From 4718b6f77daa4aa3ea15f35e9d2ff392df0f0573 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: kovan <xaum.io@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2026 01:16:30 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] feat: render implicit Info node references as clickable
 buttons

Backtick-quoted Info node references like `(elisp)Foo Bar' now render
as clickable buttons that open the corresponding Info page, matching
the behavior of describe-function.

Fix: #362

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 helpful.el                | 14 ++++++++++++++
 test/helpful-unit-test.el | 15 +++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 29 insertions(+)

diff --git a/helpful.el b/helpful.el
index 9516e46..51247fe 100644
--- a/helpful.el
+++ b/helpful.el
@@ -1081,6 +1081,20 @@ unescaping too."
              ((s-contains-p "\\[" contents)
               (delete-region start-pos end-pos)
               (insert (helpful--format-commands contents keymap)))
+             ;; Implicit Info node references like `(elisp)Foo Bar'.
+             ;; These appear in docstrings and should be rendered as
+             ;; clickable links, matching describe-function behavior.
+             ((string-match
+               (rx string-start
+                   "(" (group (one-or-more (not (any ")")))) ")"
+                   (group (one-or-more anything))
+                   string-end)
+               contents)
+              (delete-region start-pos end-pos)
+              (insert (helpful--button
+                       contents
+                       'helpful-info-button
+                       'info-node contents)))
              ;; Highlight a normal `foo', extracting the surrounding
              ;; text so we can detect e.g. "function `foo'".
              (t
diff --git a/test/helpful-unit-test.el b/test/helpful-unit-test.el
index bdfdfc1..1b20b0a 100644
--- a/test/helpful-unit-test.el
+++ b/test/helpful-unit-test.el
@@ -114,6 +114,21 @@ bar")
 
 bar")))
 
+(ert-deftest helpful--docstring-info-node ()
+  "Implicit Info node references should become buttons."
+  ;; A backtick-quoted Info node reference like `(elisp)Foo Bar'
+  ;; should be rendered as a clickable button.
+  (let* ((formatted (helpful--format-docstring "`(elisp)Foo Bar'")))
+    (should (equal formatted "(elisp)Foo Bar"))
+    (should (get-text-property 0 'button formatted)))
+  ;; A reference with a different manual should also work.
+  (let* ((formatted (helpful--format-docstring "`(cl)Loop Facility'")))
+    (should (equal formatted "(cl)Loop Facility"))
+    (should (get-text-property 0 'button formatted)))
+  ;; Regular symbol references should not be affected.
+  (let* ((formatted (helpful--format-docstring "`message'")))
+    (should (equal formatted "message"))))
+
 (ert-deftest helpful--docstring-advice ()
   "Get the docstring on advised functions."
   (should