Kakscript for the first time is hard, documenting my journey

lobre · June 3, 2025, 12:55pm

Another update. In the section “Resist Shell Expansions”, I added another example for ideas around branching without a shell.

This is directly gathered from the topic: Branching on a boolean option -- without calling the shell

Thanks @ftonneau for those ideas. I think they are super valuable to share!

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/lobre/4838c6859ff7d89e43447f07432cba7d#branching-without-a-shell

README.md

# Understanding Kakoune’s Command Language: Parsing, Evaluations, and Beyond

Kakoune is a modal editor. That means when you’re editing text, you’re constantly interacting with the editor using a powerful language of keystrokes — moving around, selecting text, transforming content, all through short, expressive commands typed directly in the editing interface. This is the **core editing experience**, and it’s what gives Kakoune its speed and fluidity.

But this isn’t the only way to interact with Kakoune.

There’s another side to Kakoune — a more structural, programmable one — which lets you interact with the editor through **commands**. These commands can be used to configure Kakoune, automate behavior, and define complex workflows. Commands can be written in configuration files, invoked via custom keybindings, or typed directly into the command prompt.

This document focuses on that second side: the **command interface**. We will explore how commands work, how they are built, and how Kakoune interprets them. We’ll define the basic building blocks — strings, words, parsing, expansions — and build up to understand how Kakoune processes scripts and configurations written in what is often called **kakscript**.

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