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<tr><td><code>name</code></td><td>The name of the language</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>language-id</code></td><td>The language-id for language servers, checkout the table at <ahref="https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/specifications/lsp/3.17/specification/#textDocumentItem">TextDocumentItem</a> for the right id</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>scope</code></td><td>A string like <code>source.js</code> that identifies the language. Currently, we strive to match the scope names used by popular TextMate grammars and by the Linguist library. Usually <code>source.<name></code> or <code>text.<name></code> in case of markup languages</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>injection-regex</code></td><td>regex pattern that will be tested against a language name in order to determine whether this language should be used for a potential <ahref="https://tree-sitter.github.io/tree-sitter/syntax-highlighting#language-injection">language injection</a> site.</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>file-types</code></td><td>The filetypes of the language, for example <code>["yml", "yaml"]</code>. See the file-type detection section below.</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>shebangs</code></td><td>The interpreters from the shebang line, for example <code>["sh", "bash"]</code></td></tr>
<tr><td><code>roots</code></td><td>A set of marker files to look for when trying to find the workspace root. For example <code>Cargo.lock</code>, <code>yarn.lock</code></td></tr>
<tr><td><code>auto-format</code></td><td>Whether to autoformat this language when saving</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>diagnostic-severity</code></td><td>Minimal severity of diagnostic for it to be displayed. (Allowed values: <code>Error</code>, <code>Warning</code>, <code>Info</code>, <code>Hint</code>)</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>comment-token</code></td><td>The token to use as a comment-token</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>indent</code></td><td>The indent to use. Has sub keys <code>unit</code> (the text inserted into the document when indenting; usually set to N spaces or <code>"\t"</code> for tabs) and <code>tab-width</code> (the number of spaces rendered for a tab)</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>language-servers</code></td><td>The Language Servers used for this language. See below for more information in the section <ahref="#configuring-language-servers-for-a-language">Configuring Language Servers for a language</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><code>grammar</code></td><td>The tree-sitter grammar to use (defaults to the value of <code>name</code>)</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>formatter</code></td><td>The formatter for the language, it will take precedence over the lsp when defined. The formatter must be able to take the original file as input from stdin and write the formatted file to stdout</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>text-width</code></td><td>Maximum line length. Used for the <code>:reflow</code> command and soft-wrapping if <code>soft-wrap.wrap-at-text-width</code> is set, defaults to <code>editor.text-width</code></td></tr>
<tr><td><code>workspace-lsp-roots</code></td><td>Directories relative to the workspace root that are treated as LSP roots. Should only be set in <code>.helix/config.toml</code>. Overwrites the setting of the same name in <code>config.toml</code> if set.</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>persistent-diagnostic-sources</code></td><td>An array of LSP diagnostic sources assumed unchanged when the language server resends the same set of diagnostics. Helix can track the position for these diagnostics internally instead. Useful for diagnostics that are recomputed on save.</td></tr>
<h3id="file-type-detection-and-the-file-types-key"><aclass="header"href="#file-type-detection-and-the-file-types-key">File-type detection and the <code>file-types</code> key</a></h3>
<p>Helix determines which language configuration to use based on the <code>file-types</code> key
from the above section. <code>file-types</code> is a list of strings or tables, for
<p>When determining a language configuration to use, Helix searches the file-types
with the following priorities:</p>
<ol>
<li>Exact match: if the filename of a file is an exact match of a string in a
<code>file-types</code> list, that language wins. In the example above, <code>"Makefile"</code>
will match against <code>Makefile</code> files.</li>
<li>Extension: if there are no exact matches, any <code>file-types</code> string that
matches the file extension of a given file wins. In the example above, the
<code>"toml"</code> matches files like <code>Cargo.toml</code> or <code>languages.toml</code>.</li>
<li>Suffix: if there are still no matches, any values in <code>suffix</code> tables
are checked against the full path of the given file. In the example above,
the <code>{ suffix = ".git/config" }</code> would match against any <code>config</code> files
in <code>.git</code> directories. Note: <code>/</code> is used as the directory separator but is
replaced at runtime with the appropriate path separator for the operating
system, so this rule would match against <code>.git\config</code> files on Windows.</li>
</ol>
<h2id="language-server-configuration"><aclass="header"href="#language-server-configuration">Language Server configuration</a></h2>
<p>Language servers are configured separately in the table <code>language-server</code> in the same file as the languages <code>languages.toml</code></p>
<tr><td><code>timeout</code></td><td>The maximum time a request to the language server may take, in seconds. Defaults to <code>20</code></td></tr>
<tr><td><code>environment</code></td><td>Any environment variables that will be used when starting the language server <code>{ "KEY1" = "Value1", "KEY2" = "Value2" }</code></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<p>A <code>format</code> sub-table within <code>config</code> can be used to pass extra formatting options to
# pass format options according to https://github.com/typescript-language-server/typescript-language-server#workspacedidchangeconfiguration omitting the "[language].format." prefix.
<h3id="configuring-language-servers-for-a-language"><aclass="header"href="#configuring-language-servers-for-a-language">Configuring Language Servers for a language</a></h3>
<p>The <code>language-servers</code> attribute in a language tells helix which language servers are used for this language.</p>
<p>They have to be defined in the <code>[language-server]</code> table as described in the previous section.</p>
<p>Different languages can use the same language server instance, e.g. <code>typescript-language-server</code> is used for javascript, jsx, tsx and typescript by default.</p>
<p>In case multiple language servers are specified in the <code>language-servers</code> attribute of a <code>language</code>,
it's often useful to only enable/disable certain language-server features for these language servers.</p>
<p>As an example, <code>efm-lsp-prettier</code> of the previous example is used only with a formatting command <code>prettier</code>,
so everything else should be handled by the <code>typescript-language-server</code> (which is configured by default).
The language configuration for typescript could look like this:</p>
<p>Each requested LSP feature is prioritized in the order of the <code>language-servers</code> array.
For example, the first <code>goto-definition</code> supported language server (in this case <code>typescript-language-server</code>) will be taken for the relevant LSP request (command <code>goto_definition</code>).
The features <code>diagnostics</code>, <code>code-action</code>, <code>completion</code>, <code>document-symbols</code> and <code>workspace-symbols</code> are an exception to that rule, as they are working for all language servers at the same time and are merged together, if enabled for the language.
If no <code>except-features</code> or <code>only-features</code> is given, all features for the language server are enabled.
If a language server itself doesn't support a feature, the next language server array entry will be tried (and so on).</p>
<tr><td><code>git</code></td><td>A git remote URL from which the grammar should be cloned</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>rev</code></td><td>The revision (commit hash or tag) which should be fetched</td></tr>
<tr><td><code>subpath</code></td><td>A path within the grammar directory which should be built. Some grammar repositories host multiple grammars (for example <code>tree-sitter-typescript</code> and <code>tree-sitter-ocaml</code>) in subdirectories. This key is used to point <code>hx --grammar build</code> to the correct path for compilation. When omitted, the root of repository is used</td></tr>