The Many Uses of Embark

• This week’s video
• I’ve started converting my dotfiles to use guix home
• I might be taking 2 weeks off starting next week!

Embark is a package that enables you to define context-specific actions and key bindings for different “targets” that you might encounter in Emacs:

• Files
• Buffers
• Packages
• Bookmarks
• URLs
• Identifiers (symbols, commands, variables)
• Selected Regions

See the Default Actions wiki page and the variable embark-keymap-alist for a list of the default targets.

Embark can be used for a variety of different tasks:

• A “context menu”
• A command “retargeter”
• A quick-action key for the thing at point
• A way to gather completions for further actions
• A way to switch the current minibuffer command
• A which-key alternative
• A completion interface

If you’ve switched from Helm or Ivy to Vertico or Selectrum, Embark gives you the ability to run actions on the current completion selection, but I’d argue that Embark is a lot more versatile than that.

We’ll be taking a look at a few sources today for ideas on how you can use Embark in your Emacs workflow:

• Embark README: https://github.com/oantolin/embark
• Karthik’s great blog post: https://karthinks.com/software/fifteen-ways-to-use-embark/
• https://github.com/oantolin/embark/wiki/Additional-Actions
• https://github.com/oantolin/embark/wiki/Additional-Configuration
• Prot’s Embark video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoP9ZYdNCHg

Starting Configuration

(use-package embark
  :ensure t
  :bind
  (("C-." . embark-act)
   ("M-." . embark-dwim)
   ("C-h B" . embark-bindings))

  :init
  (setq prefix-help-command #'embark-prefix-help-command))

• How does one use embark-collect-live as a completion system?
• How can you customize the default action for embark-dwim?

Here’s a transcript of the configuration I was experimenting with in the stream:

(use-package embark
  :straight t
  :bind
  (("C-." . embark-act)
   ("M-." . embark-dwim)
   ("C-h B" . embark-bindings))
  :init
  (setq prefix-help-command #'embark-prefix-help-command))

(use-package embark-consult
  :straight t)

(use-package ace-window
  :straight t)

(global-set-key (kbd "M-o") 'ace-window)
(setq aw-dispatch-always t)

(use-package 0x0
  :straight t)

(define-key embark-region-map (kbd "U") '0x0-dwim)

(defun my/test-func ()
  (message "~/init.el"))

(eval-when-compile
  (defmacro my/embark-ace-action (fn)
    `(defun ,(intern (concat "my/embark-ace-" (symbol-name fn))) ()
       (interactive)
       (with-demoted-errors "%s"
         (require 'ace-window)
         (aw-switch-to-window (aw-select nil))
         (call-interactively (symbol-function ',fn)))))

  (defmacro my/embark-split-action (fn split-type)
    `(defun ,(intern (concat "my/embark-"
                             (symbol-name fn)
                             "-"
                             (car (last  (split-string
                                          (symbol-name split-type) "-"))))) ()
       (interactive)
       (funcall #',split-type)
       (call-interactively #',fn))))

(define-key embark-file-map     (kbd "o") (my/embark-ace-action find-file))
(define-key embark-buffer-map   (kbd "o") (my/embark-ace-action switch-to-buffer))
(define-key embark-bookmark-map (kbd "o") (my/embark-ace-action bookmark-jump))

(define-key embark-file-map     (kbd "2") (my/embark-split-action find-file split-window-below))
(define-key embark-buffer-map   (kbd "2") (my/embark-split-action switch-to-buffer split-window-below))
(define-key embark-bookmark-map (kbd "2") (my/embark-split-action bookmark-jump split-window-below))

(define-key embark-file-map     (kbd "3") (my/embark-split-action find-file split-window-right))
(define-key embark-buffer-map   (kbd "3") (my/embark-split-action switch-to-buffer split-window-right))
(define-key embark-bookmark-map (kbd "3") (my/embark-split-action bookmark-jump split-window-right))