emacsclient
Ranked 3 of 3 command-line clients by recommenders
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.
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.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Shares files with running Emacs
“is indeed a good way to use a running Emacs process as a quick editor”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Elecxzy – A lightweight, Lisp-free Emacs-like editor in Electron” “You should use emacsclient, so file will be actually shared.”
Comment from 24 May 2026 in “My I3-Emacs Integration” Fast and reliable from the command line
“emacsclient via CLI has been working remarkably well”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “MCP is dead. Long live the CLI” “It really speeds things up”
Comment from 24 May 2026 in “My I3-Emacs Integration”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Name suggests a REST client
“the name `emacsclient` was a poor one because in 2026 most folks new to Emacs expect it to act like a REST client”
Comment from 10 Jul 2026 in “In Emacs, Everything Looks Like a Service”
Other command-line clients people recommend
The two most recommended other command-line clients, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Telnet client | 19 | 9 | 68% | 4 | — | Approved |
| psql | 8 | 6 | 57% | 5 | — | — |
| emacsclientThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the name `emacsclient` was a poor one because in 2026 most folks new to Emacs expect it to act like a REST client”
“It really speeds things up”
“You should use emacsclient, so file will be actually shared.”
“emacsclient via CLI has been working remarkably well”
“is indeed a good way to use a running Emacs process as a quick editor”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.