# emacsclient

5 Hacker News commenters recommended emacsclient and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Command-line client that opens files in a running Emacs process, so edits are quick and shared with the session. Caveat: the name confuses newcomers who expect a REST client.

## Why people recommend it

- Shares files with running Emacs (2 comments): "is indeed a good way to use a running Emacs process as a quick editor" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47111377)) "You should use emacsclient, so file will be actually shared." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48256503))
- Fast and reliable from the command line (2 comments): "emacsclient via CLI has been working remarkably well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47210569)) "It really speeds things up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48256679))

## What people warn about

- Name suggests a REST client (1 comments): "the name `emacsclient` was a poor one because in 2026 most folks new to Emacs expect it to act like a REST client" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48863197))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Telnet client](https://hackerapproved.com/p/telnet.md): 19 recommend
- [psql](https://hackerapproved.com/p/psql.md): 8 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "emacsclient", https://hackerapproved.com/p/emacsclient/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).