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DEAL — Digital Engineering Authoring Language

VS Code Setup

The vscode-deal extension provides DEAL language support in Visual Studio Code:

  • Syntax highlighting for .deal and .dealx files (TextMate grammars, D-41)
  • LSP diagnostics — parse and sema errors underlined in the editor
  • Hover tooltips — type and symbol information
  • Go to Definition
  • Completion suggestions

Installation

Section titled “Installation”

From the VS Code Marketplace

Section titled “From the VS Code Marketplace”
  1. Open VS Code
  2. Open the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X)
  3. Search for DEAL Language
  4. Click Install

From GitHub Releases (.vsix)

Section titled “From GitHub Releases (.vsix)”

For air-gapped environments or specific version pinning:

  1. Go to github.com/deal-lang/vscode-deal/releases
  2. Download the .vsix file for the desired release
  3. In VS Code, open the Extensions view
  4. Click the ... menu at the top-right of the Extensions panel
  5. Select Install from VSIX…
  6. Choose the downloaded .vsix file
Terminal window
# Alternatively, install from the command line:
code --install-extension vscode-deal-0.3.0.vsix

Verifying the SHA256

Section titled “Verifying the SHA256”

Each release includes a SHA256SUMS file. Verify the .vsix before installing:

Terminal window
shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS

Extension Capabilities

Section titled “Extension Capabilities”

Syntax Highlighting

Section titled “Syntax Highlighting”

.deal and .dealx files receive full syntax highlighting via the bundled TextMate grammars derived from the DEAL language specification. All language constructs — part def, port def, requirement def, [<system>] tags, @trace: annotations — are highlighted with distinct scopes.

LSP Diagnostics (D-50..D-53)

Section titled “LSP Diagnostics (D-50..D-53)”

The LSP server (deal-lsp) runs in the background and provides:

  • Parse errors — highlighted in red as you type
  • Sema errors — dimension mismatches (E2500), mixed-unit comparisons (E2501), unresolved imports (E2402)
  • Hover info — type annotation, doc comment, and source span on hover
  • Go to Definition — F12 or Ctrl+Click on any symbol

Requirements

Section titled “Requirements”
  • VS Code 1.85+
  • The deal binary must be installed and on PATH (see Getting Started)
  • deal install must have been run to resolve dependencies before sema features work

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”

Syntax highlighting not working:

Check that the file has a .deal or .dealx extension. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and run Developer: Inspect Editor Tokens and Scopes to verify the grammar is active.

LSP diagnostics not appearing:

  1. Check the Output panel (View → Output) and select DEAL Language Server
  2. Ensure the deal binary is on PATH: which deal should print a path
  3. Ensure deal install has been run in the project root

Extension not loading after install:

Reload VS Code (Developer: Reload Window).

Section titled “Related”