INFO: The Alchemist-Server is in Beta status and the API will most likey change until the first release. Feedback and critic are highly appreciated though.

Alchemist Server

The Alchemist-Server operates as an informant for a specific desired Elixir Mix project and serves with informations as the following:

• Completion for Modules and functions.
• Documentation lookup for Modules and functions.
• Code evaluation and quoted representation of code.
• Definition lookup of code.
• Listing of all available Mix tasks.
• Listing of all available Modules with documentation.

Usage

The server needs to be started inside an Elixir mix project, it can be started in two ways:

Read/Write through STDIN/STDOUT

$ cd elixir_project
$ elixir path/to/alchemist-server/run.exs --env=dev

In this mode, when input sent to a running server process it responds by sending information back to the STDOUT.

A request consisting of two parts, the request type and the request arguments.

Example for a completion request:

[type]   [arguments]

COMP { "def", [ context: Elixir, imports: [Enum], aliases: [{MyList, List}] ] }

Read/Write through unix domain socket

$ cd elixir_project
$ elixir path/to/alchemist-server/run.exs --env=dev --listen
ok|localhost:/tmp/alchemist-server-1500797742260403000.sock

In this mode, when a client connects to the port, it responds by sending information back to the opened connection

Example for a completion request:

$ nc -U /tmp/alchemist-server-1500797742260403000.sock
COMP { "def", [ context: Elixir, imports: [Enum], aliases: [{MyList, List}] ] }

Unix domain socket is introduced since OTP 19.

API

Completion

Return a completion list of all the available candidates.

COMP
COMP { "def", [ context: Elixir, imports: [], aliases: [] ] }
COMP { "List.fla", [ context: Elixir, imports: [], aliases: [] ] }

Documentation lookup

Return the documentation.

DOCL { "defmodule", [ context: Elixir, imports: [], aliases: [] ] }
DOCL { "List.flatten/1", [ context: Elixir, imports: [], aliases: [] ] }

Evaluation, Quoted & Macro expand

Evaluation

Return the evaluation result of the code from the file.

EVAL { :eval, 'path/to/file/which/holds/content/to/eval.tmp' }

Quoted

Return the code from the file quoted.

EVAL { :quote, 'path/to/file/which/holds/content/to/quote.tmp' }

Macro expand

Return the code from the file expanded.

EVAL { :expand, 'path/to/file/which/holds/content/to/expand.tmp' }

Return the code from the file expanded once.

EVAL { :expand_once, 'path/to/file/which/holds/content/to/expand_once.tmp' }

Definition lookup

Return the path to the source file which holds the definition.

DEFL  { "List,flatten", [ context: Elixir, imports: [], aliases: [] ] }
DEFL  { "nil,defmacro", [ context: Elixir, imports: [], aliases: [] ] }
DEFL  { "nil,create_file", [ context: Elixir, imports: [Mix.Generator], aliases: [] ] }
DEFL  { "MyList,nil", [ context: Elixir, imports: [], aliases: [{MyList, List}] ] }

Informations

Mix tasks

Return a list of all available mix tasks.

INFO { :type, :mixtasks }

Modules

Return a list of all available modules which has documentation.

INFO { :type, :modules }

Datatype Information

Return information about any datatype.

INFO { :type, :info, List }

Module Or Function/Arity Types Information

Return types for a module or function/arity pair.

INFO { :type, :types, 'List' }
INFO { :type, :types, 'Enum.t' }
INFO { :type, :types, 'Agent.on_start/0' }

Debugging

Return PONG as response, it can be used for purpose of debugging and checking server's availability.

PING

End Markers

Each request type ends with a specific end marker tag to notify that the request is done.

An end tag looks like the following:

END-OF-<REQUEST TYPE>

For example, after the following request an end tag would look like this:

INFO { :type, :modules }
List
String
Enum
.
...
....
END-OF-INFO