Language Server Protocol¶

behave-lint includes an LSP server for real-time diagnostics in any LSP-compatible editor (VS Code, Neovim, Emacs, etc.).

Installation¶

Install with the lsp optional dependency:

pip install behave-lint[lsp]

Or with uv:

uv add 'behave-lint[lsp]'

Usage¶

The LSP server communicates over stdio:

behave-lint-lsp

Editor configuration¶

VS Code¶

Add the following to .vscode/settings.json:

{
  "gherkin-lint.server.path": "behave-lint-lsp",
  "gherkin-lint.enabled": true
}

Or use a custom extension that connects to the server.

Neovim (nvim-lspconfig)¶

local lspconfig = require('lspconfig')
lspconfig.behave_lint.setup({
  cmd = { 'behave-lint-lsp' },
  filetypes = { 'gherkin', 'feature' },
  root_dir = function(bufnr, callback)
    callback(vim.fn.getcwd())
  end,
})

Emacs (eglot)¶

(with-eval-after-load 'eglot
  (add-to-list 'eglot-server-programs
               '((feature-mode) "behave-lint-lsp")))

Generic LSP client¶

Any LSP client that supports stdio transport can connect to behave-lint-lsp. The server advertises:

textDocument/didOpen — lint on file open
textDocument/didChange — re-lint on every edit (full sync)
textDocument/didSave — re-lint on save
textDocument/didClose — clear diagnostics

Features¶

Real-time diagnostics — errors, warnings, and info from all 41 built-in rules
Full document sync — the server receives the complete document content on every change
Source attribution — all diagnostics are tagged with source: behave-lint
Rule codes — each diagnostic includes the rule ID (e.g. BC001, BS001) as the diagnostic code

Limitations¶

No auto-fix via LSP yet (planned for future versions)
No configuration via LSP workspace configuration yet (uses pyproject.toml if present, otherwise defaults)
Full document sync only (no incremental sync)