How to easily create and use human-readable IDs in Org mode and Doom Emacs

(this is a slightly modified extract from my Doom Emacs configuration)

While writing with Org mode, I frequently need to insert links to other headings within my local document. I started by doing this manually, inserting a CUSTOM_ID property in the destination headline, and then creating the link.

Later, I discovered and now normally use counsel-org-link (part of counsel, which is included and enabled by default with Ivy in Doom Emacs) for linking between headings in an Org document. It shows me a searchable list of all the headings in the current document, and allows selecting one, automatically creating a link to it. Since it doesn’t have a keybinding by default, let’s start by giving it one (C-c l l is the default +links section in Doom Emacs):

(map! :after counsel :map org-mode-map
      "C-c l l h" #'counsel-org-link)

I also configure counsel-outline-display-style so that only the headline title is inserted into the link, instead of its full path within the document.

(after! counsel
  (setq counsel-outline-display-style 'title))

counsel-org-link uses org-id as its backend, which generates IDs using UUIDs and stores them in the ID property. I prefer using human-readable IDs stored in the CUSTOM_ID property of each heading, so we need to make some changes.

First, configure org-id to use CUSTOM_ID if it exists. This instructs org-id to grab those IDs when using the org-store-link function (funny that org-id knows how to recognize and use CUSTOM_ID, but not how to generate them).

(after! org-id
  ;; Do not create ID if a CUSTOM_ID exists
  (setq org-id-link-to-org-use-id 'create-if-interactive-and-no-custom-id))

Second, I override counsel-org-link-action, which is the function that actually generates and inserts the link, with a custom function that computes and inserts human-readable CUSTOM_ID links. This is supported by a few auxiliary functions for generating and storing the CUSTOM_ID.

(defun zz/make-id-for-title (title)
  "Return an ID based on TITLE."
  (let* ((new-id (replace-regexp-in-string "[^[:alnum:]]" "-" (downcase title))))
    new-id))

(defun zz/org-custom-id-create ()
  "Create and store CUSTOM_ID for current heading."
  (let* ((title (or (nth 4 (org-heading-components)) ""))
         (new-id (zz/make-id-for-title title)))
    (org-entry-put nil "CUSTOM_ID" new-id)
    (org-id-add-location new-id (buffer-file-name (buffer-base-buffer)))
    new-id))

(defun zz/org-custom-id-get-create (&optional where force)
  "Get or create CUSTOM_ID for heading at WHERE.

If FORCE is t, always recreate the property."
  (org-with-point-at where
    (let ((old-id (org-entry-get nil "CUSTOM_ID")))
      ;; If CUSTOM_ID exists and FORCE is false, return it
      (if (and (not force) old-id (stringp old-id))
          old-id
        ;; otherwise, create it
        (zz/org-custom-id-create)))))

;; Now override counsel-org-link-action
(after! counsel
  (defun counsel-org-link-action (x)
    "Insert a link to X.

X is expected to be a cons of the form (title . point), as passed
by `counsel-org-link'.

If X does not have a CUSTOM_ID, create it based on the headline
title."
    (let* ((id (zz/org-custom-id-get-create (cdr x))))
      (org-insert-link nil (concat "#" id) (car x)))))

Ta-da! Now using counsel-org-link inserts nice, human-readable links.

(tip of the hat: I got a lot of inspiration and some code for this from Emacs Org-mode: Use good header ids!)