loaded package count.
• Optionally shows current weather from Open-Meteo.
• Optionally shows a centered PNG image.
• Refreshes with g or r.

Requirements

• Emacs 27.1+
• plz
• nerd-icons for file and status icons (optional but recommended)

recentf is built in.

Installation

use-package with straight.el

(use-package panel
  :straight (:host github
             :repo "LuciusChen/panel")
  :init
  (setq panel-title "Quick access [C-number to open file]"
        panel-min-left-padding 10
        panel-path-max-length 72)
  :config
  (panel-create-hook))

Local checkout

(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/panel")
(require 'panel)
(panel-create-hook)

Configuration

Basic

(setq panel-title "Quick access [C-number to open file]"
      panel-min-left-padding 10
      panel-path-max-length 72
      panel-intro-display 'tty
      panel-intro-horizontal-offset -2
      panel-use-icons t)

Terminal intro

The intro block is rendered with plain text, so it works in terminal Emacs without image support.

(setq panel-intro-display 'tty
      panel-intro-lines
      '("┌─┐ ┌┬┐ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ ┌─┐"
        "├┤  │││ ├─┤ │   └─┐"
        "└─┘ ┴ ┴ ┴ ┴ └─┘ └─┘")
      panel-intro-help-lines
      '(("C-x C-f" . "find a file")
        ("C-h t" . "start the Emacs tutorial")
        ("q" . "close this panel")))

• panel-intro-display: show the intro in tty, always, or never.
• panel-intro-lines: override the ASCII logo lines.
• panel-intro-horizontal-offset: shift the top header horizontally. Affects both the TTY intro and the graphical image.
• panel-intro-help-lines: override the key hints shown below the logo.
• panel-use-icons: keep using nerd-icons when available, including in terminal Emacs.

Weather

Set both coordinates to enable weather. Negative values are valid.

(setq panel-latitude 31.2304
      panel-longitude 121.4737
      panel-weather-update-interval 900
      panel-weather-cache-duration 900
      panel-weather-max-retries 3
      panel-weather-api-base-url "https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast")

Weather is fetched from Open-Meteo and refreshed on a timer. Cached data is reused while valid, and transient API failures show Weather unavailable instead of leaving the panel stuck on Loading weather data....

Image

If panel-image-file points to an existing PNG file, it is shown above the recent-files list in graphical Emacs.

(setq panel-image-file "~/Pictures/panel.png"
      panel-image-width 200
      panel-image-height 200)

Keybindings

• RET: open the recent file on the current line
• o: open the recent file on the current line
• 1..9: open recent file by index
• M-s-1..M-s-9: open recent file by index
• g: refresh panel
• r: refresh panel

Customization variables

• panel-title
• panel-min-left-padding
• panel-path-max-length
• panel-latitude
• panel-longitude
• panel-image-file
• panel-image-width
• panel-image-height
• panel-weather-update-interval
• panel-weather-cache-duration
• panel-weather-max-retries
• panel-weather-api-base-url
• panel-show-file-path
• panel-intro-display
• panel-intro-lines
• panel-intro-horizontal-offset
• panel-intro-help-lines
• panel-use-icons

Notes

• The panel buffer is *welcome*.
• Set panel-show-file-path to nil to hide directory prefixes in recent-file entries.
• Missing files are shown in the list and opening them reports a user error instead of creating a new buffer.

Commands

• M-x panel-create-hook
• M-x panel-refresh