This depends on your how broad you want to go. I have just embedded an open source CherryTree editor and since it is XML syntax I can edit and import/export nodes … within Subl Text ecosystem. This expands Subl to run countless tasks. Just look at the range of syntaxes in CherryTree (codeboxes). All XML elements accessible from within Subl. For my part I want to UI automate the Subl engine. To run in this way requires just two Packages installed into Subl. For compatibility with embedded Apps. These are … Actionscript3 and Exalt. Next challenge is to map keybindings. Incidentally I have parked Zed for another day. The themes are unfavourable on my eyes. Subl is softer and is my main writing engine, co-Apps being satellites. Even Claude as OP raises. A one stop scribing tablet.
Anyone else still sticking with Sublime in 2026?
It’s my main editor, my second editor is Zed (but still Zed can’t replace the feeling that I have with Sublime Text)
My sublime text setup is almost perfect (I’m an advance user)
- LSP (typescript projects)
- Pi agent with Deepseek + Gemini (that’s all I need)
- Terminus (for running pi)
- A bunch of shortcuts that make the difference for parallel tasks with AI
Almost the same.
Hardly write massive codes in ST anymore. Most of codes are done in terminal via code agent.
I run it on a netbook with 12 hours of battery and 2GB ram and Sublime Text is great there. Only found it because I’m a huge Sublime Merge user.
I evangelized Sublime Merge across my company. One feature could give both ST and SM a big leg up in resource-constrained environments: “remotes”. VS Code let’s me edit code on a server as if it were local. This feature would be HUGE to have in the sublime family, and would help keep the tools in use, especially as more and more environments are ram-constrained.
I am prototyping that way of working right now. In last few days I run a partner app within Sublime Text and Subl can edit and run the app including posting to a zerotrust environment. Mind you I am a sole experimenter and early days but it works. So in summary changes in server are reflected into Subl. And sync vice versa.
Moving to, actually, beyond even sticking with. While it’s early days, I’m actually a (recent) convert to Sublime. It had been a backup editor to VSCodium for me for quite a while, and since I was very, very new to development when I started using codium I found sublime a bit overwhelming to set up to my liking. But as microsoft has shoved more and more AI bloat into vscode with frequent and often breaking ‘updates’, and dramatically reduced trust in opting out of said AI tools having any effect, I’m working on making sublime my daily driver for my long-form prose/daily notes writing along with it being my main text editor. Early still, but thus far it very much feels like Sublime is what I have spent the last couple years trying to mold vsc into.
my daily driver for my long-form prose/daily notes writing along with it being my main text editor.
Exactly what I am doing. Pairing Subl with CherryTree et al. And developed a protocol to securely shuttle CherryTree betwixt Subl users. Including shared AI work. All within Subl ecosystem. Have to be careful though since there is a risk of being flagged in forum when daring to “think out the box”. I have collected several flags. But consider pairing strategies provided that the other partner is XML compatible. For example you can pair with Scribus desktop publisher. Posting content from Subl into (say) Scribus SLA template. Subl becomes the primary editor configuring XML templates. Thus Subl snippets can be posted to Scribus SLA template. This is just one example in my thinking. There are multiple apps which use XML. Adobe for one. Subl hacking Adobe? Search in browser …
“list of applications using xml”.
But the biggest breakthrough is pairing with AI Claude …safely, securely. Think teaming.
I predominantly use VS Core, but for very large files you can’t beat Sublime for its sheer performance. It can still handle syntax highlighting and code folding even when the file is megs in size. It’s light weight and always very fast to open which is a big plus for me. In short I’m still a big fan.
I appreciate Sublime Text as much as I do the terminal, though I would not describe myself as exclusively committed to terminal-based or Linux-only tools.
I find VSCode unappealing, as are other monolithic all-in-one platforms. What I prefer is a lightweight, fast, native editor that is straightforward to configure, minimal in its interference with other tools, yet sophisticated enough to support customisation of build systems, keyboard shortcuts, and syntax highlighting.
Sublime Text inherits substantially from TextMate, which I used extensively alongside Alpha, an earlier single-author editor that was eventually discontinued. By contrast, VSCode exemplifies Microsoft’s characteristic all-encompassing strategy: a unified platform engineered for universal adoption. This approach does not appeal to me.
It is my main gui editor (I use micro from a terminal). This is primarily because I have found no other editor with the plugin for markdown editing that so seemlessly integrates with pandoc. It just works. And has been working (same plugin with multiple versions of ST and pandoc) for at least a decade on both Windows (when I used it at work) and Linux (my personal computers). I’ve looked at Atom, VSCode, Notepad++, KEdit - none of them have the integration I want.
I use it all the time. I have tried others, but I come back to ST. My old eyes can’t take the colors and font sizes on other editors. ST is soft and relaxing. I like clean and simple. My code is clean and simple, mostly CF on Lucee. I would like to see it integrated with my server so I did not have to FTP constantly. I started using it around 2018, 8 years now. My AI assistant has learned how I like my code structured, which is very helpful. Hoping Sublime Text out lives me.
