The manual page "Environment of a Code Block" describes :prologue and :epilogue header arguments, which are useful for applications like unit tests and boilerplate code. No suggestion is made that these arguments are only available for some languages. In fact, any language that provides its own org-babel-expand-body needs special code to handle these arguments - and emacs-lisp lacks it. It seems to me that either: 1) these arguments should be added to each backend that lacks them (emacs-lisp in particular), or 2) The documentation should indicate that they may not be supported in every language. At the moment I have the following workaround: (advice-add #'org-babel-expand-body:emacs-lisp :around (lambda (oldfn body params) (let ((pro (cdr (assq :prologue params))) (epi (cdr (assq :epilogue params)))) (concat (if pro (concat pro "\n") "") (funcall oldfn body params) (if epi (concat epi "\n") "")))) '((name . pe-advice))) Emacs : GNU Emacs 29.1 (build 2, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.33, cairo version 1.16.0) of 2023-07-30 Package: Org mode version 9.6.9 ( @ /home/jet/.config/emacs/elpa/org-9.6.9/) current state: ============== (setq org-link-elisp-confirm-function 'yes-or-no-p org-ditaa-jar-path "/usr/share/ditaa/ditaa.jar" org-bibtex-headline-format-function #[257 "\300 \236A\207" [:title] 3 "\n\n(fn ENTRY)"] org-persist-after-read-hook '(org-element--cache-persist-after-read) org-re-reveal-root "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/reveal.js@3.6.0" org-export-before-parsing-hook '(org-attach-expand-links) org-cycle-tab-first-hook '(org-babel-hide-result-toggle-maybe org-babel-header-arg-expand) org-archive-hook '(org-attach-archive-delete-maybe) org-ascii-format-drawer-function #[771 " \207" [] 4 "\n\n(fn NAME CONTENTS WIDTH)"] org-cycle-hook '(org-cycle-hide-archived-subtrees org-cycle-show-empty-lines org-cycle-optimize-window-after-visibility-change org-cycle-display-inline-images) org-latex-listings-options '(("basicstyle" "\\footnotesize\\ttfamily") ("showstringspaces" "false") ("breaklines" "true")) org-persist-before-read-hook '(org-element--cache-persist-before-read) org-mode-hook '(#[0 "\301\211 \207" [imenu-create-index-function org-imenu-get-tree] 2] org-superstar-mode org-tempo-setup (lambda nil (electric-indent-local-mode -1)) #[0 "\300\301\302\303\304$\207" [add-hook change-major-mode-hook org-fold-show-all append local] 5] #[0 "\300\301\302\303\304$\207" [add-hook change-major-mode-hook org-babel-show-result-all append local] 5] org-babel-result-hide-spec org-babel-hide-all-hashes org-eldoc-load) org-babel-load-languages '((emacs-lisp . t) (dot . t) (ditaa . t) (shell . t)) org-latex-format-drawer-function #[514 "\207" [] 3 "\n\n(fn _ CONTENTS)"] org-latex-format-headline-function 'org-latex-format-headline-default-function org-confirm-shell-link-function 'yes-or-no-p org-html-format-drawer-function #[514 "\207" [] 3 "\n\n(fn NAME CONTENTS)"] outline-isearch-open-invisible-function 'outline-isearch-open-invisible org-latex-classes '(("beamer" "\\documentclass[11pt,aspectratio=169]{beamer}\n \\usenavigationsymbolstemplate{} % no navigation bar\n \\beamertemplateballitem % items have little balls" ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}") ("\\subsection{%s}" . "\\subsection*{%s}") ("\\subsubsection{%s}" . "\\subsubsection*{%s}")) ("article" "\\documentclass[11pt]{article}" ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}") ("\\subsection{%s}" . "\\subsection*{%s}") ("\\subsubsection{%s}" . "\\subsubsection*{%s}") ("\\paragraph{%s}" . "\\paragraph*{%s}") ("\\subparagraph{%s}" . "\\subparagraph*{%s}")) ("report" "\\documentclass[11pt]{report}" ("\\part{%s}" . "\\part*{%s}") ("\\chapter{%s}" . "\\chapter*{%s}") ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}") ("\\subsection{%s}" . "\\subsection*{%s}") ("\\subsubsection{%s}" . "\\subsubsection*{%s}")) ("book" "\\documentclass[11pt]{book}" ("\\part{%s}" . "\\part*{%s}") ("\\chapter{%s}" . "\\chapter*{%s}") ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}") ("\\subsection{%s}" . "\\subsection*{%s}") ("\\subsubsection{%s}" . "\\subsubsection*{%s}")) ) org-agenda-before-write-hook '(org-agenda-add-entry-text) org-latex-packages-alist '(("" "moresize") ("" "fancyvrb") ("" "inconsolata") ("" "tikz") ("" "color") ("" "listings")) org-src-mode-hook '(org-src-babel-configure-edit-buffer org-src-mode-configure-edit-buffer) org-confirm-elisp-link-function 'yes-or-no-p org-latex-src-block-backend t org-ditaa-eps-jar-path "/home/jet/.config/emacs/elpa/contrib/scripts/DitaaEps.jar" org-structure-template-alist '(("n" . "notes") ("a" . "export ascii") ("c" . "center") ("C" . "comment") ("e" . "example") ("E" . "export") ("h" . "export html") ("l" . "export latex") ("q" . "quote") ("s" . "src") ("v" . "verse")) org-speed-command-hook '(org-speed-command-activate org-babel-speed-command-activate) org-html-format-inlinetask-function 'org-html-format-inlinetask-default-function org-ascii-format-inlinetask-function 'org-ascii-format-inlinetask-default org-export-backends '(ascii html icalendar latex md confluence re-reveal) org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil org-fold-core-isearch-open-function 'org-fold--isearch-reveal org-re-reveal-title-slide "

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" org-latex-format-inlinetask-function 'org-latex-format-inlinetask-default-function org-persist-before-write-hook '(org-element--cache-persist-before-write) org-tab-first-hook '(org-babel-hide-result-toggle-maybe org-babel-header-arg-expand) org-link-shell-confirm-function 'yes-or-no-p org-babel-pre-tangle-hook '(save-buffer) org-agenda-loop-over-headlines-in-active-region nil org-occur-hook '(org-first-headline-recenter) org-metadown-hook '(org-babel-pop-to-session-maybe) org-link-parameters '(("attachment" :follow org-attach-follow :complete org-attach-complete-link) ("eww" :follow org-eww-open :store org-eww-store-link) ("rmail" :follow org-rmail-open :store org-rmail-store-link) ("mhe" :follow org-mhe-open :store org-mhe-store-link) ("irc" :follow org-irc-visit :store org-irc-store-link :export org-irc-export) ("info" :follow org-info-open :export org-info-export :store org-info-store-link :insert-description org-info-description-as-command) ("gnus" :follow org-gnus-open :store org-gnus-store-link) ("docview" :follow org-docview-open :export org-docview-export :store org-docview-store-link) ("bibtex" :follow org-bibtex-open :store org-bibtex-store-link) ("bbdb" :follow org-bbdb-open :export org-bbdb-export :complete org-bbdb-complete-link :store org-bbdb-store-link) ("w3m" :store org-w3m-store-link) ("doi" :follow org-link-doi-open :export org-link-doi-export) ("id" :follow org-id-open) ("file+sys") ("file+emacs") ("shell" :follow org-link--open-shell) ("news" :follow #[514 "\301\300\302 Q \"\207" ["news" browse-url ":"] 6 "\n\n(fn URL ARG)"]) ("mailto" :follow #[514 "\301\300\302 Q \"\207" ["mailto" browse-url ":"] 6 "\n\n(fn URL ARG)"]) ("https" :follow #[514 "\301\300\302 Q \"\207" ["https" browse-url ":"] 6 "\n\n(fn URL ARG)"]) ("http" :follow #[514 "\301\300\302 Q \"\207" ["http" browse-url ":"] 6 "\n\n(fn URL ARG)"]) ("ftp" :follow #[514 "\301\300\302 Q \"\207" ["ftp" browse-url ":"] 6 "\n\n(fn URL ARG)"]) ("help" :follow org-link--open-help :store org-link--store-help) ("file" :complete org-link-complete-file) ("elisp" :follow org-link--open-elisp)) org-html-format-headline-function 'org-html-format-headline-default-function org-metaup-hook '(org-babel-load-in-session-maybe) org-tab-before-tab-emulation-hook '(org-tempo-complete-tag) )