VS Code

The Sextant VS Code extension runs sextant-lsp against the file you’re editing and renders findings inline.

Install

You need both the LSP binary and the extension.

1. Install sextant-lsp

cargo install --path crates/sextant-lsp --locked

(Or build from source: cargo build --release --bin sextant-lsp and copy target/release/sextant-lsp somewhere on your PATH.)

2. Install the extension

Marketplace:

code --install-extension kylebastien.sextant

Or sideload a .vsix you’ve built locally:

cd editors/vscode
npm install
npm run compile
npx vsce package
code --install-extension sextant-0.1.0.vsix

Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
sextant.serverPath	null	Override the LSP binary path (absolute). When null, the extension looks up sextant-lsp on PATH.
sextant.disableLlm	true	Skip LLM-judged rules. Off by default to keep grades fast and avoid surprise API spend; toggle to false to grade LLM rules in-editor.
sextant.trace.server	"off"	Trace LSP traffic (messages, verbose). Output appears in the Sextant output channel.

Settings are read at activation and on workspace/didChangeConfiguration, so toggling sextant.disableLlm re-grades open documents without a reload.

Smoke test

1. Open a repo with a .sextant/config.toml.
2. Open a file you know has at least one Sextant finding (or temporarily add a long file to trip builtin.size.file-length).
3. A yellow or red squiggle should appear within ~500ms.
4. Hover the squiggle: a popover renders the rule title, severity, your finding’s message, and the full rule body.
5. Edit the file to remove the violation; the squiggle disappears.

Troubleshooting

”could not find the sextant-lsp binary”

The extension can’t find sextant-lsp on PATH. Either:

• Install it: cargo install --path crates/sextant-lsp.
• Or set sextant.serverPath to the absolute path of the binary.

No squiggles appear

• Open the Sextant output channel and set sextant.trace.server to verbose to see the LSP traffic.
• Check that the file’s language is in the activation list (Rust, Python, Go, Java, TypeScript, TSX, JavaScript, JSX).
• Confirm a .sextant/ or .git/ directory exists somewhere up the tree from the file — the LSP needs that to find the config.

Hover popover is empty

Hover only fires on lines with findings. If there’s no squiggle on the line, there’s no hover content to show.

See also

• Editor overview — what the LSP does and doesn’t grade.
• Configuration — what the LSP reads from .sextant/.
• CLI — same engine for terminal use.