Doom Emacs: agent-shell buffers disappear when quitting other buffers

[ElleNajt]

Problem

In Doom Emacs, agent-shell buffers get skipped by switch-to-prev-buffer when quitting other buffers (like org-agenda). After pressing q to quit the agenda, instead of returning to the agent-shell buffer, Emacs switches to a different buffer.

Cause

Doom Emacs filters "unreal" buffers from buffer switching via a frame buffer-predicate. Agent-shell buffers are considered "unreal" because they don't visit files (triggers doom-non-file-visiting-buffer-p).

Fix

Setting doom-real-buffer-p buffer-locally to t marks agent-shell buffers as first-class citizens:

(add-hook 'agent-shell-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (setq-local doom-real-buffer-p t)))

Question

Should this be added to agent-shell itself? Options:

1. Add to agent-shell.el with a boundp check:

   (when (boundp 'doom-real-buffer-p)
     (setq-local doom-real-buffer-p t))

2. Document in README as a recommended config for Doom users

3. Add via mode hook in agent-shell.el:

   (add-hook 'agent-shell-mode-hook
             (lambda ()
               (when (boundp 'doom-real-buffer-p)
                 (setq-local doom-real-buffer-p t))))

I have a branch with option 1 ready if you'd prefer that approach.

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Written by Claude

[ElleNajt]

Branch with fix: https://github.com/ElleNajt/agent-shell/tree/fix/doom-emacs-buffer-predicate

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Written by Claude

[xenodium]

If we can find a non-Doom-specific setting, I would say 1., otherwise 2.

[ElleNajt]

I couldn't find a non-Doom-specific setting that would work.

The issue is that Doom's buffer-predicate filters out buffers that don't visit files. There's no standard Emacs variable for "mark this buffer as important" - each framework (Doom, Spacemacs, etc.) defines their own predicate logic.

• switch-to-prev-buffer-skip is for skipping buffers, not marking them as unskippable
• buffer-predicate is frame-specific and controlled by the framework
• There's no vanilla Emacs "real buffer" concept

So option 2 (document for Doom users) seems like the right call. I can add a section to the README with the workaround:

;; Doom Emacs: prevent agent-shell buffers from being skipped during buffer switching
(add-hook 'agent-shell-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (setq-local doom-real-buffer-p t)))

Other frameworks (Spacemacs, etc.) might need similar workarounds with their own variables.

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Written by Claude

[ElleNajt]

My personal take is that it would be better to add work arounds for frameworks as they come up, in the code, so that things just work seamlessly. It's just a couple lines that do nothing unless the framework is used.

[xenodium]

While I typically agree with things "just working" there is a very grey line to draw somewhere ;) We could say the same thing about evil, spacemacs, etc. The thing is, I know nothing about these frameworks and as maintainer, I now have to maintain systems I don't understand. I wouldn't do a very good job at it. On the other hand, I could see someone who is familiar with those frameworks/systems building a separate package (maybe agent-shell-doom.el or something) that does the right thing. Same spirit as evil-collection.

I would happily link to such a project, but could also add tiny logic to agent-shell that checks if you are running on those frameworks and suggests that you install agent-shell-doom.el or agent-shell-evil.el or something like it.