xah-find output protocol (2026)
xah-find output protocol
for some text, you want to be able to click on a hotspot and goto the file. such as error line number and jump to that position in a specific file.
useful for grep output, or compiler error, etc.
normally, in emacs, you write code to make the text actionable by embedding text properties, of line number and file path.
xah-find output protocol. is a way to use certain delimiter for hotspot, file char position or line number and filepath, so that you don't have to write code to embed those info. Those info are right in the output text. And any editor tool can easily follow this to jump to the people file and position.
spec
here's a sample output, with the tool syntax colored the occurrences and file as link.
text between this brackets are to be colored.
⟨occur⟩
- name: MATHEMATICAL LEFT ANGLE BRACKET
- name: MATHEMATICAL RIGHT ANGLE BRACKET
each occurrence is followed by a char position number in file, on a line by itself, with this prefix:
•at position:
•at line:
each position is followed by a file path, with this prefix:
•at file:
sample output: