Formatting

JETLS provides document formatting support through integration with external formatting tools. By default, Runic.jl is used, but you can configure alternative formatters or use custom formatting executables.

Features

• Document formatting: Format entire Julia files
• Range formatting: Format selected code regions (Runic and custom formatters only)
• Progress notifications: Visual feedback during formatting operations for clients that support work done progress

Prerequisites

JETLS supports preset formatters as well as custom formatting executables. For preset formatters, install your preferred formatter and ensure it's available in your system PATH:

• Runic (default):

  julia -e 'using Pkg; Pkg.Apps.add("Runic")'

• JuliaFormatter (requires v2.2.0 or higher):

  julia -e 'using Pkg; Pkg.Apps.add("JuliaFormatter")'

Note that you need to manually make ~/.julia/bin available on the PATH environment for the formatter executables to be accessible. See https://pkgdocs.julialang.org/dev/apps/ for the details.

For custom formatters, no installation is required—simply configure the path to your executable in .JETLSConfig.toml (see the custom formatter section below).

Formatter configuration

Configure the formatter using either a .JETLSConfig.toml file in your project root or via LSP configuration (see How to configure JETLS for details). The configuration supports three options:

Preset "Runic" (default)

formatter = "Runic"

In this case, JETLS will look for the runic executable and use it to perform formatting.

This is the default setting and doesn't require explicit configuration. Runic supports both document and range formatting.

Preset "JuliaFormatter"

formatter = "JuliaFormatter"

In this case, JETLS will look for the jlfmt executable and use it to perform formatting.

If a .JuliaFormatter.toml configuration file is found in your project, jlfmt will use those settings. Otherwise, it uses default settings with formatting options provided by the editor client (such as tab size) when available.

Custom formatter

[formatter.custom]
executable = "/path/to/custom-formatter"
executable_range = "/path/to/custom-range-formatter"

Custom formatters should accept Julia code via stdin and output formatted code to stdout, following the same interface as runic:

• executable: Command for full document formatting. The formatter should read the entire Julia source code from stdin, format it completely, and write the formatted result to stdout. The exit code should be 0 on success.
• executable_range: Command for range formatting. The formatter should accept a --lines=START:END argument to format only the specified line range. It should read the entire document code from stdin and write the entire document code to stdout with only the specified region formatted. The rest of the document must remain unchanged.

Troubleshooting

If you see an error about the formatter not being found:

1. Ensure you've installed the formatter as described above
2. Check that the formatter executable is in your system PATH by running which runic or which jlfmt
3. For custom formatters, verify the executable path specified in your settings
4. Restart your editor to ensure it picks up the updated PATH or configuration