Stream: beginners

Topic: Ensuring I've activated the language server properly

Alex Kelley (Jan 01 2024 at 01:27):

I installed Roc (MacOS Apple Silicon). As expected, it created a "nightly" directory, and inside that directory there are two executables roc and roc_lang_server. Now, I'm trying to get my editor configuration to see and start the language server. Is the language server command roc_ls or roc_lang_server? According to the README in the lang_srv crate directory, the language server executable should be roc_ls. But neither naming convention appears to work in my editor (Helix). Thanks for your help.

mkrieger1 (Jan 01 2024 at 02:13):

The name of the executable that is included in the nightly is roc_lang_server. You need to make sure that it's in the PATH.

mkrieger1 (Jan 01 2024 at 02:19):

Occasionally the server crashes or seems to not respond, so that makes it more difficult to check if the setup is working.

mkrieger1 (Jan 01 2024 at 02:44):

roc_ls is renamed to roc_lang_server in package_release.sh

rudolf (Jan 01 2024 at 09:13):

If you use VSCode Proper / Codium, you can add full path in the settings JSON: "roc-lang.language-server.exe": "..."

Anton (Jan 01 2024 at 10:00):

I've created good first issue #6330 to rename roc_ls to roc_lang_server everywhere. Descriptive names are nicer :)

Alex Kelley (Jan 01 2024 at 15:02):

Alex Kelley said:

I installed Roc (MacOS Apple Silicon). As expected, it created a "nightly" directory, and inside that directory there are two executables roc and roc_lang_server. Now, I'm trying to get my editor configuration to see and start the language server. Is the language server command roc_ls or roc_lang_server? According to the README in the lang_srv crate directory, the language server executable should be roc_ls. But neither naming convention appears to work in my editor (Helix). Thanks for your help.

Thanks everyone. It looks like I had my language.toml file (Helix editor) specified incorrectly.

For those using Helix, here's what's working for me:

[language-server.roc-ls]
 command = "roc_lang_server"

 [[language]]
name = "roc"
scope = "source.roc"
injection-regex = "roc"
file-types = ["roc"]
shebangs = ["roc"]
roots = []
auto-format = false
comment-token = "#"
language-servers = [ "roc-ls" ]
indent = { tab-width = 2, unit = "  " }
auto-pairs = {'(' = ')', '{' = '}', '[' = ']', '"' = '"'}

[[grammar]]
name = "roc"
source.git = "https://github.com/adkelley/tree-sitter-roc"
source.rev = "d0c812eca21bd75005004bcef383a59ae6d5dc0e"

Note the commit hash (i.e., source.rev) is subject to change

After updating your language.toml file. Do the following:

1. Build up on the shell

$ hx -g fetch
$ hx -g build

2. Copy the query files

$ mkdir -p $HELIX/runtime/queries/roc # or make your query directory
$ cp -r $HELIX/runtime/grammars/sources/roc/queries $HELIX/runtime/queries/roc

Anton (Jan 01 2024 at 15:23):

Thanks for sharing @Alex Kelley :)

Alexander Pyattaev (Jan 01 2024 at 19:38):

Can you package the language server binary into nightly builds? This would make it possible to pull it into things like AUR packages.

mkrieger1 (Jan 01 2024 at 19:47):

@Alexander Pyattaev It is since c85b97d

Alexander Pyattaev (Jan 03 2024 at 20:25):

Silly me. Now in AUR=)

Last updated: Jul 26 2025 at 12:14 UTC