HELPERS.md

Helpers

null-ls provides helpers to streamline the process of transforming command line output into LSP diagnostics, code actions, or formatting.

The plugin exports available helpers under null_ls.helpers:

local helpers = require("null-ls.helpers")

Please see the built-in files for examples of how to use helpers to create generators.

generator_factory

generator_factory is a general-purpose helper that returns a generator which spawns a command with the given options, optionally transforms its output, then calls an on_output callback with the command's output. It accepts one argument, opts, which is a table with the following structure.

All options are required unless specified otherwise.

local helpers = require("null-ls.helpers")

helpers.generator_factory({
    args, -- table (optional)
    check_exit_code, -- function or table of numbers (optional)
    command, -- string or function
    env, -- table (optional)
    cwd, -- function (optional)
    dynamic_command, -- function (optional)
    format, -- "raw", "line", "json", or "json_raw" (optional)
    from_stderr, -- boolean (optional)
    from_temp_file, -- boolean (optional)
    ignore_stderr, -- boolean (optional)
    multiple_files, -- boolean (optional)
    on_output, -- function
    runtime_condition, -- function (optional)
    timeout, -- number (optional)
    to_stdin, -- boolean (optional)
    to_temp_file, -- boolean (optional)
    use_cache, -- boolean (optional)
})

null-ls validates each option using vim.validate when the generator runs for the first time.

args

A table containing the arguments passed when spawning the command. Defaults to {}.

null-ls will transform the following special arguments before spawning:

• $FILENAME: replaced with the current buffer's full path

• $DIRNAME: replaced with the current buffer's parent directory

• $TEXT: replaced with the current buffer's content

• $FILEEXT: replaced with the current buffer's file extension (e.g. my-file.lua produces "lua")

• $ROOT: replaced with the LSP workspace root path

check_exit_code

Can either be a table of valid exit codes (numbers) or a callback that receives two arguments:

code: contains the exit code from the spawned command as a number stderr: error output from the job as a string

The callback should return a boolean value indicating whether the code indicates success.

If not specified, null-ls will assume that a non-zero exit code indicates failure.

command

A string containing the command that the generator will spawn or a function that takes one argument, params (an object containing information about the current editor status) and returns a command string.

If command is a function, it will run once when the generator first runs and keep the same return value as long as the same Neovim instance is running, making it suitable for resolving executables based on the current project.

cwd

Optional callback to set the working directory for the spawned process. Takes a single argument, params, which is a table containing information about the current editor state (described in MAIN). If the callback returns nil, the working directory defaults to the project's root.

dynamic_command

Optional callback to set command dynamically. Takes one arguments, a params object containing information about the current buffer's state. The generator's original command (if set) is available as params.command. The callback should return a string containing the command to run or nil, meaning that no command should run.

dynamic_command runs every time its parent generator runs and can affect performance, so it's best to cache its output when possible.

Note that setting dynamic_command will disable command validation.

format

Specifies the format used to transform output before passing it to on_output. Supports the following options:

• "raw": passes command output directly as params.output (string) and error output as params.err (string).

  This format will call on_output(params, done), where done() is a callback that on_output must call with its results (see Generators in MAIN for details).

• nil: same as raw, but does not receive error output. Instead, any output to stderr will cause the generator to throw an error, unless ignore_stderr is also enabled (see below).

• "line": splits generator output into lines and calls on_output(line, params) once for each line, where line is a string.

• "json": decodes generator output into JSON, sets params.output to the resulting JSON object, and calls on_output(params). The wrapper will automatically call done once on_output returns.

• "json_raw": same as json, but will not throw on errors, either from stderr or from json.decode. Instead, it'll pass errors to on_output via params.err.

To sum up:

• If you want to handle each line of a source's output, use format = "line".

• If you are handling JSON output, use format = "json" if you don't intend on handling errors and format = "json_raw" if you do.

• If you are processing a source's entire output, use format = nil if you don't intend on handling errors and format = "raw" if you do.

from_stderr

Captures a command's stderr output and assigns it to params.output. Note that setting from_stderr = true will discard any stdin output.

Not compatible with ignore_stderr.

from_temp_file

Reads the contents of the temp file created by to_temp_file after running command and assigns it to params.content. Useful for formatters that don't output to stdin (see formatter_factory).

This option depends on to_temp_file.

ignore_stderr

For non-raw output formats, any output to stderr causes a command to fail (unless from_stderr is true, as described above).

This option tells the runner to ignore the command's stderr output. This is like redirecting a command's output with 2>/dev/null, but any error output is still logged when debug mode is on.

multiple_files

If set, signals that the generator will return results that apply to more than one file. The null-ls diagnostics handler allows applying results to more than one file if this option is true and each diagnostic specifies a bufnr or filename specifying the file to which the diagnostic applies.

on_output

A callback function that receives a params object, which contains information about the current buffer and editor state (see Generators in MAIN for details).

