Editor setup.

All of them highlight the same way: keywords, types, functions, strings, numbers, comments and doc comments.

VS Code#

Install the Silk extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace. Search for "Silk" in the Extensions view, or run:

code --install-extension silk-lang.silk

It applies to every .silk file. Besides highlighting, it gives you:

• // line comments with the toggle-comment command.

• Matching and auto-closing for {}, [], () and "".

• Indentation after an opening bracket, and outdent on a closing one.

• Doc comments that continue: press Enter on a /// or //! line and the next line starts with the same marker.

• From version 0.1.0, the language server: see The language server below. The Silk: Restart Language Server command restarts it.

The extension is not on Open VSX, so editors that use that registry (VSCodium, for example) can't find it by search. Build the package from the silk-lang/silk-vscode repository and install the file. The repository uses Bun: bun run package bundles the language client into dist/extension.js and then packages it.

git clone https://github.com/silk-lang/silk-vscode
cd silk-vscode
bun install --frozen-lockfile
bun run package

The output ends with:

 DONE  Packaged: /home/you/silk-vscode/silk-0.1.0.vsix (11 files, 103.08 KB)

Then install silk-0.1.0.vsix with your editor's "Install from VSIX" command.

Zed#

The Zed extension lives in the zed/ folder of the silk-lang/tree-sitter-silk repository. It is not in Zed's extension registry yet, so install it as a dev extension:

1. Clone the grammar: git clone https://github.com/silk-lang/tree-sitter-silk.

2. In Zed, open the command palette and run zed: install dev extension.

3. Pick the zed folder inside the clone.

Zed downloads the grammar at the commit the extension pins and builds it. .silk files then get highlighting, bracket pairs (including <> for generics) and indentation, with 2-space indents and //, /// and //! line comments.

Neovim, Helix and other tree-sitter editors#

The grammar is the silk-lang/tree-sitter-silk repository, on its main branch. It is not published to npm or crates.io yet, so point your editor at the git repository. What your editor needs from it:

The queries use the capture names Neovim and Helix themes know, such as @keyword.conditional and @function.method.call. Copy them into your editor's query folder for silk, and register the parser the way your editor's tree-sitter guide describes.

The repository also builds bindings for C, Go, Node, Python, Rust and Swift, for tools that parse Silk themselves. Its CI parses every Silk file in the compiler, standard library and examples, so the grammar keeps up with the language.

Highlighting on the web#

The npm package silk-lang highlights Silk in documentation sites and blogs. It works with two highlighters, which you install yourself.

With Shiki, register the language and use the id silk:

import { createHighlighter } from 'shiki'
import silk from 'silk-lang/shiki'

const highlighter = await createHighlighter({ langs: [silk], themes: ['github-dark'] })
const html = highlighter.codeToHtml('let mut sum = 0', { lang: 'silk', theme: 'github-dark' })

<pre class="shiki github-dark" style="background-color:#24292e;color:#e1e4e8" tabindex="0"><code><span class="line"><span style="color:#F97583">let</span><span style="color:#F97583"> mut</span><span style="color:#E1E4E8"> sum </span><span style="color:#F97583">=</span><span style="color:#79B8FF"> 0</span></span></code></pre>

With TanStack Highlight:

import { createHighlighter } from '@tanstack/highlight/core'
import { silk } from 'silk-lang/tanstack'

const highlighter = createHighlighter({ languages: [silk] })
const html = highlighter.highlightToHtml('let mut sum = 0', { lang: 'silk' })

<pre class="th-code th-code--silk" data-language="silk"><code><span class="th-token th-keyword">let</span> <span class="th-token th-keyword">mut</span> sum <span class="th-token th-operator">=</span> <span class="th-token th-number">0</span></code></pre>

shiki (1.0 or newer) and @tanstack/highlight (1.1 or newer) are optional peer dependencies: install the one you use.

The language server#

silk lsp speaks the Language Server Protocol over standard input and output. The VS Code extension, from version 0.1.0, starts it for Silk files; the silk.path setting names the silk command it runs, the tool, so each folder gets the version its project pins. It starts one server per workspace folder, in that folder. From version 0.2.0, when the folder's silk.toml pins a version that is not installed, the extension offers to install it with silk use, or to run your default version, instead of failing. In another editor, register silk lsp as the language server command for .silk files, with no arguments. When the version the project pins is not installed there, the server starts anyway, offers no features, and shows an error message naming the silk use command to run, instead of crashing:

silk: Silk 0.3.0 (package silk-version in /home/you/tour/silk.toml) is not installed.
Install it with: silk use

The server tells the client where the std lib lives, so a std lib file opened through go to definition gets the same features as your own files.

Errors in the editor#

The compiler is still the complete way to find errors. silk check is fast because it builds nothing. silk check --json prints each diagnostic as one line of JSON on standard error, with no progress rows around it. An editor task or problem matcher can read it:

{"target":"x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu","code":"OWN0003","severity":"error","path":"/home/you/tour/src/main.silk","line":84,"column":38,"start":2097,"end":2100,"message":"Moving tea requires an explicit move","notes":[],"related":[]}

silk format formats your files; see Tools.