Xenomorph for Visual Studio Code

Language support for Xenomorph (.xen) files, including syntax highlighting, snippets, diagnostics, formatting, parsing tools, and AST visualization.

Syntax highlighting in .xen editors is supplied by xenomorph_lsp semantic tokens generated from the Rust lexer and parser. The bundled TextMate grammar provides fallback highlighting while the server starts and colors Xenomorph code blocks embedded in hover and completion documentation, where semantic tokens are not available.

Use VS Code's Format Document or Format Selection commands to format Xenomorph source with the workspace's [formatter] settings. Selection formatting expands to complete selected lines and preserves surrounding text.

What is Xenomorph?

It is a schema description language written for polyglot projects, like a microservice architecture. It lets you generate language and library specific codes for DTOs, serializers, database schemas or form validators from a single source of TRUTH.

Find out more at https://github.com/WingSMC/xenomorph.

The repo is also the place where you can download the required binaries for your operating system. Make sure to place them on the $PATH/$env:PATH/%PATH%.

Requirements

The extension runs the globally installed executables directly from PATH:

• xenomorph_lsp provides language-server features.
• xeno provides parse, lexer-debug, AST-inspection, and module-graph features.

The extension does not package either executable. If you use different names or absolute paths, configure xenomorph.lsp.executable and xenomorph.parser.executable in VS Code settings.

After changing the LSP executable setting, reload the VS Code window. Use Xenomorph: Restart LSP Server to restart the current executable manually. Changes to the workspace's discovered xenomorph.toml reload configuration and plugins without restarting the language server. Unsaved document contents are retained. Invalid configuration or plugin updates leave the last valid runtime active and report the failure in the Output channel.

Commands

Open the Command Palette with Ctrl+Shift+P and search for Xenomorph:

• Xenomorph: Parse Current Document parses the active document and writes its AST and diagnostics to the Xenomorph Output channel.
• Xenomorph: Debug Current Document (Tokens + AST) writes the complete lexer token stream, AST, and parser diagnostics to the Output channel.
• Xenomorph: Show AST Visualization opens an interactive AST tab beside the editor.
• Xenomorph: Show Module Graph opens the configured workspace's interactive module dependency graph.
• Xenomorph: Show Module Graph JSON opens the CLI graph protocol as a JSON document.
• Xenomorph: Restart LSP Server restarts the language-server process and reloads workspace configuration, plugins, and modules.
• Xenomorph: Reload Plugins rereads configuration and rebuilt plugin libraries in the running server. Rebuilt libraries are not watched automatically.

The commands inspect the current in-memory editor text, so saving first is not required.

Declaration actions

Each parsed declaration has CodeLens actions above it:

• Parse
• Debug tokens + AST
• View AST

These actions inspect only that declaration. Disable them with xenomorph.codeLens.enabled if you prefer a quieter editor.

AST visualization

The AST tab renders the parser's structured output as a tree. You can:

• pan by dragging and zoom with the mouse wheel or toolbar buttons;
• fit, expand, or collapse the tree;
• double-click parent nodes to expand or collapse them;
• click ranged nodes to select and reveal their source in the editor;
• review parser diagnostics in the side panel.

The editor title bar also contains a tree icon that opens the AST for the active Xenomorph document and a references icon that opens the module graph.

Module graph visualization

The module graph runs xeno graph --json in the active workspace. Arrows point from an importer to the module it imports. Entry, error, and warning nodes are highlighted; click any module to open its source file. The graph supports pan, zoom, and fit controls.

Parser inspection protocol

The editor tools send source text to xeno inspect over standard input. The command emits JSON containing tokens, ast, and diagnostics. Inspection is syntax-only; workspace import resolution and semantic analysis continue to be provided by the LSP.