Can the hx command alone open an ephemeral Markdown editor?

[jahinkolin]

I often use the hx command on it's own to open an editor for taking quick notes on the fly that I don't want to be saved to a file locally. When I close that editor all my edits disappear and I want that. I am wondering if it is possible for the hx command run alone to open a Markdown editor rather than a normal one with no markdown LSP.

[WantenMN]

You could use mktemp to create a separate temporary Markdown file for each instance:

hx() {
    if [ "$#" -eq 0 ]; then
        local file
        file=$(mktemp "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/hx-scratch-XXXXXX.md") || return
        command hx "$file"
        local status=$?
        rm -f -- "$file"
        return "$status"
    else
        command hx "$@"
    fi
}

This opens a fresh Markdown file when hx is run without arguments, and removes it when Helix exits. Multiple instances won't interfere with each other. When arguments are provided, Helix behaves normally.

[ado11231]

You can open hx normally and type :set-language markdown to enable Markdown syntax highlighting and LSP support without saving anything. If you want Markdown enabled automatically, create a shell function that opens a temporary .md file and deletes it when you close Helix.