diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'book/src/guides/adding_languages.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | book/src/guides/adding_languages.md | 52 |
1 files changed, 52 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/book/src/guides/adding_languages.md b/book/src/guides/adding_languages.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..85c3d0e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/book/src/guides/adding_languages.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +# Adding languages + +## Submodules + +To add a new langauge, you should first add a tree-sitter submodule. To do this, you can run the command +```sh +$ git submodule add -f <repository> helix-syntax/languages/tree-sitter-<name> +``` +For example, to add tree-sitter-ocaml you would run +```sh +$ git submodule add -f https://github.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter-ocaml helix-syntax/languages/tree-sitter-ocaml +``` +Make sure the submodule is shallow by doing +```sh +git config -f .gitmodules submodule.helix-syntax/languages/tree-sitter-<name>.shallow true +``` + +or you can manually add `shallow = true` to `.gitmodules`. + +## languages.toml + +Next, you need to add the language to the `languages.toml` found in the root of the repository; this `languages.toml` file is included at compilation time, and is distinct from the `language.toml` file in the user's [configuration directory](../configuration.md). + +These are the available keys and descriptions for the file. + +| Key | Description | +| ---- | ----------- | +| name | The name of the language | +| scope | A string like `source.js` that identifies the language. Currently, we strive to match the scope names used by popular TextMate grammars and by the Linguist library. Usually `source.<name>` or `text.<name>` in case of markup languages | +| injection-regex | regex pattern that will be tested against a language name in order to determine whether this language should be used for a potential language injection site. [link](https://tree-sitter.github.io/tree-sitter/syntax-highlighting#language-injection) | +| file-types | The filetypes of the language, for example `["yml", "yaml"]` | +| roots | A set of marker files to look for when trying to find the workspace root. For example `Cargo.lock`, `yarn.lock` | +| auto-format | Whether to autoformat this language when saving | +| comment-token | The token to use as a comment-token | +| indent | The indent to use. Has sub keys `tab-width` and `unit` | +| config | Language server configuration | + +## Queries + +For a language to have syntax-highlighting and indentation among other things, you have to add queries. Add a directory for your language with the path `runtime/queries/<name>/`. The tree-sitter [website](https://tree-sitter.github.io/tree-sitter/syntax-highlighting#queries) gives more info on how to write queries. + +## Common Issues + +- If you get errors when building after switching branches, you may have to remove or update tree-sitter submodules. You can update submodules by running +```sh +$ git submodule update --init +``` +- Make sure to not use the `--remote` flag. To remove submodules look inside the `.gitmodules` and remove directories that are not present inside of it. + +- If a parser is segfaulting or you want to remove the parser, make sure to remove the submodule *and* the compiled parser in `runtime/grammar/<name>.so` + +- The indents query is `indents.toml`, *not* `indents.scm`. See [this](https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/issues/114) issue for more information. |