ultra
A Leiningen plugin that enhances the Clojure development environment with colorized REPL output, better stacktraces, and improved test reporting.
What is ultra?
Ultra is a Leiningen plugin that supercharges the Clojure development workflow. It integrates multiple libraries to deliver a colorized REPL, enhanced test reporting, and improved stacktraces, addressing common pain points in Clojure development environments. The plugin is designed to be a stable, "finished" tool that consolidates these improvements into a single, easy-to-use package.
Clojure developers using Leiningen who want a more visually appealing and informative development experience, particularly those frustrated with default REPL output and test reporting.
Developers choose Ultra because it bundles several quality-of-life enhancements into one plugin, reducing configuration overhead and providing a consistent, polished environment. Its opinionated approach means less time tweaking tools and more time writing code, with a focus on stability over constant change.
Overview
A Leiningen plugin for a superior development environment
Use Cases
Best For
- Improving readability of Clojure REPL output with syntax highlighting
- Getting clearer, more actionable test failure reports
- Simplifying debugging with colorized and formatted stacktraces
- Centralizing Leiningen development environment configurations
- Enhancing pretty-printing of data structures in the REPL
- Avoiding plugin conflicts by using a consolidated toolset
Not Ideal For
- ClojureScript development, as it lacks REPL support for ClojureScript
- Emacs/CIDER users unwilling to implement compatibility workarounds
- Teams needing active maintenance or new features beyond the current stable set
- Projects using build tools other than Leiningen, such as Boot or deps.edn
Pros & Cons
Pros
Adds syntax highlighting and color to REPL output, stacktraces, and test results, making debugging and code inspection more intuitive, as shown in the README's demo images.
Integrates best-of-breed libraries like Whidbey and humane-test-output into a single plugin, reducing Leiningen profile bloat and configuration complexity.
Designed as 'finished' software, providing a reliable and polished environment without frequent breaking changes, ideal for teams prioritizing consistency.
All features are enabled by default with simple configuration flags, and it supports Whidbey's extensive pretty-printing options for customization.
Cons
The README explicitly states that Ultra lacks ClojureScript support at the REPL, limiting its use for full-stack or frontend Clojure projects.
Conflicts with CIDER's test reporting require users to choose between Ultra or CIDER, or implement complex workarounds, as detailed in the configuration section.
The author has been inactive for years and describes Ultra as 'done,' so bug fixes and updates rely on community PRs, posing risks for evolving projects.
Frequently Asked Questions
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