WoW Lua Language Server
A language server for World of Warcraft addon development. Built specifically for WoW Lua — not a general-purpose Lua LS with WoW bolted on.
Features
- WoW API built in — 9,000+ API stubs for retail, classic, and classic era. No setup, no addon manager.
- Powerful generics — parameterized classes, constrained type parameters, function-type projections. Class-level generics propagate through method calls automatically.
- Metatable inference — understands
setmetatable + __index, chained metatables, __call, operator metamethods. Your OOP patterns just work.
- Correlated narrowing — check one return value, and the LS narrows the rest. Eliminates false positives from multi-return functions.
- Mixin and template support —
CreateFrame("Frame", nil, nil, "BackdropTemplate") returns Frame & BackdropTemplate automatically.
- Flavor filtering — declare target flavors and get warnings on APIs that don't exist in all your targets.
- Builder pattern —
@builds-field tracks progressive type construction across chained method calls.
- 55+ diagnostics covering type safety, nil checking, annotation correctness, code quality, and WoW-specific checks.
Getting started
Open a WoW addon folder. The extension automatically scans .lua files, loads WoW API stubs, and starts reporting diagnostics. No configuration required.
For project-specific settings, add a .wowluarc.json to your addon root:
{
"ignore": ["Libs/"],
"flavors": ["retail", "classic"],
"diagnostics": {
"enable": ["need-check-nil"]
}
}
Annotations
LuaLS-compatible ---@ annotations:
@param @return @type @class @enum @field @alias @overload @generic @cast @as @deprecated @nodiscard @meta @diagnostic @see
Plus WoW-specific extensions:
@defclass @builds-field @built-name @built-extends @type-narrows @correlated @flavor-narrows @constructor @accessor
Documentation
Full documentation at tradeskillmaster.github.io/wowlua-ls
Settings
| Setting |
Description |
Default |
wowluals.serverPath |
Path to the wowlua_ls binary. If empty, uses the bundled binary. |
"" |
License
GPL-3.0 — see LICENSE.
