The pathaction.el Emacs package provides an interface for executing .pathaction.yaml rules directly from Emacs through the pathaction cli, a flexible tool for running commands on files and directories.

Think of pathaction like a Makefile for any file or directory in the filesystem. It uses a .pathaction.yaml file to figure out which command to run, and you can even use Jinja2 templating to make those commands dynamic. You can also use tags to define multiple actions for the exact same file type, like setting up one tag to run a script, and another to debug it.

This tool is for software developers who manage multiple projects across diverse ecosystems and want to eliminate the cognitive load of switching between different build tools, environment configurations, and deployment methods. Just run one single command on any file and trust that it gets handled correctly.

If this package helps your workflow, please show your support by ⭐ starring pathaction.el on GitHub to help more software developers discover its benefits.

• The pathaction command-line tool.

To install pathaction from MELPA:

1. If you haven't already done so, add MELPA repository to your Emacs configuration.

2. Add the following code to your Emacs init file to install pathaction from MELPA:

(use-package pathaction
  :ensure t
  :config
  (add-to-list 'display-buffer-alist '("\\*pathaction:"
                                       (display-buffer-at-bottom)
                                       (window-height . 0.33))))

By default, pathaction does not read rule-set files such as .pathaction.yaml from arbitrary directories. The target directory must be explicitly permitted.

For example, to allow Pathaction to load .pathaction.yaml rules from ~/projects and its subdirectories, run the following command:

pathaction --allow-dir ~/projects

To execute the pathaction action that is tagged with main, you can call the following Emacs function:

(pathaction-run "main")

• pathaction-run: This is the main function for triggering pathaction actions.
• "main": This is the tag used to identify a specific action. The tag you provide to the function determines which set of actions will be executed. In this case, "main" refers to the actions that are specifically tagged with this name.

To edit a .pathaction.yaml file located in a parent directory, run the command: M-x pathaction-edit

The command prompts for selection of one of the rule-set files found in the current directory or in one of its parent directories.

To configure pathaction to open its window under the current one, you can use the display-buffer-alist variable to customize how the pathaction buffer is displayed. Specifically, you can use the display-buffer-at-bottom action, which will display the buffer in a new window at the bottom of the current frame.

Here's the code to do this:

(add-to-list 'display-buffer-alist '("\\*pathaction:"
                                     (display-buffer-at-bottom)
                                     (window-height . 0.33)))

• pathaction-before-run-hook: This hook is executed by pathaction-run before the pathaction command is executed. By default, it calls the save-some-buffers function to prompt saving any modified buffers:

  (setq pathaction-before-run-hook '(save-some-buffers))

• pathaction-after-create-buffer-hook: This hook is executed after the pathaction buffer is created. It runs from within the pathaction buffer, enabling further customization or actions once the buffer is available.

By default, pathaction-before-run-hook only calls a function to save the current buffer before executing actions or commands that affect the current or any other edited buffer.

To make pathaction save all buffers, use the following configuration:

(defun my-save-some-buffers ()
  "Prevent `save-some-buffers' from prompting by passing 1 to it."
  (save-some-buffers))

(add-hook 'pathaction-before-run-hook #'my-save-some-buffers)

(If you want to prevent save-some-buffers from prompting the user before saving, replace (save-some-buffers) with (save-some-buffers t).)

The pathaction Emacs package has been written by James Cherti and is distributed under terms of the GNU General Public License version 3, or, at your choice, any later version.

Copyright (C) 2025-2026 James Cherti

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program.

• pathaction.el, an Emacs package that allows executing the pathaction command-line tool directly from Emacs.
• The pathaction command-line tool (requirement): pathaction cli
• For Vim users: vim-pathaction, a Vim plugin that allows executing the pathaction command-line tool directly from Vim.

Other Emacs packages by the same author:

• compile-angel.el: Speed up Emacs! This package guarantees that all .el files are both byte-compiled and native-compiled, which significantly speeds up Emacs.
• outline-indent.el: An Emacs package that provides a minor mode that enables code folding and outlining based on indentation levels for various indentation-based text files, such as YAML, Python, and other indented text files.
• easysession.el: Easysession is lightweight Emacs session manager that can persist and restore file editing buffers, indirect buffers/clones, Dired buffers, the tab-bar, and the Emacs frames (with or without the Emacs frames size, width, and height).
• vim-tab-bar.el: Make the Emacs tab-bar Look Like Vim's Tab Bar.
• elispcomp: A command line tool that allows compiling Elisp code directly from the terminal or from a shell script. It facilitates the generation of optimized .elc (byte-compiled) and .eln (native-compiled) files.
• tomorrow-night-deepblue-theme.el: The Tomorrow Night Deepblue Emacs theme is a beautiful deep blue variant of the Tomorrow Night theme, which is renowned for its elegant color palette that is pleasing to the eyes. It features a deep blue background color that creates a calming atmosphere. The theme is also a great choice for those who miss the blue themes that were trendy a few years ago.
• Ultyas: A command-line tool designed to simplify the process of converting code snippets from UltiSnips to YASnippet format.
• dir-config.el: Automatically find and evaluate .dir-config.el Elisp files to configure directory-specific settings.
• flymake-bashate.el: A package that provides a Flymake backend for the bashate Bash script style checker.
• flymake-ansible-lint.el: An Emacs package that offers a Flymake backend for ansible-lint.
• inhibit-mouse.el: A package that disables mouse input in Emacs, offering a simpler and faster alternative to the disable-mouse package.
• quick-sdcv.el: This package enables Emacs to function as an offline dictionary by using the sdcv command-line tool directly within Emacs.
• enhanced-evil-paredit.el: An Emacs package that prevents parenthesis imbalance when using evil-mode with paredit. It intercepts evil-mode commands such as delete, change, and paste, blocking their execution if they would break the parenthetical structure.
• stripspace.el: Ensure Emacs Automatically removes trailing whitespace before saving a buffer, with an option to preserve the cursor column.
• persist-text-scale.el: Ensure that all adjustments made with text-scale-increase and text-scale-decrease are persisted and restored across sessions.
• kirigami.el: The kirigami Emacs package offers a unified interface for opening and closing folds across a diverse set of major and minor modes in Emacs, including outline-mode, outline-minor-mode, outline-indent-minor-mode, org-mode, markdown-mode, vdiff-mode, vdiff-3way-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, origami-mode, yafolding-mode, folding-mode, and treesit-fold-mode. With Kirigami, folding key bindings only need to be configured once. After that, the same keys work consistently across all supported major and minor modes, providing a unified and predictable folding experience.