The configuration mechanism is new in clangd 11, and more options will be exposed in this way in future. {:.v11}
{% include toc.md %}
Configuration is stored in YAML files. These are either:
-
project configuration: a file named
.clangd
in the source tree. (clangd searches in all parent directories of the active file).Generally this should be used for shared and checked-in settings.
(Existing directories named
.clangd
can be deleted. These were used for temporary storage by clangd before version 11.) -
user configuration: a
config.yaml
file in an OS-specific directory:- Windows:
%LocalAppData%\clangd\config.yaml
, typicallyC:\Users\Bob\AppData\Local\clangd\config.yaml
. - macOS:
~/Library/Preferences/clangd/config.yaml
- Linux and others:
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clangd/config.yaml
, typically~/.config/clangd/config.yaml
.
Private settings go here, and can be scoped to projects using
If
conditions. - Windows:
Each file can contain multiple fragments separated by ---
lines. (This is
only useful if the fragments have different If
conditions).
JSON is a subset of YAML, so you can use that syntax if you prefer.
Changes should take effect immediately as you continue to edit code.
By default, user configuration applies to all files that are opened.
Project configuration applies to files under its tree (proj/.clangd
configures
proj/**
).
If
conditions can further limit this, e.g. to configure only header files.
Configuration is combined when this is sensible. In case of conflicts, user config has the highest precedence, then inner project, then outer project.
At the top-level, a fragment is a key-value mapping that divides the document into "blocks" of related options, each of which is a key-value mapping.
In most places where an array of scalar values can be specified, a single value
is also acceptable. e.g. Add: -Wall
is equivalent to Add: [-Wall]
.
Conditions in the If
block restrict when a fragment applies.
If: # Apply this config conditionally
PathMatch: .*\.h # to all headers...
PathExclude: include/llvm-c/.* # except those under include/llvm-c/
Each separate condition must match (combined with AND).
When one condition has multiple values, any may match (combined with OR).
e.g. PathMatch: [foo/.*, bar/.*]
matches files in either directory.
Conditions based on a file's path use the following form:
- if the fragment came from a project directory, the path is relative
- if the fragment is global (e.g. user config), the path is absolute
- paths always use forward-slashes (UNIX-style)
If no file is being processed, these conditions will not match.
The file being processed must fully match a regular expression.
The file being processed must not fully match a regular expression.
Affects how a source file is parsed.
CompileFlags: # Tweak the parse settings
Add: [-xc++, -Wall] # treat all files as C++, enable more warnings
Remove: [-W*] # strip all other warning-related flags
Compiler: clang++ # Change argv[0] of compile flags to `clang++`
clangd emulates how clang would interpret a file.
By default, it behaves roughly as clang $FILENAME
, but real projects usually
require setting the include path (with the -I
flag), defining preprocessor
symbols, configuring warnings etc.
Often, a compilation database specifies these compile commands. clangd
searches for compile_commands.json
in parents of the source file.
This section modifies how the compile command is constructed.
List of flags to append to the compile command.
List of flags to remove from the compile command.
- If the value is a recognized clang flag (like
-I
) then it will be removed along with any arguments. Synonyms like--include-directory=
will also be removed. - Otherwise, if the value ends in
*
(like-DFOO=*
) then any argument with the prefix will be removed. - Otherwise any argument exactly matching the value is removed.
In all cases, -Xclang
is also removed where needed.
Example:
- Command:
clang++ --include-directory=/usr/include -DFOO=42 foo.cc
- Configuration:
Remove: [-I, -DFOO=*]
- Result:
clang++ foo.cc
Flags added by the same CompileFlags entry will not be removed.
{:.v12}
Directory to search for compilation database (compile_commands.json etc). Valid values are:
- A single path to a directory (absolute, or relative to the fragment)
- Ancestors: search all parent directories (the default)
- None: do not use a compilation database, just default flags.
{:.v14}
String to replace the executable name in the compile flags. The name controls flag parsing (clang vs clang-cl), target inference (gcc-arm-noneabi) etc.
If the option matches a glob mentioned in --query-driver
, then it'll be
invoked for extraction of include paths.
Controls how clangd understands code outside the current file.
Index:
Background: Skip # Disable slow background indexing of these files.
clangd's indexes provide information about symbols that isn't available to clang's parser, such as incoming references.
Whether files are built in the background to produce a project index.
This is checked for translation units only, not headers they include.
Legal values are Build
(the default) or Skip
.
{:.v12}
Used to define an external index source:
- On-disk monolithic index produced by
clangd-indexer
or - Address of a remote-index-server.
