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Find any symbol named 'symbol'

skills/moonbit/ide.md

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Code Navigation with moon ide

ALWAYS use moon ide for code navigation in MoonBit projects instead of manual file searching, grep, or semantic search.

This tool provides two essential commands for precise code exploration:

Core Commands

  • moon ide goto-definition - Find where a symbol is defined
  • moon ide find-references - Find all usages of a symbol

Query System

Symbol lookup uses a two-part query system for precise results:

1. Symbol Name Query (-query)

Fuzzy search for symbol names with package filtering support:

bash
# Find any symbol named 'symbol'
moon ide goto-definition -query 'symbol'

# Find methods of a specific type
moon ide goto-definition -query 'Type::method'

# Find trait method implementations
moon ide goto-definition -query 'Trait for Type with method'

# Find symbol in specific package using @pkg prefix
moon ide goto-definition -query '@moonbitlang/x encode'

# Find symbol in multiple packages (searches in pkg1 OR pkg2)
moon ide goto-definition -query '@username/mymodule/pkg1 @username/mymodule/pkg2 helper'

# Find symbol in nested package
moon ide goto-definition -query '@username/mymodule/mypkg helper'

Supported symbols: functions, constants, let bindings, types, structs, enums, traits

Package filtering: Prefix your query with @package_name to scope the search. Multiple @pkg prefixes create an OR condition.

2. Tag-based Filtering (-tags)

Pre-filter symbols by characteristics before name matching:

Visibility tags:

  • pub - Public symbols
  • pub all - Public structs with all public fields
  • pub open - Public traits with all methods public
  • priv - Private symbols

Symbol type tags:

  • type - Type definitions (struct, enum, typealias, abstract)
  • error - Error type definitions
  • enum - Enum definitions and variants
  • struct - Struct definitions
  • alias - Type/function/trait aliases
  • let - Top-level let bindings
  • const - Constant definitions
  • fn - Function definitions
  • trait - Trait definitions
  • impl - Trait implementations
  • test - Named test functions

Combine tags with logical operators:

bash
# Public functions only
moon ide goto-definition -tags 'pub fn' -query 'my_func'

# Functions or constants
moon ide goto-definition -tags 'fn | const' -query 'helper'

# Public functions or constants
moon ide goto-definition -tags 'pub (fn | const)' -query 'api'

# Public types or traits
moon ide goto-definition -tags 'pub (type | trait)' -query 'MyType'

Practical Examples

bash
# Find public function definition
moon ide goto-definition -tags 'pub fn' -query 'maximum'

# Find all references to a struct
moon ide find-references -tags 'struct' -query 'Rectangle'

# Find trait implementations
moon ide goto-definition -tags 'impl' -query 'Show for MyType'

# Find errors in specific package
moon ide goto-definition -tags 'error' -query '@mymodule/parser ParseError'

# Find symbol across multiple packages
moon ide goto-definition -query '@moonbitlang/x @moonbitlang/core encode'

# Combine package filtering with tags
moon ide goto-definition -tags 'pub fn' -query '@username/myapp helper'

Query Processing

The tool processes queries in this order:

  1. Filter symbols by -tags conditions
  2. Extract package scope from @pkg prefixes in -query
  3. Fuzzy match remaining symbols by name
  4. Return top 3 best matches with location information

Best Practice: Start with -tags to reduce noise, then use @pkg prefixes in -query to scope by package for precise navigation.