Language Support

codescout provides three tiers of support depending on which backends are available for a given language.

Full support — LSP server + tree-sitter grammar. All symbol tools work, and richer AST extraction is available internally. Semantic search is also available after indexing.
LSP only — LSP server configured, no tree-sitter grammar. Symbol navigation, references, and rename work.
Detection only — Language is recognized for chunking and file detection. No LSP server and no tree-sitter grammar. Only file operations and semantic search (after indexing) are available.

Supported Languages

Language	Extensions	LSP Server	Support Level
Bash	`.sh`, `.bash`	`bash-language-server`	Full
Go	`.go`	`gopls`	Full
Java	`.java`	`jdtls`	Full
Kotlin	`.kt`, `.kts`	`kotlin-lsp` (JetBrains)	Full
Python	`.py`	`pyright-langserver`	Full
Rust	`.rs`	`rust-analyzer`	Full
TypeScript	`.ts`	`typescript-language-server`	Full
TSX	`.tsx`	`typescript-language-server`	Full
JavaScript	`.js`	`typescript-language-server`	LSP only
JSX	`.jsx`	`typescript-language-server`	LSP only
C	`.c`	`clangd`	LSP only
C++	`.cpp`, `.cc`, `.cxx`	`clangd`	LSP only
C#	`.cs`	`OmniSharp`	LSP only
Ruby	`.rb`	`solargraph`	LSP only
HTML	`.html`, `.htm`	`vscode-html-language-server`	LSP only
CSS	`.css`	`vscode-css-language-server`	LSP only
SCSS	`.scss`	`vscode-css-language-server`	LSP only
Less	`.less`	`vscode-css-language-server`	LSP only

Detection-Only Languages

These languages are recognized for chunking and file detection. No LSP server is configured and no tree-sitter grammar is bundled.

Language	Extensions
PHP	`.php`
Swift	`.swift`
Scala	`.scala`
Elixir	`.ex`, `.exs`
Haskell	`.hs`
Lua	`.lua`
Markdown	`.md`

Feature Matrix

Feature	Full support	LSP only	Detection only
`symbols`	Yes	Yes	No
`references`	Yes	Yes	No
`symbol_at`	Yes	Yes	No
`call_graph`	Yes	Yes	No
`edit_code`	Yes	Yes	No
`semantic_search`	Yes	Yes	Yes
File tools	Yes	Yes	Yes

Installing LSP Servers

codescout looks for each LSP server binary on PATH. The quickest way to get started is the bundled install script:

# See what's installed and what's missing
./scripts/install-lsp.sh --check

# Install all supported LSP servers
./scripts/install-lsp.sh --all

# Install specific languages only
./scripts/install-lsp.sh rust python typescript go

The script supports Linux and macOS, detects your package managers, and skips servers that are already installed. For manual installation, see the per-language instructions below.

Python

npm install -g pyright

Binary: pyright-langserver, invoked with --stdio.

TypeScript, JavaScript, TSX, JSX

npm install -g typescript-language-server typescript

Binary: typescript-language-server, invoked with --stdio. One installation covers TypeScript, JavaScript, TSX, and JSX.

Go

go install golang.org/x/tools/gopls@latest

Binary: gopls. Ensure $(go env GOPATH)/bin is on PATH.

Java

jdtls (Eclipse JDT Language Server) is distributed as a standalone archive from the Eclipse downloads page. Unpack and place the launcher script on PATH.

Binary: jdtls

Kotlin

kotlin-lsp (JetBrains) is distributed as a release archive on the GitHub releases page. Unpack and place the kotlin-lsp script on PATH.

Binary: kotlin-lsp, invoked with --stdio. Each codescout instance automatically passes --system-path to isolate its workspace cache.

C and C++

clangd is shipped with LLVM/Clang. Install via your system package manager:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install clangd

# macOS
brew install llvm   # or: xcode-select --install

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install clang-tools-extra

Binary: clangd. One installation covers both C and C++.

C#

OmniSharp is bundled with the .NET SDK or available as a standalone binary. The standalone build can be downloaded from the OmniSharp releases page. Place the binary on PATH.

Binary: OmniSharp (note the capital O), invoked with -lsp.

Ruby

gem install solargraph

Binary: solargraph, invoked with stdio (no leading --).

HTML and CSS

npm install -g vscode-langservers-extracted

One package installs both servers. Binaries: vscode-html-language-server (HTML) and vscode-css-language-server (CSS, SCSS, Less), each invoked with --stdio.

Bash

npm install -g bash-language-server

Binary: bash-language-server, invoked with start (positional argument — not --stdio).

jdtls requires a data/workspace directory for project indexes. Some wrapper scripts accept --data to specify this path. If symbol tools return empty results, check whether jdtls started correctly by examining the server log. The JAVA_HOME environment variable should point to a JDK 17+ installation.

OmniSharp binary name starts with a capital O (OmniSharp, not omnisharp). On case-sensitive filesystems the name must match exactly. Some distributions ship a lowercase alias; check with which OmniSharp before assuming the server is unavailable.

solargraph takes a positional argument (stdio) rather than a flag (--stdio). This differs from most other servers. The invocation is solargraph stdio, not solargraph --stdio.

kotlin-lsp (JetBrains) has a single workspace session limitation: only one kotlin-lsp process can serve a given project directory at a time. If another codescout instance or editor is already running kotlin-lsp for the same project, new instances fail with “Multiple editing sessions for one workspace are not supported yet”. codescout detects this and fails fast with a clear error. Workaround: close the other session first, or use a single codescout instance for Kotlin projects. JetBrains plans to lift this restriction in a future release.

kotlin-lsp also builds a project index on first startup (JVM bootstrap + Gradle import), which takes 8–15 seconds. codescout retries the LSP handshake during this window automatically.

typescript-language-server handles JavaScript and JSX in addition to TypeScript and TSX. The LSP languageId sent for TSX files is typescriptreact and for JSX files is javascriptreact — this is handled internally and requires no configuration.

codescout Manual