779 Tools: The Emacs Obarray as an MCP Server
Table of Contents
A draft for the proposal shelf. Not submitted anywhere. Status: New, from the review.
1. Pitch
Emacs already knows what it can do. Let it tell the agent, then measure what that costs.
2. Abstract
A pure Emacs Lisp server exposes every text-consuming function in a running Emacs as a tool, found by introspection at runtime, with no hand-written list: about 779 tools, plus 9 that reach a live daemon. It works. By working, it shows that "enumerate all tools" saturates an agent's context. The maximalist design is the critique.
3. Audience, format, venue
- Audience
- Emacs users; Lisp audiences interested in introspection.
- Format
- 20 minutes at EmacsConf; a 5-minute lightning at ELS.
- Where
- EmacsConf, ELS lightning, Boston Lisp.
4. Review
Second on the presentation review, fourth on the L7: working code and a self-critical thesis. Both ask for the same fix. The repository states the tool count; "saturates" needs a measured token figure, and the project's conjecture file is reported to give two different estimates. Settle the number before submitting. EmacsConf's call may already be closed for 2026.