rust-lang / rust-lang/rust-analyzer

Symbol search for symbol in dependency

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A-vscode C-support
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

I frequently find myself wanting to explore the source of a dependency in order to understand how to use it. Go to definition works great for this if I have code that references the thing I want to explore, but sometimes I don't. For this usecase, I want to use go to symbol instead. A viable alternative is to search for the name of the symbol using autocomplete, then use go to definition from there, but this is an extra step.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing rust-analyzer's existing Go to Symbol and Go to Definition entry points, including how autocomplete exposes dependency symbols. Define the dependency-symbol search behavior and verify that a symbol can be found without an existing reference, then test the resulting navigation against the current Go to Definition flow.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
devtools, search
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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