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early-init.el

early-init.el is loaded before package.el runs, before the first frame is drawn, and before init.el is evaluated. Anything that must happen that early lives here; everything else lives in init.el or one of the lisp/init-*.el modules.

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Garbage collection

The GC threshold is bumped to “effectively never” during startup; init-core restores a 16 MiB runtime value. 
(setq gc-cons-threshold most-positive-fixnum
      gc-cons-percentage 0.6)

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Bidirectional text

Jotain targets LTR-only usage, so disable the bidirectional reordering and parenthesis algorithms — they otherwise run on every redisplay and are measurable on large files. 
(setq-default bidi-display-reordering nil
              bidi-paragraph-direction 'left-to-right)
(setopt bidi-inhibit-bpa t)

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Load preference

Prefer newer source files to stale .elc in batch mode only. Interactive sessions keep .elc preference for speed. 
(setq load-prefer-newer noninteractive)

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package.el and use-package

package.el stays on and package-quickstart is enabled — Nix (and, in dev, devenv) already provides most packages via load-path, so startup is fast without any trickery. use-package is built in on Emacs 29+, so the only thing we configure before init.el loads is imenu support and use-package-always-ensure. 
(setq package-quickstart t)
(setq use-package-enable-imenu-support t
      use-package-always-ensure t)
With use-package-always-ensure set to t, every use-package block defaults to “install if missing”. Built-ins must opt out with :ensure nil.

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Frame chrome

GUI chrome is disabled in default-frame-alist before the first frame is drawn — this is much faster than toggling the modes off afterwards. 
(push '(menu-bar-lines . 0) default-frame-alist)
(push '(tool-bar-lines . 0) default-frame-alist)
(push '(vertical-scroll-bars) default-frame-alist)
(when (featurep 'ns)
  (push '(ns-transparent-titlebar . t) default-frame-alist)
  (push '(ns-appearance . dark) default-frame-alist))

(setq inhibit-startup-screen t
      inhibit-startup-message t
      inhibit-startup-echo-area-message user-login-name
      initial-scratch-message nil)

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Byte-compiler noise

Silence obsolete-symbol warnings from third-party packages we do not control. Real warnings still surface. 
(setq byte-compile-warnings '(not obsolete))

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Font caches

Trade a bit of RAM for smoother redisplay. 
(setq inhibit-compacting-font-caches t)
(when (eq system-type 'darwin)
  (setq ns-use-thin-smoothing t))

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Native compilation

On Emacs 30 with native compilation available, keep the eln-cache out of the config directory, silence the firehose of async warnings during init, and crank native-comp speed. 
(when (and (fboundp 'native-comp-available-p)
           (native-comp-available-p))
  (setq native-comp-async-report-warnings-errors nil
        native-comp-speed 2)
  (when (fboundp 'startup-redirect-eln-cache)
    (startup-redirect-eln-cache
     (convert-standard-filename
      (expand-file-name "var/eln-cache/" user-emacs-directory)))))

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Tree-sitter grammars

Nix sets TREE_SITTER_DIR to point at the grammar bundle produced by default.nix; early-init.el picks it up and wires it into treesit-extra-load-path. 
(when-let* ((ts-dir (getenv "TREE_SITTER_DIR")))
  (setq treesit-extra-load-path (list ts-dir)))

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Terminal aliases

Ghostty advertises TERM=xterm-ghostty, but Emacs does not ship term/xterm-ghostty.el. Aliasing to xterm-256color makes term/xterm.el load instead, restoring modifyOtherKeys and 24-bit colour. This must be set in early-init.el because tty-run-terminal-initialization fires before init.el. 
(add-to-list 'term-file-aliases '("xterm-ghostty" . "xterm-256color"))
Last modified on April 8, 2026