Allow repository to define which formatter to use

[ssiltanen]

Currently we setup language formatter in languages.toml eg:

[[language]]
name = "typescript"
formatter = { command = 'prettier', args = ["--parser", "typescript"] }
auto-format = true

This config uses global prettier from the path, which effectively forces all my typescript repositories to use the global prettier installation.

This is a problem when different repositories use different prettier versions, especially when major versions change with breaking changes and possibly creates a discrepancy between how my editor formats the code and how the repository is formatted.

[dead10ck]

I'm a little confused about what you're suggesting. It is already possible to override the formatter in your own ~/.config/helix/languages.toml.

[ssiltanen]

That configuration example I provided was the override from ~/.config/helix/languages.toml, but it is configured to use the global prettier installation.

I have tried to bypass this issue with the following setup to make helix use the locally installed prettier, but I have noticed irregularities how this setup works compared to other editors.

[[language]]
name = "typescript"
formatter = { command = "npx", args = ["--no-install", "prettier", "--parser", "typescript"] }
auto-format = true

For instance, after version 3.0.0 this does not work without the --parser even though, it should be now ignored, because prettier infers the parser from input filepath docs. If the parser isn't passed we get the following error in helix logs:

[ERROR] Formatter error: [error] No parser and no file path given, couldn't infer a parser.

Although, this might be also issue with Prettier, but the flags work as expected when used outside the above setup.

[ssiltanen]

But in any case, I think we should have a better story on how to specify a repository level formatter instead of just a global installation that uses the same version for every repo.

I don't know how it should look or if it is difficult only in Node ecosystem. E.g. the .NET and F# seem to tip-toe around this issue nicely with their dotnet tool-manifest where you install the formatter locally only and specify the version locally.

[danriedl]

Hi @ssiltanen , i do have this in my .helix/languages.toml workspace config on the repo im working on:

[[language]]
name = "typescript"
auto-format = true
formatter = { command = 'prettier', args = ["--parser", "typescript", "--config", ".config/prettierrc.json"] }

Before i start the editor i source automatically a profile file with source .profile:

# .profile
# Project settings
PROJ_HOME="$HOME/Documents/my_project"

# NPX Binaries
export PATH="$PROJ_HOME/node_modules/.bin:$PATH"

This makes the projects prettier available for your workspace-helix config.

[dead10ck]

I think you can make it even simpler than that

export PATH="node_modules/.bin:$PATH"

You can put relative paths in your PATH