denote-acme/PLUMBING.md

Plumbing Integration for Denote

This document describes how to integrate the Denote command with the Plan 9 plumber to enable right-click opening of denote notes.

Overview

The plumbing rules allow you to right-click on denote:<identifier> text in acme and have it automatically open the corresponding note.

Setup

Add these rules to your $HOME/lib/plumbing file:

# declarations of ports without rules
plumb to denote

# Denote identifiers - open note by identifier
type is text
data matches 'denote:([0-9]+T[0-9]+)'
plumb to denote
plumb start Denote $1

Rule Placement

• The port declaration (plumb to denote) should go with other port declarations near the top
• The pattern matching rule should be placed before generic file matching rules to ensure it fires first

Reload Rules

After editing $HOME/lib/plumbing, reload the rules:

cat $HOME/lib/plumbing | 9p write plumb/rules

Usage

Once configured, you can right-click (button 3) on any text matching the pattern:

denote:20251103T165653

This will execute Denote open 20251103T165653 and open the note in acme.

Pattern Details

The regex pattern denote:([0-9]+T[0-9]+) matches:

• The literal text denote:
• One or more digits
• The letter T
• One or more digits

This matches the standard Denote identifier format: YYYYMMddTHHmmss

Troubleshooting

If right-clicking doesn't work:

1. Verify rules are loaded: 9p read plumb/rules | grep denote
2. Check the command exists: which Denote
3. Test manually: plumb "denote:20251103T165653"
4. Ensure the pattern uses + not {n} quantifiers (Plan 9 regex limitation)