Rebel Readline

The line reader provides advanced features like completion, documentation, source, apropos, and eval. To enable these, you must supply a Service when creating a rebel-readline.clojure.line-reader.

• rebel-readline.services.clojure.local: The most common service. It queries the local Clojure process to provide features. This is the recommended service for standard Clojure REPLs.
• rebel-readline.clojure.service.simple: Use this for remote REPLs like nREPL, SocketREPL, or pREPL where a local service isn't available. While it won't provide full context-aware features, multi-line editing, syntax highlighting, and auto-indenting will still work.

Mental Model: The service provides the 'intelligence' (the data for completion/docs), while the line-reader provides the 'interface' (the terminal manipulation and UI).

Once an nREPL server is running, use rebel-readline-nrepl to connect.

If you installed it as a Clojure Tool (using the :nrebel alias), you can connect by specifying the port. If a .nrepl-port file exists in your current directory, the port is detected automatically.

If the port file is located elsewhere, use the :port-file parameter.

# Connect via specific port
clojure -T:nrebel :port 7888

# Connect using automatic .nrepl-port detection
clojure -T:nrebel

# Connect using a specific port file
clojure -T:nrebel :port-file '"subproject/.nrepl-port"'

# Connect to a specific host
clojure -T:nrebel :host localhost :port 7888

To use rebel-readline-nrepl as a global Clojure tool, add it to your ~/.clojure/deps.edn file under an alias. This allows you to run the client from any directory using the clojure -T:<alias> syntax.

Note: If you are using Java 22 or later, you should include --enable-native-access=ALL-UNNAMED in your :jvm-opts to suppress JLine native access warnings.

{
  :aliases {
    :nrebel {
      :extra-deps {com.bhauman/rebel-readline-nrepl {:mvn/version "0.1.11"}}
      :exec-fn rebel-readline.nrepl/connect
      :exec-args {:background-print false} ;; Optional configuration parameters
      :main-opts ["-m" "rebel-readline.nrepl.main"]
      :jvm-opts ["--enable-native-access=ALL-UNNAMED"]
    }
  }
}

You can install the latest version directly from the Git repository. Because the repository contains multiple subprojects, you must specify the :deps/root as rebel-readline-nrepl.

clojure -Ttools install-latest :lib com.github.bhauman/rebel-readline :coord '{:git/url "https://github.com/bhauman/rebel-readline.git" :deps/root "rebel-readline-nrepl"}' :as nrebel

To use Rebel Readline with Leiningen, add the dependency to your project.clj: [com.bhauman/rebel-readline "0.1.11"]

Then start the REPL using trampoline to ensure the terminal is handled correctly:

lein trampoline run -m rebel-readline.main

To simplify usage, you can add an alias to your project.clj:

:aliases {"rebl" ["trampoline" "run" "-m" "rebel-readline.main"]}

Now you can start the REPL with:

lein rebl

You can also install it globally by adding it to your $HOME/.lein/profiles.clj under the :user key.

To use rebel-readline-cljs in a Leiningen project, add the dependency to your project.clj and use lein trampoline to run the main module.

;; In project.clj
[com.bhauman/rebel-readline-cljs "0.1.11"]

# Start the REPL
lein trampoline run -m rebel-readline.cljs.main

You can install Rebel Readline as a tool from the latest Git release tag using the Clojure CLI tools:

1. Install the tool:

clojure -Ttools install-latest :lib com.github.bhauman/rebel-readline :coord '{:git/url "https://github.com/bhauman/rebel-readline.git" :deps/root "rebel-readline"}' :as rebel

2. Launch the REPL from any project directory:

clojure -Trebel repl

To include the client directly in your project's dependencies, add it to your project's deps.edn file under an alias.

{:aliases
 {:nrebelly
  {:extra-deps {com.bhauman/rebel-readline-nrepl {:mvn/version "0.1.11"}}
   :exec-fn rebel-readline.nrepl/connect
   :exec-args {:host "localhost"
               :port-file "subproject/.nrepl-port"}}}}

To integrate Rebel Readline into your development workflow, add an alias to your ~/.clojure/deps.edn file. This allows you to launch the REPL easily in any project directory.

Add the following to your :aliases map:

{:aliases {:rebel {:extra-deps {com.bhauman/rebel-readline {:mvn/version "0.1.11"}}
                   :exec-fn rebel-readline.tool/repl
                   :exec-args {}
                   :main-opts ["-m" "rebel-readline.main"]}}}

Usage:

• Launch with: clojure -Xrebel
• Or as a standalone tool: clojure -T:rebel

To use Rebel Readline in a Leiningen project, add the dependency to your project.clj:

[com.bhauman/rebel-readline "0.1.11"]

To start the REPL: Use lein trampoline run -m rebel-readline.main.

Recommended: Create an alias in project.clj to simplify launching:

:aliases {"
ebl" ["trampoline" "run" "-m" "rebel-readline.main"]}

Now you can start the REPL using lein rebl.

[com.bhauman/rebel-readline "0.1.11"]

:aliases {"rebl" ["trampoline" "run" "-m" "rebel-readline.main"]}