The VS Code extension

The repository ships a VS Code extension for the language: syntax highlighting for .surdl files, Format Document through the surform binary, and the compiler's diagnostics in an output channel. Its home is editors/vscode/ in the repository — the README there carries the packaging and self-check details; this page is the overview.

Install

There is no Marketplace listing yet — the manifest's publisher is a placeholder, and publishing is a project-owner decision like the other release surfaces. Two ways to run it.

Package a .vsix and install it:

cd editors/vscode
npx @vscode/vsce package
code --install-extension surform-<version>.vsix

Or open editors/vscode/ in VS Code and press F5 — the Extension Development Host.

Syntax highlighting

The grammar (syntaxes/surform.tmLanguage.json, scope source.surform) covers .surdl — the canonical extension — and .sdl. It mirrors the language the compiler enforces: lowercase statement heads, clause keys ending at : / { / ;, the three SurrealQL-verbatim bodies (fn bodies, view queries, raw { … }), and expression clauses captured to their depth-0 ;.

The SurrealQL-verbatim regions delegate to SurrealDB's official grammar by scope (include: source.surrealql), so embedded queries and function bodies get the same coloring SurrealDB's own tooling ships. The official extension (surrealdb.surrealql) is declared as an extension-pack member: installed alongside when available, never required. Without it, the delegated regions keep this grammar's own fallback string, comment, and bracket coloring. Highlighting is cosmetic either way — surform check remains the authority on what is valid.

Formatting

Format Document (⇧⌥F on macOS, Shift+Alt+F elsewhere) pipes the buffer through the compiler: surform fmt with the text on stdin, the canonical SDL back on stdout — exactly what the CLI would write, modulo the buffer's own line-ending convention (the buffer wins over the writer's LF).

• The binary is looked up on PATH.
• A buffer that does not parse is left untouched — the diagnostics go to the output channel (below) and a toast names the first one.
• Unchanged output edits nothing.

Diagnostics

The compiler's --json diagnostics from a refused format land in the Surform output channel (View → Output) as SDL-Exxxx: message lines. A missing binary toasts once, then formatting stays a no-op until surform is findable again.

Settings

Where next

• Formatting — the canonical writer the extension pipes through.
• The surform CLI — the commands and flags behind all three surfaces.
• editors/vscode/README.md — the extension's own README: the grammar's self-checks (selfcheck.mjs), the formatter's (fmtselfcheck.mjs), licensing.