GoTemplate Support

IDE support for Go's text/template language via a language server. Works with VS Code and JetBrains IDEs.

This project was started as a 10-week student project at Allseas by a group of 5 second-year BSc Computer Science and Engineering students at TU Delft.

Table of Contents

• Features
• User Testimonies
• Repository Structure
• Development
  • Requirements
  • Language Server
  • Syntax Generation
  • VS Code Extension
  • JetBrains Plugin
• Resources
• Third-Party Notices

Features

Feature	VS Code	JetBrains	Priority
Static syntax highlighting	✅	✅	Must
Dynamic syntax highlighting	✅	✅	Must
Autocompletion on variables	✅	✅	Must
Autocompletion on field names	✅	✅	Must
Autocompletion on chained field accesses	✅	✅	Must
Autocompletion on global functions	✅	✅	Must
Autocompletion on local functions	✅	✅	Must
Hover tooltips	✅	✅	Must
Jump to definition	✅	✅	Must
Find references	✅	✅	Must
Diagnostics (syntax, undeclared vars, unknown functions)	✅	✅	Must
Type hints (/*gotype: pkg.Type*/)	✅	✅	Must
Custom function hints (//tmpl:func)	✅	✅	Must
Template type checking	✅	✅	Must
Configuration (project + IDE)	✅	✅	Must
Wrap selection in a comment	✅	✅	Should
Wrap selection in a block	✅	✅	Should
Type checking on function arguments	✅	✅	Should
Highlight matching {{end}}	⏳	⏳	Should
Unused variable detection	⏳	⏳	Should
Snippets	✅	✅	Could
Missing whitespace trim detection	⏳	⏳	Could
Syntax highlighting for embedded language	❓	❓	Could

For the full feature roadmap, see docs/features/README.md. For an end-user guide, see docs/usage.md.

User Testimonies

The following quotes are from the users of our extension after seeing the demonstration.

5/5. Looks comprehensive and addresses the major points of concern when using Go templates.

5/5. It seems very complete and like it would improve my life.

🔥!

Repository Structure

gotemplate-lsp/
├── server/          # Language server (Go)
│   └── handlers/   # LSP request handlers
├── clients/
│   ├── VSCode/     # VS Code extension (TypeScript)
│   └── JetBrains/  # JetBrains plugin (Kotlin)
├── syntax/          # TextMate grammar generator (Haskell)
├── scripts/         # Build scripts
├── docs/            # Documentation
└── test/resources/  # Test fixtures

Development

Requirements

Tool	Version	Purpose
Go	1.26.2+	Language server
Node.js	24.11.0+	Build scripts and VS Code extension
npm	11.12.0+	Package management
Java	21+	JetBrains plugin
GHC	8.8.4+	Regenerating the TextMate grammar
gowatch	latest	Watch mode (go install github.com/silenceper/gowatch@latest)
golangci-lint	latest	Server linting (optional)

Language Server

The language server is written in Go using glsp.

# Lint and format
golangci-lint fmt && golangci-lint run

# Build binaries for all targets (output: dist/server/)
npm run build:server

# Tests
cd server && go test ./...

# Tests with coverage
cd server && go test ./... --coverprofile=coverage.out && go tool cover -func=coverage.out

See docs/server.md for the server architecture.

Syntax Generation

The TextMate grammar is generated from a Haskell specification. Output goes to syntax/syntaxes/gotemplate.tmLanguage.json and is shared by both clients.

npm run generate:syntax   # build + format + copy to both extensions

VS Code Extension

# Install dependencies
npm i && cd clients/VSCode && npm i && cd ../..

# Format and lint
cd clients/VSCode && npm run format && npm run lint:check

# Tests
cd clients/VSCode && npm run test

# Watch mode (recompiles on change, then press F5 in clients/VSCode to launch)
npm run watch:vscode

# Package (builds server + bundles extension into clients/VSCode/dist/)
npm run package:vscode

See docs/vscode/README.md for more detail.

JetBrains Plugin

cd clients/JetBrains/go-text-template/

./gradlew ktLintFormat   # format
./gradlew ktLintCheck    # lint
./gradlew test           # tests
./gradlew runIde         # run a test IDE instance (also builds server binaries)
./gradlew build          # build distributable ZIP (build/distributions/)

See docs/jetbrains/README.md for more detail.

Resources

• Language Server Protocol Spec
• Go text/template Package
• VS Code Extension API
• JetBrains Plugin Development

Third-Party Notices

See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for third-party attributions and licenses.