Editor Support

Phel editing is provided by community plugins. Pick the one for your editor, then connect it to a running nREPL server for inline evaluation. Every plugin gives you at least syntax highlighting and filetype detection; richer features (structural editing, inline eval) depend on the plugin.

PhpStorm#

Phel IntelliJ plugin

What you get:

• Syntax highlighting and filetype detection for .phel
• Structural (paren-aware) editing
• REPL actions to evaluate code from the editor

Install:

1. Open Settings -> Plugins -> Marketplace.
2. Search for "Phel".
3. Install, then restart the IDE.

Config note: the REPL actions evaluate against a Phel process, so run them from inside a project that has Phel installed (composer require phel-lang/phel-lang).

VS Code#

Phel VS Code extension

What you get:

• Syntax highlighting and filetype detection for .phel
• Code snippets
• Inline evaluation of expressions

Install:

1. Open the Extensions view (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+X).
2. Search for "Phel".
3. Install, then reload the window.

Config note: this extension also powers step-through debugging. See XDebug setup for launch.json and breakpoints in .phel files.

Emacs#

interactive-lang-tools

What you get:

• Phel editing support with REPL integration for interactive evaluation
• Standard Lisp editing helpers from Emacs

Install: follow the setup instructions in the repository. The package is not on MELPA, so install it from source (for example with package-vc-install or straight.el).

Config note: for paren editing, pair it with a structural-editing mode you already use, such as paredit or smartparens.

Vim#

phel.vim

What you get:

• Syntax highlighting
• Filetype detection for .phel
• Indentation

Install with your plugin manager, for example vim-plug:

Plug 'danirod/phel.vim'

Then run :PlugInstall, restart Vim, and open a .phel file. Config note: this is a syntax and indentation plugin. For inline evaluation, connect a generic nREPL client (such as vim-iced or conjure, configured for a custom nREPL) to a running phel nrepl server.

nREPL and editor integration#

Inline evaluation (send an expression from your editor and see the result without leaving the file) works by talking to a running server. Phel ships one:

vendor/bin/phel nrepl --port=7888 --host=127.0.0.1

This starts an nREPL server (Bencode over TCP) that nREPL-aware editors connect to. Once connected, evaluating a form in the editor runs it in the same process, so state and loaded namespaces persist between evaluations, exactly like the REPL.

Defaults are port 7888 and host 127.0.0.1. Override either with the flags above. The server is also listed under CLI commands alongside the other tooling entry points.

The server implements the standard ops — eval, clone, close, describe, load-file, interrupt, completions, lookup, info, eldoc — so stock nREPL clients work unmodified. Two Phel-specific ops back the REPL-driven workflow: reload (with an all param to force a full reload) and run-tests (an ns param plus an optional var). Bind them to editor commands for "reload changed namespaces" and "run the test under the cursor".

Language Server (LSP)#

For editors that speak the Language Server Protocol rather than nREPL, Phel ships an LSP server (v3.17 over stdio, JSON-RPC with Content-Length framing):

vendor/bin/phel lsp

It provides hover, go-to-definition, find-references, completion, document and workspace symbols, rename, formatting, and debounced diagnostics. On top of Phel symbols, completion is PHP-interop-aware:

• instance methods and properties after (php/-> receiver ...)
• static methods and constants after (php/:: Class ...)
• class names in (php/new ...) and \Fully\Qualified positions
• global functions after the php/ prefix

Hover shows the reflected signature for PHP methods, functions, and classes, and signature help fires inside (php/new ...) and method calls. The receiver's type is inferred from :tag metadata, an inline (php/new \Foo), or a local (php/new ...) binding; when the type is unknown, completion simply does nothing rather than emitting noise or false diagnostics.

Next steps#

• REPL - the interactive loop your editor connects to
• CLI commands - start phel nrepl and phel lsp
• XDebug setup - step-through debugging in VS Code and PhpStorm