TypeRB for Visual Studio Code

Language support for TypeRB.

TypeRB and this extension are in preview. Language and tooling behavior may change before the first stable release.

Features

• Syntax highlighting and declaration snippets
• Project-wide diagnostics and quick fixes
• Checked completion for declarations, instantiated generic and transparent alias members, and call arguments
• Auto-imports for unambiguous declaration roots and exact named declarations
• Hover information and signature help
• Go to definition from declarations, uses, and complete project-import paths; implementation navigation, references, symbol rename, and project-wide symbol search
• Independent language servers for nested projects in monorepo workspaces
• Checked symbol occurrence highlighting within the current document
• Syntax-aware expanding and shrinking selections
• Document outline for types, fields, functions, and methods
• Structural code folding for declarations and expression blocks
• Compiler-aware semantic highlighting
• Deterministic, comment-preserving document formatting
• Run, stop, and restart a project or standalone file's top-level main() through Visual Studio Code's Run and Debug interface
• Source breakpoints, stepping, stack frames, and variable inspection for Go-mode projects and standalone file-root programs
• Native Test Explorer discovery and execution for *_test.trb suites
• Test debugging with TypeRB breakpoints and variables for mode: go

The extension discovers every trbconfig.jsonc in the opened workspace and keeps each project in an independent language-server session. A repository may therefore contain Go, Ruby, and TypeScript applications with overlapping type names. Project diagnostics and symbols update when TypeRB files are created, changed, or deleted outside the active editor.

An open .trb file that is not owned by a discovered project receives its own file-root language-server session. No trbconfig.jsonc is created. Explicitly imported local files participate in diagnostics and editor overlays, unrelated sibling files are not compiled, and Go is the default target mode.

Requirements

Use Visual Studio Code 1.130 or newer.

Use TypeRB 0.4.9 or newer for directory-independent Go builds and deterministic module initialization when running, debugging, and testing projects. The extension uses the installed compiler; it does not bundle a TypeRB executable.

Install the TypeRB compiler and make trb available on PATH:

brew install type-rb/tap/trb
trb version

Getting started

Open or create a .trb file. The extension starts a standalone TypeRB language server automatically. Opening a folder containing trbconfig.jsonc enables project-wide analysis instead.

Select ▶ Run above a top-level main() to run without debugging. Startup, program output, and exit status appear in the Debug Console. Use Visual Studio Code's standard Restart and Stop controls, or press Shift+F5 to stop the process. TypeRB: Stop Project remains available from the Command Palette.

For a Go-mode project or standalone file, install Delve and set breakpoints in .trb files. Configured projects start source debugging with F5 or Debug TypeRB in Run and Debug. A standalone entry additionally provides Debug above its main() and TypeRB: Debug File in the Command Palette. TypeRB emits Go debug information that refers directly to the original TypeRB source, so Visual Studio Code's standard stepping, call stack, variables, watches, and debug console are available. Each standalone debug session uses a private temporary executable that is removed after the session. Ruby and TypeScript programs currently support Run Without Debugging while their source-debugger adapters are developed.

Open the Testing view to run every TypeRB test, a nested describe suite, or one test case. The extension also shows ▶ Run Test above individual test declarations. For Go projects, choose the Testing view's Debug Test action or the CodeLens action to stop at .trb breakpoints and inspect variables. Failures link to the original assertion in the .trb source. The project must use a process runtime; TypeScript browser test hosting is not yet available.

Create a small Go-targeted project from a terminal with:

trb init --mode go --module example.com/hello hello
code hello

See A Tour of TypeRB for an introduction to the language.

Configuration

• typerb.server.path selects the trb executable. The default is trb from PATH; relative paths are resolved from the workspace folder.
• typerb.server.config adds an explicit trbconfig.jsonc when automatic workspace discovery is not sufficient. Relative paths are resolved from the workspace folder.
• typerb.standalone.mode selects go, ruby, or typescript for files outside discovered projects. The default is go.
• typerb.standalone.typescript.runtime selects node or bun for a standalone TypeScript-mode file. The default is node.
• typerb.debug.go.path selects the Delve executable for Go source debugging. The default is dlv from PATH.

TypeRB enables quick suggestions while identifiers are typed. If an inline completion provider is configured to hide the suggestion widget whenever ghost text is available, keep that behavior for other languages while showing TypeRB completion with a language-specific override:

"[trb]": {
	"editor.inlineSuggest.suppressSuggestions": false
}

Run and Debug selects the active TypeRB project automatically. A launch.json configuration may set config, args, and env when explicit control is needed:

{
	"type": "typerb",
	"request": "launch",
	"name": "Debug API",
	"config": "${workspaceFolder}/apps/api/trbconfig.jsonc",
	"args": ["serve"],
	"env": {
		"PORT": "4000"
	}
}

If Visual Studio Code cannot find a Homebrew installation, set typerb.server.path to the result of command -v trb.

Local development

The integration suite builds the extension and compiler from the current checkout, then starts an isolated Extension Development Host. It does not install or update the Marketplace extension.

For hands-on QA against an application workspace, use the managed local QA launcher from the repository root:

./scripts/vscode-local-qa.sh open ~/dev/whc-core-demo

The launcher builds trb and the VSIX from the current checkout, installs the VSIX into a dedicated extensions directory, writes an isolated VS Code profile that points typerb.server.path at the local binary, and opens the requested workspace. The window title starts with [TypeRB Local QA]. Format on save is enabled for TypeRB in this profile.

The regular VS Code profile, Marketplace extension, and trb on PATH are never modified. Close the local QA window and either start VS Code normally or run the following command to return to the regular profile:

./scripts/vscode-local-qa.sh regular ~/dev/whc-core-demo

Use reset to remove only the managed isolated profile, its installed local extension, and its local compiler. The script refuses to remove a directory without its own marker file.

./scripts/vscode-local-qa.sh reset

Set TYPERB_CODE=code-insiders to use another VS Code CLI. The default QA state lives under the ignored editors/vscode/.vscode-test/local-qa directory. Run the same checks used for local extension QA with one command:

./scripts/vscode-local-qa.sh test

npm ci --prefix editors/vscode
npm test --prefix editors/vscode
npm run test:integration --prefix editors/vscode
npm run test:integration:insiders --prefix editors/vscode
npm run package --prefix editors/vscode

The Stable and Insiders suites cover standalone import graphs, unsaved-file diagnostics, and execution through the real language-client and debug-adapter lifecycle. Focused unit tests cover private Go debug artifact creation and cleanup. Pull requests run the Stable suite only when the extension or its CLI and language-service boundaries change. Insiders remains a local forward-compatibility check.

Documentation

Read the TypeRB documentation for the language, CLI, packages, and target guides.