There is one that I used earlier … and still have it in Ubuntu … zettlr … but I am settling into Subl as sole scribing tool since it is easy on my eyes. But my approach now is to weave Subl into Ubuntu rich choice of tools to pair with. That works very well. And I might even pair Subl with Zettlr as a trial now that I am reminded. For example I use Krusader and view /sublime-text-3/Packages/User in one of the two panels. I have a file Tutorial.md sitting there. I can open with … Subl or other apps such as Zettlr. In fact I have just done that as a test. Zettlr launches the Tutorial.md I started in Subl. Now I can try both worlds.
P.S. Try quarto (*.qmd) in parallel with *.md. I have a quarto build option in Subl.
Is Sublime Text Still Worth Using as a Main Editor in 2026?
P.P.S. I now envisage Subl sitting in a Venn Diagram of overlapping ecosystems. That is how I now manage my Ubuntu desktop estate. I use Subl to edit the “innards” of other collaboratng Apps where I place them under /Packages/User/_Gateway (my innovation) and in Packages/User/_Gateway I include Apps, Services, you name it, all subject to Subl Editing regime. A Venn diagram. A “one stop scribing environment”. Just like the old Atom editor model with electrons whizzing around a core Proton. But that is my metaphorical side working again which earned some flags. Works nicely minimising need for Packages/Plugins to communicate with outside world in this Venn Diagram Model.
Later edit. I have just installed BoxySVG in my “Venn Diagram” framework. Now I can edit the SVG code in Subl and View the output in BoxySVG renderer. I can pull in SVG snippets from Subl snippets to merge with SVG. Just one example. No Packages or Plugins needed.
SVG starter tutorial here. https://www.w3schools.com/graphics/tryit.asp?filename=trysvg_myfirst
Edit in Subl.
I have loads of dot files (if you refer to /.config ecosystem) but I am not a github hacker. I tend to build from seat of pants by orchestrating what I see on the screen. That is by UI automation. Much depends on UI compatibility cross OS. I focus on Ubuntu but can experiment with Windows/Mac , if I must, to collaborate. I don’t often write Packages/Plugins since they begin to clutter the landscape and workflow. Just leverage / orchestrate what you can see. Like stage props. For example with a few mouse clicks I can open any Subl Text file in any desktop app … sans packages or plugins. Although I do use some that are required. Exalt for one for XML compatibility (such as SVG et al). I can’t easily remember key combos so I use aliases instead to map to key bindings (much written on that recently - bewildering to me - see here Table of Key Bindings). I use a different, visual way of desktop binding I guess. Orchestration is the key word. Take a look at enabling (in partnership with Subl on same desktop stage) venerable tools such as Actiona (Actionscript days - needing Actionscript package) and then more comprehensive TagUI. Then become a “desktop playwright”, managing Actors, Acts, Scenes, Stage props. They are all found in Ubuntu. Subl is just one key Actor but easy on my elderly eyes as prime editor across different scopes. Hope that explains my odd visual thinking. Let me know what “dot file” is of interest. What process? Which OS?
Hi, @marryjoseph8.
If you haven’t already tried it, I have recently been developing a lot of Python code with the LSP and LSP-pyright Packages, and am EXTREMELY impressed! Right-clicking the text, and selecting LSP > Goto Definition... feels a great deal like some of the best IDE’s I’ve ever used. As an example, as a test, I placed my cursor on the str type (in a typing hint) and did that, and it took me to buildins.pyi to the class str definition! Plus it is extremely agile in the type-hinting arena. In the package I am currently developing, it has already saved me (literally) dozens of bugs that never ran and generated a run-time exception (or presented any future danger) because LSP-pyright caught them first. This is a huge blessing in local code. Plus, after a year of extensively customizing my own environment, may tail is wagging about Sublime Text more than ever…
Kind regards,
Vic
P.S.
If you place pyrightconfig.json in your project with this content:
{
"extraPaths": [
"/path/to/app_code/Lib/python3.14.zip",
"/path/to/app_code/Lib/python314",
],
//"typeCheckingMode": "strict",
"executionEnvironments": [
{
"root": "./",
"pythonVersion": "3.14",
},
],
// Install LSP-json to get validation and autocompletion in this file.
// "venvPath": "./myenv",
// "venv": ".venv",
}
The LSP-pyright Package will ALSO do you proud with the Sublime API!!
I recently switched to Sublime. I was doing exclusively Apple-platform development for more than 20 years, so I was using Xcode, but now I’m doing a project where I have to do a bit of ts, so I had to find an editor for that.
Being in the Apple ecosystem completely, I tried BBEdit, but it did not convinced me, especially due to its poor LSP support.
I tried Zed because it’s the new hotness, but it “felt wrong.”
I tried Sublime and fell in love with it.
So much that I even “resurrected” an old plugin for Modelines, because I needed proper Modelines support in my project (not for ts, but for my IaC repo).
Over the years, I’ve tried most of the existing paid and free editors. My experience with Sublime has been the most influential. Over time, Sublime naturally became my main editor. And it remains so. I see no reason to switch from Sublime to anything else.