MountPoint
can be used to specify source root for the index. This is necessary
to handle relative path conversions. Overall schema looks like this:
Index:
External:
File: /abs/path/to/an/index.idx
# OR
Server: my.index.server.com:50051
MountPoint: /files/under/this/project/
- Exactly one of
File
orServer
needs to be specified. MountPoint
defaults to location of the config fragment if not provided, must be absolute in global config and relative in local config.- Declaring an
External
index disables background-indexing implicitly for files under theMountPoint
. Users can turn it back on, by explicitly mentioningBackground: Build
in a later fragment.
{:.v15}
Controls whether clangd eagerly indexes the standard library (to give code completions of standard library symbols on an empty file). Sample block (default).
Index:
StandardLibrary: No
Describes the style of the codebase, beyond formatting.
Namespaces that should always be fully qualified, meaning no "using" declarations, always spell out the whole name (with or without leading::). All nested namespaces are affected as well. Affects availability of the AddUsing tweak.
{:.v12}
Diagnostic codes that should be suppressed.
Valid values are:
'*'
, to disable all diagnostics- diagnostic codes exposed by clangd (e.g
unknown_type
,-Wunused-result
) - clang internal diagnostic codes (e.g.
err_unknown_type
) - warning categories (e.g.
unused-result
) - clang-tidy check names (e.g.
bugprone-narrowing-conversions
)
This is a simple filter. Diagnostics can be controlled in other ways
(e.g. by disabling a clang-tidy check, or the -Wunused
compile flag).
This often has other advantages, such as skipping some analysis.
Configure how clang-tidy runs over your files.
The settings are merged with any settings found in .clang-tidy configuration files with the ones from clangd configs taking precedence.
List of checks.
These can be globs, for example Add: 'bugprone-*'
.
List of checks to disable, can be globs.
This takes precedence over Add, this supports enabling all checks from a module apart from some specific checks.
Example to use all modernize module checks apart from use trailing return type:
Diagnostics:
ClangTidy:
Add: modernize*
Remove: modernize-use-trailing-return-type
Key-value pairs of options for clang-tidy checks. Available options for all checks can be found here.
Note the format here is slightly different to .clang-tidy
configuration
files as we don't specify key: <key>, value: <value>
. Instead just use
<key>: <value>
Diagnostics:
ClangTidy:
CheckOptions:
readability-identifier-naming.VariableCase: CamelCase
{:.v18}
Whether to run clang-tidy checks that may slow down clangd.
Valid values are:
Strict
: Run only checks measured to be fast. This excludes recently-added checks that we have not timed yet. This is the default.Loose
: Run checks unless they are known to be slow.None
: Run checks regardless of their speed.
Diagnostics:
ClangTidy:
FastCheckFilter: Strict
{:.v14}
Enables Include Cleaner's unused includes
diagnostics. Possible values: None
,
Strict
(default since clangd 17).
Diagnostics:
UnusedIncludes: Strict
{:.v15}
A list of regexes. Include Cleaner will not produce diagnostics for headers whose path is a suffix match for any of these.
{:.v19}
A boolean that enables/disables detection of unused angled includes that are not from the Standard Library. Disabled by default to avoid false-positives caused by umbrella headers.
{:.v17}
Enables Include Cleaner's missing includes diagnostics.
Possible values: None
(default), Strict
.
{:.v13}
Whether code completion should include suggestions from scopes that are not visible. The required scope prefix will be inserted.
{:.v14}
Configures the behaviour of the inlay-hints feature. Sample block (default):
InlayHints:
BlockEnd: No
Designators: Yes
Enabled: Yes
ParameterNames: Yes
DeducedTypes: Yes
TypeNameLimit: 24
{:.v14}
A boolean that enables/disables the inlay-hints feature for all kinds, when disabled, configuration for specific kinds are ignored.
{:.v14}
A boolean that enables/disables inlay-hints for parameter names in function calls.
{:.v14}
A boolean that enables/disables inlay-hints for deduced types.
{:.v14}
A boolean that enables/disables inlay-hints for designators in aggregate initialization. (eg: Designators: true
: std::vector<int> arr = {[0]= 1, [1]= 2}
; Designators: false
: std::vector<int> arr = {1, 2}
)
{:.v17}
A boolean that enables/disables inlay-hints for block end comment. An example is shown below (comments are inlay hints):
void foo() {
struct S {
}; // struct S
} // foo
{:.v17}
Character limit for type hints. Hints that would be longer are not shown. 0 means no limit.
{:.v14}
Configures contents of the hover cards. Sample block (default):
Hover:
ShowAKA: No
{:.v14}
A boolean that controls printing of desugared types, e.g:
vector<int>::value_type (aka int)
{:.v17}
Configure semantic highlighting. Sample block (default):
SemanticTokens:
DisabledKinds: []
DisabledModifiers: []
{:.v17}
Specify semantic token kinds that clangd should not send to client.
Available kinds could be found here in the Kind column.
{:.v17}
Specify semantic token modifiers that clangd should not send to client.
Available modifiers could be found here in the Modifier column.