Setting up Org-mode to run Clojure code

I wanted to be able to store interesting clojure snippets in an org file and then execute and play with them without leaving the file. In this post, I’ll illustrate the steps needed to achieve the same. I am assuming that you’ve already setup Emacs with org-mode and cider.

First, start by installing the ob-clojure package:

M-x package-install
ob-clojure

or simply do so with use-package:

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(use-package ob-clojure)

Now we need to let org-mode know to use a cider repl to execute the snippets in our file:

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(require 'cider)
(setq org-babel-clojure-backend 'cider)

We’re done with the setup. Start a new cider repl connection by running:

M-x cider-jack-in

Once the repl has successfully launched, create a new org file and add the following code block:

#+BEGIN_SRC clojure
(+ 1 2 3 4)
#+END_SRC

Hit C-c from within a code block to evaluate it. You should now see the result displayed like so:

#+RESULTS:
: 10

If you don’t want the results to be displayed in the file itself, add :results silent after the begin header:

#+BEGIN_SRC clojure :results silent
(+ 1 2 3 4)
#+END_SRC

You should now be able to see the result displayed in the minibuffer instead.

That’s all there is to it. Have fun with literate programming :)