@field private in @meta file triggers warning even when accessed within the same class

How are you using the lua-language-server?

Visual Studio Code Extension (sumneko.lua)

Which OS are you using?

Windows

What is the issue affecting?

Annotations

Expected Behaviour

When defining a class in a ---@meta file with @field private annotations, the Lua language server warns about accessing those private fields even when they are accessed within the implementation of the same class (just in a separate file). This makes private fields effectively unusable if you're organizing types in meta files.

The language server should not warn about access to @field private fields when they are accessed within the implementation of the class they belong to, even if that implementation is in a separate file.

I think this is by design rather than a bug, so maybe this is a feature request?

Actual Behaviour

Even though I'm accessing the private field in the implementation of that class, I see a warning:

Reproduction steps

1. In types.lua (meta file)

---@meta

---@class (exact) ModuleMixin
---@field private __loaded boolean
---@field Load fun(self)
---@field IsLoaded fun(self): boolean
---@field Init fun(self)

2. ModuleMixin.lua (implementation)

---@type SmartChat.ModuleMixin
local ModuleMixin = {}

function ModuleMixin:Init()
  self.__loaded = false  -- <-- LuaLS warns that __loaded is private
end

Additional Notes

I use a @meta file to separate type annotations from implementation, which is common in larger projects. This issue makes it difficult to use private meaningfully unless everything is co-located in the same file, which defeats the purpose of a metadata/type declaration file.

Would it be possible to make private refer to "the class definition context" rather than "the file only"?

Thanks!

Log File

No response

Riproduci l’avviso usando gli esempi types.lua e ModuleMixin.lua, iniziando dalla diagnostica dei campi privati nel language server. Traccia come vengono associati la dichiarazione della classe e il relativo file di implementazione. Il lavoro è completo quando gli accessi dall’implementazione non generano più avvisi, mentre i controlli sui campi privati rimangono intatti altrove.