why does my emacsclient -c -a 'emacs' command open emacs in my terminal?

Well, if you realized the options you are passing along with emacsclient, life would be much easier. I am sure it skips your mind ...here it is: -a EDITOR, --alternate-editor=EDITOR Editor to fallback to if the server is not running If EDITOR is the empty string, start Emacs in daemon mode and try connecting again --create-frame Create a new frame instead of trying to use the current Emacs frame Now, there is clue, it re-creating the frame where it is invoking i,e your terminal . If you have already open GUI version of it , it will surely going to open another frame in it . Are you trying to open a 'frame' in emacs lingo ? Where do you want to open it?

try `emacsclient -c -a ''`

I said I solved it