# What is kakscript?

**URL:** <https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/what-is-kakscript/1449>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [December 27, 2020, 10:04am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/what-is-kakscript/1449 "2020-12-27T10:04:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![scr](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/scr/32/486_2.png) [@scr](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/scr)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 10:04am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/what-is-kakscript/1449/1 "2020-12-27T10:04:42Z")

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Is kakscript some sort ofshell is it a particualr syntax similar to shell parsed by the C++ core ?  
If its shell, what are the `%val{}`, `%sh{}` etc… delimiters ? Could the rc files be used by another editor ?

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**Author:** ![Screwtapello](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/screwtapello/32/12_2.png) [@Screwtapello](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/Screwtapello)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 10:49am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/what-is-kakscript/1449/2 "2020-12-27T10:49:58Z")

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“KakScript” isn’t the official name; it doesn’t officially have a name as far as I know. I think people call it “KakScript” because many Kakoune users are familiar with Vim, Vim has a scripting language called “VimScript”, and Kakoune’s configuration/extension language is the closest thing it has to VimScript.

It’s not a shell, in the sense of a standalone program that runs other programs, but it’s built on the model of “a series of commands, each of which is a sequence of strings”, which is closer to shell (and even closer to Tcl) than it is to Java or C++ or Python.

It is parsed by Kakoune’s C++ core.

The `%word{}` syntax is explained in `:doc command-parsing typed-expansions`.

Kakoune plugins could concievably be used by another editor, but it would have to implement almost all of Kakoune’s features to be sufficiently compatible.

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**Author:** ![scr](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/scr/32/486_2.png) [@scr](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/scr)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 11:56am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/what-is-kakscript/1449/3 "2020-12-27T11:56:48Z")

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Thanks for the clarification !

> [@Screwtapello](#):
>
> “KakScript” isn’t the official name; it doesn’t officially have a name as far as I know. I think people call it “KakScript” because many Kakoune users are familiar with Vim, Vim has a scripting language called “VimScript”, and Kakoune’s configuration/extension language is the closest thing it has to VimScript.

Yes but I didn’t knew how to call it otherwise. It would be nice to have an official name, and I guess kakscript could do the job?

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**Author:** ![robertmeta](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/robertmeta/32/833_2.png) [@robertmeta](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/robertmeta)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 1:24am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/what-is-kakscript/1449/4 "2020-12-29T01:24:23Z")

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I vote for **kakglue**.

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**Author:** ![TeddyDD](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/teddydd/32/21_2.png) [@TeddyDD](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/TeddyDD)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 9:16pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/what-is-kakscript/1449/5 "2020-12-29T21:16:37Z")

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[Tokei](https://github.com/XAMPPRocky/tokei) calls it “Kakoune script”

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**Author:** ![robertmeta](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/robertmeta/32/833_2.png) [@robertmeta](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/robertmeta)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 3:08pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/what-is-kakscript/1449/6 "2020-12-30T15:08:03Z")

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I almost intentionally would like to avoid the word “script” in it – to make it clear it isn’t a scripting language.