I'm sure there is a local and NOT declared variable inside <vl-cmdf> function and the symbol name is REF and the type is 'LIST. Look here (setq ref "My local variable of any type") (vl-cmdf "_AUDIT" "_Y") Bla-bla.... Command: (vl-cmdf "_AUDIT" "_Y") _AUDIT 1058 Blocks audited? [Yes/No] <N>: _Y Pass 1 35 objects audited Pass 2 35 objects audited Pass 3 700 objects audited Total errors found 0 fixed 0 then Command: !ref ((3.2746 2.98598) (34.2242 25.9559))