meain/dotfiles/edit-in-emacs

Edit in Emacs

Use this skill when the user wants to manually review or edit a draft (commit message, PR body, Jira description, prompt, etc.) before it is submitted or used downstream.

Workflow

1. Write the draft to a temp file under /tmp/.

• Pick a descriptive filename, e.g. /tmp/jira-<topic>.md, /tmp/pr-body.md, /tmp/commit-msg.txt.
• If the draft has multiple structured parts (e.g. summary + body), separate them with a clear marker like a line SUMMARY: ... followed by ---, and tell the user about the convention.

1. Open the file with blocking emacsclient:

``bash emacsclient /tmp/<file> ``

• Do not use -n — blocking is the whole point. The Bash call returns only after the user does C-x # (server-edit) in Emacs.
• Pass timeout: 600000 (10 min) on the Bash tool call so it does not abort while the user is editing.
• Always use dangerouslyDisableSandbox: true — emacsclient connects to a Unix socket and the sandbox blocks it.

1. After the Bash call returns, the edited file is on disk.

• The harness usually emits a system-reminder showing the diff of any changes — use that if it is present.
• If no diff was shown (e.g. user did not modify the file, or the change is large), Read the file to get the current contents.
• If `emacsclient` runs as a background process, a system-reminder may show a mid-session diff before the user is done. Do NOT apply changes from that diff — wait for the background task completion notification, then Read the file for the final state.

1. Use the edited contents in the downstream action (jira create, gh pr create, commit, etc.). Do not re-prompt the user for the same content; trust their edits.

Notes

• The user must have emacs --daemon (or a running GUI Emacs server) for emacsclient to attach. If emacsclient reports can't find socket, fall back to telling the user and offer $EDITOR instead.
• Keep the temp file under /tmp/, never in the repo root.
• If the user explicitly asks for a different editor, honour that and skip this skill.
• The skill is for interactive editing of a draft, not for opening existing source files — for those, just Read them.