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[[!meta title="Beyond Shell History: Saving Compilation Output in Emacs"]]
[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2026 Jonathan Otsuka"]]
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# Beyond Shell History: Saving Compilation Output in Emacs
Jonathan Otsuka (he/him) - Pronunciation: O-tsu-ka, https://github.com/djgoku/compilation-history
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I often want to look up a command I ran earlier and see what it printed.
Shell history gives me the command, but not its output. Emacs compilation
buffers have both, but once the buffer is gone, I need somewhere else to look.
I built `compilation-history` to save that information. It stores each
compilation in SQLite, including the command, output, exit code, timing,
working directory, and Git context. I can search previous runs, reopen their
output, and run a command again without having to piece it together from
memory or notes.
I'll show how I use the package and how it saves and displays previous runs.
I'll also show how I use it with AI coding agents. You can use
`emacs-mcp-server` or just plain `emacsclient` to have an agent run commands
through `compilation-start`. Those commands end up in the same history as my own,
so I can go back and check what a test, build, or diagnostic command printed
after the agent session is over.
About the speaker:
Jonathan Otsuka is a software engineer who enjoys working with Emacs
Lisp and Elixir. His open-source projects include
\`compilation-history\`, \`sops\` for editing encrypted files in Emacs,
and, more recently, \`misemacs\`, a tool for creating reproducible,
self-contained Emacs builds. away from the keyboard, he enjoys
swimming and cycling.
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