# 20 — Simplify backtick return value

**Status:** open

Currently backtick expressions return a table `{code, stdout, stderr}`, requiring verbose access:

```lua
!echo ${`ls`.stdout}
```

This is explicit but noisy for the common case. Consider making backticks return stdout directly, with the full result table still available via `_`:

```lua
-- backtick returns stdout string directly
local files = `ls`

-- full result still available in _
print(_.code)
print(_.stderr)
```

## Considerations

- This would be a breaking change to current backtick semantics
- The table is still useful when you need exit code or stderr
- Could we return multiple values? `stdout, result_table = \`cmd\``
- How does this interact with pipelines where you chain results?

- This would unify the interface/behaviour of backticks and ! commands, both set the majority of their data to `_`
- Main difference is where do they output their stdout & stderr