Generators created by generator_factory have access to an extra parameter, params.output, which contains the output from the spawned command. The structure of params.output depends on format, described below.

runtime_condition

Optional callback called when generating a list of sources to run for a given method. Takes a single argument, params, which is a table containing information about the current editor state (described in MAIN). If the callback's return value is falsy, the source does not run.

Be aware that the callback runs every time a source can run and thus should avoid doing anything overly expensive.

timeout

The amount of time, in milliseconds, until null-ls aborts the command and returns an empty response. If not set, will default to the user's default_timeout setting.

to_stdin

Sends the current buffer's content to the spawned command via stdin.

to_temp_file

Writes the current buffer's content to a temporary file and replaces the special argument $FILENAME with the path to the temporary file. Useful for formatters and linters that don't accept input via stdin.

Setting to_temp_file = true will also assign the path to the temp file to params.temp_path.

use_cache

Caches command output on run. When available, the generator will use cached output instead of spawning the command, which can increase performance for slow commands.

The plugin resets cached output when Neovim's LSP client notifies it of a buffer change, meaning that cache validity depends on a user's debounce setting. Sources that rely on up-to-date buffer content should avoid using this option.

Note that this option effectively does nothing for diagnostics, since the handler will always invalidate the buffer's cache before running generators.

formatter_factory

formatter_factory is a wrapper around generator_factory meant to streamline the process of capturing a formatter's output and replacing a buffer's entire content with that output. It supports the same options as generator_factory with the following changes:

• ignore_stderr: set to true by default.

• on_output: will always return an edit that will replace the current buffer's content with formatter output. As a result, other options that depend on on_output, such as format, will not have an effect.

make_builtin

make_builtin creates built-in sources. It optimizes the source to reduce start-up time and allow the built-in library to continue expanding without affecting users.

make_builtin is specifically intended for built-ins included in this plugin. Generally, integrations should opt to create sources with one of the factory methods described above, since they are opt-in by nature.

The method accepts a single argument, opts, which contains the following options. All options are required unless specified otherwise.

local helpers = require("null-ls.helpers")

helpers.make_builtin({
    factory, -- function (optional)
    filetypes, -- table
    generator, -- function (optional, but required if factory is not set)
    generator_opts, -- table
    method, -- internal null-ls method (string)
    meta, -- table
})

factory

A function called when the user registers the source. Intended for use with the helper factory functions described above, but any function that returns a valid generator will work.

filetypes

A list of filetypes for the source, as described in MAIN.

generator

A simple generator function. Either factory or generator must be a valid function, and setting factory will override generator.

generator_opts

A table of arguments passed into factory when the user registers the source, which should conform to the opts object described above in generator_factory.

method

Defines the source's null-ls method, as described in MAIN.

meta

Adds metadata to enrich the source's documentation. null-ls will use the following fields:

• meta.url: the path to the source's official website / repository
• meta.description: a description of the source and its capabilities
• meta.notes: an array of notes converted into a Markdown list

range_formatting_args_factory

Converts the visually-selected range into character offsets / rows and adds the converted range to the spawn arguments. Used for sources that provide both formatting and range formatting.

null_ls.helpers.range_formatting_args_factory(base_args, start_arg, end_rag, opts)

• base_args (string[]): the base arguments required to get formatted output. Formatting requests will use base_args as-is and range formatting requests will append range arguments.

• start_arg (string): the name of the argument that indicates the start of the range.

• end_arg (string?): the name of the argument that indicates the end of the range. If not specified, the helper will insert the start and end of the range after start_arg.

• opts (table?): a table containing the following options:

  • opts.use_rows (boolean?): specifies whether to use rows over character offsets.
  • opts.use_length (boolean?): used to specify the length of the range in end_arg instead of end the position.
  • opts.row_offset (number?): offset applied to row numbers.
  • opts.col_offset (number?): offset applied to column numbers.
  • opts.delimiter (string?): used to join range start and end into a single argument.

diagnostics

Helpers used to convert CLI output into diagnostics. See the source for details and the built-in diagnostics sources for examples.

cache

Helpers used to cache output from callbacks and help improve performance.

by_bufnr(callback)

Creates a function that caches the result of callback, indexed by bufnr. On the first run of the created function, null-ls will call callback with a params object containing information about the buffer's state and cache its output using bufnr as a key. On the next run, it will directly return the cached value without calling callback again.

This is useful when the return value of callback is not expected to change over the lifetime of the buffer, which works well for cwd and runtime_condition callbacks. Users can use it as a simple shortcut to improve performance, and built-in authors can use it to add logic that would otherwise be too performance-intensive to include out-of-the-box.

Note that if callback returns nil, the helper will override the return value and instead cache false (so that it can determine that it already ran callback once and should not run it again).