emacsclient on macOS

Starting Emacs server automatically

Configure a macOS launch agent with the plist file and load it with launchctl.

launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/gnu.emacs.daemon.plist

<!-- Put following in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/gnu.emacs.daemon.plist -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>gnu.emacs.daemon</string>
 
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Applications/MacPorts/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs</string>
        <string>--fg-daemon</string>
    </array>
 
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
 
    <key>ProcessType</key>
    <string>Interactive</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Emacs client with AppleScript

Save the following in Script Editor.app as an Application.

do shell script "/Applications/MacPorts/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/emacsclient -c -n -q"

⚠ Warning: Without -n the applet won’t quit and prevents system sleep.