Editor Setup (VS Code)

The Shape Language extension for VS Code provides syntax highlighting and full LSP integration.

Install the Extension

Open VS Code and either:

• Search “Shape Language” in the Extensions panel (Ctrl+Shift+X)
• Or run from the command line:

code --install-extension shape-lang.shape-lang

LSP Setup

The extension needs shape-lsp on your PATH for full language support (completions, diagnostics, hover, go-to-definition, semantic tokens).

If shape-lsp is not installed, the extension will detect this on first activation and offer to install it automatically via cargo install shape-lsp. Click “Install via cargo” in the notification.

To install manually:

cargo install shape-lsp

Note

If you don’t have Rust installed, get it from rustup.rs first.

What You Get

Without the LSP (extension only):

• Syntax highlighting (TextMate grammar)
• Bracket matching and auto-closing
• Code folding
• Comment toggling (Ctrl+/)
• .shape file association

With the LSP (extension + shape-lsp):

• Real-time diagnostics (errors and warnings) — both push (publishDiagnostics) and pull (textDocument/diagnostic)
• Completions with type information, including method-chain completions after .
• Hover documentation on identifiers, types, and methods
• Signature help on call sites ((, , triggers)
• Go-to-definition (F12), declaration, type-definition, implementation
• Find references (cross-file) + document highlights
• Rename symbol (cross-file) with prepare-rename
• Document symbols (outline view) + workspace symbols
• Call hierarchy (incoming/outgoing calls)
• Code actions (quickfixes; extract-fn; extract-var)
• Code lens (test runners + trait implementation counts)
• Semantic token highlighting (range + delta)
• Inlay hints (types, parameter names, chain types — see settings below)
• Folding ranges + document links

Inlay Hint Settings

All settings live under the shape.* namespace. Add them to settings.json (workspace or user). The inlay-hint master is ON by default; Shape-unique opt-in categories are OFF by default so the editor stays uncluttered:

Setting	Default	Description
shape.inlayHints.enable	true	Master toggle. False suppresses every category.
shape.inlayHints.typeHints	true	Inferred type hints on let bindings.
shape.inlayHints.parameterHints	true	Parameter-name hints at call sites.
shape.inlayHints.variableTypeHints	true	Inferred variable types where elided.
shape.inlayHints.returnTypeHints	true	Inferred return-type hints on fn declarations.
shape.inlayHints.chainHints	true	Intermediate-type hints on method-chain expressions.
shape.inlayHints.bindingStorageClass.enable	false (opt-in)	Shape-unique: surfaces the compiler’s BindingStorageClass (Direct / UniqueHeap / SharedCow / SharedAtomic / SharedAtomicMut) inline. Rendered with [… approx] because the authoritative classifier lives in the bytecode compiler.

Example settings.json enabling the storage-class hint:

{
  "shape.inlayHints.bindingStorageClass.enable": true
}

Verify Setup

1. Open any .shape file
2. Check the status bar — you should see Shape Language Server running
3. Hover over a function or type to verify LSP hover works
4. Introduce a deliberate syntax error and verify red squiggles appear

Troubleshooting

No LSP features

• Verify shape-lsp is on your PATH: run shape-lsp --version in your terminal
• Check the Output panel (Ctrl+Shift+U) and select “Shape Language Server” for error messages
• Restart the extension: Ctrl+Shift+P → “Developer: Reload Window”

Update shape-lsp

cargo install shape-lsp --force

Then reload VS Code.