Editor support

ORBIT ships a language server, orbit lsp, built into the orbit binary. It reports diagnostics from the real compiler as you type, and provides hover, go to definition, completion, an outline and formatting. The VS Code extension packages it with syntax highlighting and commands to run, deploy and graph workflows. Any other editor with an LSP client can use orbit lsp over stdio.

Language server features

The server uses full document synchronization, identifies itself as orbit-lsp, and reads and writes JSON-RPC messages with Content-Length headers on stdin and stdout. It takes no command-line options and no initialization options.

Visual Studio Code

Install

The extension is attached to every GitHub release as orbit-lang.vsix. Download it from the releases page and install it:

curl -fsSLO https://github.com/AjmalX0/Orbit/releases/latest/download/orbit-lang.vsix
code --install-extension orbit-lang.vsix

You can also use Extensions: Install from VSIX… in the Command Palette.

The extension needs the orbit binary, version 0.1 or later (see Installation). If orbit is not on your PATH, set orbit.serverPath. It works with VS Code 1.82 or later, and activates when you open an .orbit file or a folder that contains one.

Features

• Syntax highlighting for .orbit files, with bracket matching, auto-closing pairs and comment toggling.
• Everything the language server provides, listed above.
• Format on save, on by default for ORBIT files.
• Commands and a run button in the editor title bar.

The extension sets these defaults for the [orbit] language, which you can override in your settings:

"[orbit]": {
  "editor.defaultFormatter": "orbit-lang.orbit-lang",
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "editor.tabSize": 4
}

Commands

The terminal is created with ORBIT_SERVER set to orbit.runtimeUrl. To use a runtime with authentication, export ORBIT_TOKEN (and ORBIT_CA_CERT for a private CA) in the environment VS Code starts from, or type the command in the terminal yourself with --token.

Settings

Troubleshooting

If the extension cannot start the server, it shows ORBIT: could not start `orbit lsp` (...). Install orbit or set "orbit.serverPath". Check that orbit --version works in a terminal, set orbit.serverPath to an absolute path if needed, and run ORBIT: Restart Language Server. Set orbit.trace.server to verbose to see every message.

Other editors

Configure your editor’s LSP client to start orbit lsp for files with the .orbit extension, communicating over stdio. No arguments, initialization options or workspace settings are needed. These examples assume orbit is on your PATH.

Syntax highlighting is not part of the language server. The VS Code extension contains a TextMate grammar (editors/vscode/syntaxes/orbit.tmLanguage.json) that editors with TextMate support can reuse. Elsewhere, highlighting as a C-like language gives a reasonable approximation: ORBIT uses // and /* */ comments, double-quoted strings and braces.

Neovim

With Neovim 0.11 or later and the built-in client:

-- init.lua
vim.filetype.add({ extension = { orbit = "orbit" } })

vim.lsp.config("orbit", {
  cmd = { "orbit", "lsp" },
  filetypes = { "orbit" },
  root_markers = { ".git" },
})
vim.lsp.enable("orbit")

-- Format on save.
vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd("BufWritePre", {
  pattern = "*.orbit",
  callback = function() vim.lsp.buf.format({ async = false }) end,
})

With Neovim 0.10, start the client from an autocommand instead:

vim.filetype.add({ extension = { orbit = "orbit" } })

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd("FileType", {
  pattern = "orbit",
  callback = function(args)
    vim.lsp.start({
      name = "orbit",
      cmd = { "orbit", "lsp" },
      root_dir = vim.fs.root(args.buf, { ".git" }) or vim.fn.getcwd(),
    })
  end,
})

Helix

# ~/.config/helix/languages.toml
[language-server.orbit]
command = "orbit"
args = ["lsp"]

[[language]]
name = "orbit"
scope = "source.orbit"
file-types = ["orbit"]
roots = [".git"]
comment-token = "//"
block-comment-tokens = { start = "/*", end = "*/" }
indent = { tab-width = 4, unit = "    " }
language-servers = ["orbit"]
auto-format = true

Run hx --health orbit to check that Helix finds the server.

Other clients

For Emacs (eglot), Sublime Text (LSP package), Zed, Kate and other clients, register a server with:

For example, with eglot:

(define-derived-mode orbit-mode prog-mode "ORBIT"
  (setq-local comment-start "// "))
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.orbit\\'" . orbit-mode))
(with-eval-after-load 'eglot
  (add-to-list 'eglot-server-programs '(orbit-mode "orbit" "lsp")))

See also

• Formatter
• Workflow graphs
• Compiler diagnostics
• CLI: orbit lsp
• Installation