Orion Language

Orion Language for Visual Studio Code

Syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, real compiler diagnostics, REPL, watch mode, test runner, and more.

Welcome to Orion

The complete Orion experience, right inside your editor. Write with smart completions, catch errors the moment you save, run files with a single shortcut, and explore your project with visual tools. No toolchain to assemble and no config files to write. Install it, open a .orx file, and you are already coding.

Zero setup

Just install and open a .orx file. The extension downloads the Orion compiler automatically the first time you use it, so there is nothing to configure and no separate install to run. Everything else (highlighting, IntelliSense, diagnostics) works out of the box.

What is Orion?

Orion is a modern programming language that compiles to native code through a Rust VM and a Cranelift JIT. It has a clean, expressive syntax with async/await, native concurrency, built-in AI, and a rich standard library.

-- Hello World
show "Hello from Orion!"

-- Functions with type hints
fn greet(name: string) -> string {
  return "Hello, " + name + "!"
}

-- OOP with shapes
shape Person {
  name: string
  age: int

  on_create(n, a) {
    self.name = n
    self.age = a
  }

  act greet() {
    show "Hi, I'm " + self.name
  }
}

let p = Person("Angel", 25)
p.greet()

-- Async / await
task fn fetchData(url: string) {
  let res = await reach(url)
  return res
}

Features

Syntax highlighting. Full token level highlighting for every Orion construct: keywords, types, operators, string interpolation (${variable}), comments (--), and AI syntax (think, sense).

IntelliSense and hover. Dynamic hover for all functions, shapes, and variables defined in your code, with no manual registration. Cross file IntelliSense resolves symbols from other .orx files through use "module". Built in documentation for standard functions (len, range, sqrt, keys, reverse, and more).

Real compiler diagnostics. Errors from the Rust compiler appear in the Problems panel as you save: lexical errors, syntax errors, and type warnings, all with precise line numbers.

REPL. Open an interactive Orion REPL terminal inside VS Code with Orion: Abrir REPL.

Watch mode. Auto run your file on every save with Orion: Iniciar Watch Mode. Output goes to a dedicated panel.

Test runner. Auto discovers and runs test_*.orx files in the Test Explorer.

Shape diagram. Visual UML style diagram of every shape definition and its relationships.

Route explorer. Browse and test HTTP routes defined in your Orion server files, with a mini REST client to send requests from VS Code.

Package manager UI. Install and remove Orion packages from a visual panel.

Import graph. Visualize the dependency graph of use imports across your project.

Documentation generator. Generate HTML documentation from your code comments with Ctrl+Shift+D.

Editor toolbar

Open any .orx file and a row of one click actions appears in the editor title bar, so every tool is a click away while you code.

Commands

Settings

Advanced: if you already have the Orion CLI installed, set orion.executablePath and the extension will use it instead of downloading.

Language features

• Variables and constants with optional type hints
• Primitives: int, float, string, bool, null
• Collections: list, dict with full indexing
• String interpolation: "Hello ${name}!"
• Control flow: if / elsif / else, while, for..in, match
• Functions, lambdas, closures
• OOP: shape + act + on_create + using (composition)
• Error handling: attempt / handle
• Async and await with native concurrency
• Built in AI: think "prompt" calls Claude or OpenAI natively
• Module system: use "module" as m
• Comments: -- single line

Standard library

Theme

Includes a custom dark color theme tuned for Orion syntax. Activate it from File > Preferences > Color Theme > Orion Theme.

Links

• Orion language repository
• Extension repository
• Report an issue
• Changelog