MoonBit Agent IDE

MoonBit Agent IDE#

Overview#

moon ide is a specialized CLI toolset for navigating, understanding, and exploring MoonBit codebases. It provides semantic-aware tools for code discovery using the compiler’s knowledge of your project structure.

These commands use semantic analysis rather than text matching, making them more precise than grep-based searching for code navigation tasks.

Available Commands#

  • moon ide peek-def: Locate symbol definitions with inline context

  • moon ide find-references: Locate all usages of a symbol across the project

  • moon ide outline: Get a structural overview of files or packages

  • moon ide doc: Discover and explore APIs with documentation

Symbol Syntax#

All moon ide subcommands accept a <symbol> argument using these patterns:

Basic symbols:

  • [@pkg.]symbol - Symbol in a package (e.g. parse_int, Array)

  • If @pkg. is omitted, searches current package and prelude

Type members:

  • [@pkg.]Type::member - Type methods, struct fields, enum variants, trait methods

  • Examples: Array::length, @http.Request::new, Option::None

Package prefix @pkg. is optional for symbols in the current package and standard library.

moon ide peek-def - View Symbol Definitions#

Quickly locate symbol definitions with surrounding context. This is faster and more precise than grepping for declarations.

Usage#

moon ide peek-def <symbol> [-loc filename:line[:col]]

Two modes:

  1. Global search (no -loc): Searches the entire project using the symbol syntax described above

  2. Contextual search (-loc provided): Matches <symbol> as a substring at the specified location

    • Line number must be precise; column is optional (used as a hint)

    • The <symbol> argument is matched as plain text, not parsed as symbol syntax

    • Useful when a symbol name is ambiguous or appears in multiple contexts

Examples#

$ moon ide peek-def Agent
Found 1 symbols matching 'Agent':

`pub (all) struct Agent` in package moonbitlang/maria/agent at ./agent/agent.mbt:17-47

17 | ///|
   | /// Represents an AI agent that interacts with language models and executes tools.
...|
   | pub(all) struct Agent {
...|
...| }

$ moon ide peek-def Agent -loc ./maria.mbt:7
Definition found at file ./maria/agent/agent.mbt
   | ///
   | /// The `Agent` struct encapsulates the complete state and behavior of an AI agent,
...|
24 | pub(all) struct Agent {
   |                 ^^^^^
   |   /// UUID generator for creating unique identifiers.
...|

moon ide find-references - Track All Usages#

Discover where and how a symbol is used throughout your codebase.

Usage#

moon ide find-references <symbol>

Note: The -loc argument is not yet supported. Always searches globally.

Example#

$ moon ide find-references Agent
`pub (all) struct Agent` in package moonbitlang/maria/agent at ./agent/agent.mbt:17-47
17 | ///|
   | /// Represents an AI agent that interacts with language models and executes tools.
...|
   | pub(all) struct Agent {
...|
...| }
Found 98 references of this symbol:
./agent/agent_tool.mbt:41:8-41:13:
   | /// * `agent` : The agent instance whose tools will be enabled or disabled.
   | /// * `tool_names` : A set containing the names of tools that should be enabled.
   | ///   Tools not in this set will be disabled.
41 | pub fn Agent::set_enabled_tools(
   |        ^^^^^
   |   agent : Agent,
   |   tool_names : Set[String],
...

moon ide outline - Get Structural Overview#

Quickly scan the structure of a file or package to understand its organization.

Usage#

moon ide outline <path/to/file_or_directory>

Two modes:

  • moon ide outline path/to/file.mbt - Outline a specific file

  • moon ide outline path/to/directory - Outline all .mbt files in the package

Examples#

Package outline - See all files and their top-level symbols:

moon ide outline .
maria.mbt:
 L05 | pub struct Maria {
       ...
 L71 | pub fn Maria::close(self : Maria) -> Unit {
       ...
 L84 | pub async fn Maria::start(self : Maria, prompt? : String) -> Unit {

File outline - Detailed view of a single file:

$ moon ide outline ./internal/readline/readline.mbt
 L0002 | priv struct Edit {
         ...
 L0008 | pub enum KeyName {
         ...
 L0045 | pub struct Key {
         ...
 L1369 | pub async fn Interface::start(self : Interface) -> Unit {
         ...
 L1383 | pub async fn Interface::read_line(self : Interface) -> String {
         ...
 L1390 | pub async fn Interface::read_key(self : Interface) -> Key {
         ...

moon ide doc - Discover and Explore APIs#

Query documentation and discover available symbols, packages, and APIs.

Usage#

moon ide doc '<query>'

Query Syntax#

The query syntax is specialized for symbol and package discovery:

Empty query - List available packages or symbols:

  • moon ide doc ''

    • In a module: Shows all available packages (including dependencies and moonbitlang/core)

    • In a package: Shows all symbols in current package

    • Outside package: Shows all available packages

Lookup by name:

  • moon ide doc "[@pkg.]function_name" - Find functions or values

  • moon ide doc "[@pkg.]TypeName" - Find types (builtin types don’t need prefix)

  • moon ide doc "[@pkg.]Type::member" - Find type methods or fields

  • moon ide doc "[@pkg.]Type::member" - Find type methods or fields

Package exploration:

  • moon ide doc "@pkg" - List all exported symbols in a package

  • moon ide doc "@encoding/utf8" - Works with nested packages

  • Examples: moon ide doc "@json", moon ide doc "@buffer"

Globbing - Use * wildcard for partial matches:

  • moon ide doc "String::*rev*" - Find all String methods containing “rev”

  • moon ide doc "*parse*" - Find all symbols with “parse” in the name

Examples#

Search for type methods:

# Search for String methods in standard library:
$ moon ide doc "String"

type String

  pub fn String::add(String, String) -> String
  # ... more methods omitted ...

Explore a package:

$ moon ide doc "@buffer"
moonbitlang/core/buffer

fn from_array(ArrayView[Byte]) -> Buffer
# ... omitted ...

Query a specific function:

$ moon ide doc "@buffer.new"
package "moonbitlang/core/buffer"

pub fn new(size_hint? : Int) -> Buffer
  Creates ... omitted ...

Use globbing to find related functions:

$ moon ide doc "String::*rev*"
package "moonbitlang/core/string"

pub fn String::rev(String) -> String
  Returns ... omitted ...
  # ... more

pub fn String::rev_find(String, StringView) -> Int?
  Returns ... omitted ...
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