How do I install the Emacs skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add simhacker/emacs in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Emacs safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Independent scanners report: SkillSpector: PASS, Skill Scanner: PASS. Capability flags: executes scripts. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Emacs?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Emacs free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free. This skill is licensed under MIT.

SimHacker (@simhacker) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Emacs by simhacker — Agent Skill

Name: Emacs
Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Author: SimHacker

File contents

Emacs (MOO)

What this skill is

GNU Emacs with emacs --daemon is a long-lived evaluator: buffers, modes, and elisp are the program. Agents and humans share persistent context (open files, marks, narrowing, undo). The sister script scripts/emacs.py adapts emacsclient for tools: JSON-shaped results, named targets, batching, logging, and emacs:// routing.

This is not a thin “run one shell command” wrapper. The value is the protocol: what to return after each operation, how to name multiple daemons, how speech and intent map to elisp.

Three interaction tiers

Intent — (moo-rename-symbol "a" "b" :scope 'project) style (to be implemented in elisp; names in CARD).
Structural — (moo-in-defun "foo" ...) , (moo-try BODY) with atomic-change-group.
Raw elisp — (emacs.py eval "(+ 1 2)") or direct emacsclient --eval.

Sister script: `scripts/emacs.py`

Subcommands (see --help):

status — daemon up, current target
eval SEXP — evaluate, print JSON {ok, value, error} where possible
target list | current | use NAME — ~/.emacs.d/moo/servers.yml
speak TEXT — placeholder: will use spoken-grammar.yml + optional local LLM
url EMACS_URL — resolve and dispatch (staged implementation)

Environment:

EMACSCLIENT — path to emacsclient (default: emacsclient)
MOO_EMACS_TARGET — default target name

Logs: append JSON lines to .moollm/skills/emacs/logs/command-log.jsonl when run from a MOOLLM workspace.

Elisp side (templates/)

Install copies under ~/.emacs.d/moo/ (see templates/init.el):

moo-protocol.el — moo-with-effects, standard result plist
moo-structural.el — structural helpers
moo-oneshot.el — oneshot define / log / promote
moo-macros.el — macro capture and schema export hooks

Integration

play-learn-lift — oneshot log + macro list + command-log.jsonl
cursor-mirror — optional: correlate agent edits with Emacs log
yaml-jazz — spoken-grammar.yml comments carry semantics

Cursor prompt / aiService snapshot

Optional: reference/cursor-aiService-prompts.yaml holds aiService.prompts and aiService.generations from the workspace DB (see reference/README.md). Regenerate with cursor-mirror export-prompts <workspace-id> -o ….

Part of MOOLLM

Repo README, skills/README.md.

---name: emacsdescription: GNU Emacs as a stateful Lisp machine for agents — daemon, moo-* protocol, emacs.py router, emacs:// URLs, spoken grammar, play-learn-lift.allowed-tools: [read, grep, glob, run_terminal_cmd]related: [sister-script, play-learn-lift, yaml-jazz, cursor-mirror, robust-first]license: MIT---# Emacs (MOO)## What this skill isGNU Emacs with `emacs --daemon` is a **long-lived evaluator**: buffers, modes, and elisp are the program. Agents and humans share **persistent context** (open files, marks, narrowing, undo). The **sister script** `scripts/emacs.py` adapts `emacsclient` for tools: **JSON-shaped results**, **named targets**, **batching**, **logging**, and **`emacs://`** routing.This is **not** a thin “run one shell command” wrapper. The value is the **protocol**: what to return after each operation, how to name multiple daemons, how speech and intent map to elisp.## Three interaction tiers1. **Intent** — `(moo-rename-symbol "a" "b" :scope 'project)` style (to be implemented in elisp; names in CARD).2. **Structural** — `(moo-in-defun "foo" ...)` , `(moo-try BODY)` with `atomic-change-group`.3. **Raw elisp** — `(emacs.py eval "(+ 1 2)")` or direct `emacsclient --eval`.## Sister script: `scripts/emacs.py`Subcommands (see `--help`):- `status` — daemon up, current target- `eval SEXP` — evaluate, print JSON `{ok, value, error}` where possible- `target list | current | use NAME` — `~/.emacs.d/moo/servers.yml`- `speak TEXT` — placeholder: will use `spoken-grammar.yml` + optional local LLM- `url EMACS_URL` — resolve and dispatch (staged implementation)Environment:- `EMACSCLIENT` — path to emacsclient (default: `emacsclient`)- `MOO_EMACS_TARGET` — default target nameLogs: append JSON lines to `.moollm/skills/emacs/logs/command-log.jsonl` when run from a MOOLLM workspace.## Elisp side (templates/)Install copies under `~/.emacs.d/moo/` (see `templates/init.el`):- `moo-protocol.el` — `moo-with-effects`, standard result plist- `moo-structural.el` — structural helpers- `moo-oneshot.el` — oneshot define / log / promote- `moo-macros.el` — macro capture and schema export hooks## Integration- **play-learn-lift** — oneshot log + macro list + command-log.jsonl- **cursor-mirror** — optional: correlate agent edits with Emacs log- **yaml-jazz** — `spoken-grammar.yml` comments carry semantics## Cursor prompt / aiService snapshotOptional: [reference/cursor-aiService-prompts.yaml](reference/cursor-aiService-prompts.yaml) holds `aiService.prompts` and `aiService.generations` from the workspace DB (see [reference/README.md](reference/README.md)). Regenerate with `cursor-mirror export-prompts <workspace-id> -o …`.## Part of MOOLLMRepo [README](../../README.md), [skills/README.md](../README.md).

Frequently asked questions

Emacs