Always use emacsclient
The user has an Emacs server running. All Emacs operations must go through emacsclient, never emacs or emacs --batch. This includes both user-requested actions and agent-initiated operations like byte compilation, syntax checking, or running tests.
Examples
- Open a file:
emacsclient --no-wait "/path/to/file" - Evaluate elisp:
emacsclient --eval '(some-function)' - Open at a line:
emacsclient --no-wait +42 "/path/to/file" - Byte compile a file:
emacsclient --eval ' (byte-compile-file "/path/to/file.el")' - Check parentheses:
emacsclient --eval ' (with-temp-buffer (insert-file-contents "/path/to/file.el") (check-parens))' - Run ERT tests:
emacsclient --eval ' (progn (load "/path/to/test-file.el" nil t) (ert-run-tests-batch-and-exit "pattern"))'
Rules
- Always use
emacsclient, neveremacsoremacs --batch. - Use
--no-waitwhen opening files so the command returns immediately. - Use
--evalwhen evaluating elisp. - Always format
--evalelisp across multiple lines with proper indentation. - Run
emacsclientcommands via the Bash tool.