make-ls 0.4.0

Makefile language server

make-ls

make-ls is a Makefile language server written in Python.

It uses an owned Make parser and checks recipe shell syntax with bash -n.

Features

• hover, go-to-definition, and references for targets and variables
• variable rename
• quick fixes for unknown variables that add an empty assignment
• quick fixes for unresolved prerequisites that create a target stub recipe
• check subcommand for batch diagnostics
• hover for common GNU Make directives, functions, builtin variables, and special targets
• diagnostics for Makefile syntax
• diagnostics for unresolved plain prerequisites
• diagnostics for shell syntax inside recipes
• target lookup through explicit include, -include, and sinclude directives

Limits

• no full GNU Make evaluation
• include resolution is still limited
• no completion yet

Install

uv tool install make-ls

Run

make-ls

In stdio LSP mode this writes logs to $XDG_STATE_HOME/make-ls/, or ~/.local/state/make-ls/ when XDG_STATE_HOME is unset. The default file name is a stable hash derived from the launch directory.

To override the log path:

make-ls --log-file /tmp/make-ls.log --log-level debug

To disable file logging entirely:

make-ls --no-log-file

Lint files or directories:

make-ls check Makefile rules.mk
make-ls check .
make-ls check --format json . > make-ls.sarif

For local development:

uv sync --all-groups
uv run make-ls

Neovim

vim.lsp.config('make-ls', {
  cmd = { 'make-ls' },
  filetypes = { 'make' },
  root_markers = { 'Makefile' },
})

vim.lsp.enable("make-ls")

With the default cmd = { 'make-ls' }, Neovim LSP logs land in a launch-path specific file under the XDG state log directory.

Development

make check
make test
make build