reader: someone installing or running meow-starlark on Pi answers: what meow-starlark provides, what it adds to a session and how to install it kind: reference describes: [@meowshed/[email protected]]

@meowshed/meow-starlark

Detects Bazel and Buck workspaces from what git tracks, names the build system that evaluates the Starlark before it binds anything, prints a stages table bound from the buildifier configuration and the workspace file the repository committed with Bazel's symlinks switched off, reports a stage that passes whatever buildifier finds, rewrites files or leaves output in the working tree, writing no file, and carries what a reviewer of Starlark checks that no command reports. Distributed as a Pi package.

Install it

pi install npm:@meowshed/meow-starlark

The paw executable ships with @meowshed/meow-core alone (REQ-4612): this package's launchers run their subcommands through it, so install the core package beside this one for the binary-backed checks. Without it, every check reports unrun and lets the command through.

pi install npm:@meowshed/meow-core   # carries the binary the launchers run

Installing from this repository's checkout is the development install: it loads the package in place and runs no lifecycle script.

Bind your stages

meow-starlark bind prints a [stages] table for you to paste into .meowpaw/profile.toml, and never writes the profile itself:

| Stage | Bound to | When | | -------- | ------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------- | | format | buildifier --mode=check -r . | A .buildifier.json in the directory | | lint | buildifier --mode=check --lint=warn -r . | A .buildifier.json whose lint key is warn | | check | nothing, printed as unresolved | Always: Starlark has no static types | | test | bazel test --symlink_prefix=/ ... //... | A Bazel workspace | | build | bazel build --symlink_prefix=/ //... | A Bazel workspace |

Every buildifier command passes --mode=check, because the default mode rewrites the files it checks, and none passes --format, because buildifier exits 0 whenever it is given one, so the stage would pass whatever it found. The evidence of those stages is captured output: exit 4 means a file needs reformatting or a lint warning was found. Every Bazel command passes --symlink_prefix=/, because the convenience symlinks are the only output Bazel writes into your workspace, and test writes the build event protocol as JSON to bep.json under $XDG_STATE_HOME/meowpaw/packs/meow-starlark/. A workspace with no test target makes bazel test exit 4. A Buck project binds no test or build, because Buck2 writes buck-out at the project's root and documents no flag that moves it. The pack binds neither buildozer nor a linter you didn't configure. A stage you already declared is left out of the table.

Check your repository

meow-starlark check prints a finding for each of these and exits 1 on any:

| Line | When | | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- | | <stage> runs buildifier with --format; its exit status is 0 ... | A stage runs buildifier with --format | | <stage> runs buildifier without --mode=check, which rewrites ... | A stage runs buildifier without --mode=check | | <stage> runs bazel without --symlink_prefix=/ | A stage runs bazel build or bazel test without it | | <dir>: bazel-* symlinks aren't ignored | Such a stage exists and no ignore rule covers the links | | <dir>: buck-out/ isn't ignored | A Buck project and no ignore rule covers buck-out |

With no finding it prints no findings and the groups it checked, and exits 0.

What it reports instead of a table

| Line | Means | | ----------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | | unresolved: not a Starlark repository | Git tracks no Bazel or Buck marker | | unresolved: Bazel and Buck are all detected, so ... | A directory holds both kinds of marker | | unresolved: no profile at .meowpaw/profile.toml | check found no profile | | unresolved: the profile doesn't parse: ... | The profile isn't valid TOML |

Each exits 3.

Generated files

Commit the workspace markers, MODULE.bazel and the others, and .buildifier.json: they are project state. Ignore bazel-*, the convenience symlinks Bazel creates in the workspace unless --symlink_prefix=/ stops them, and buck-out/, where Buck writes its output. status states both lists, and check reports a buck-out nothing ignores.

Review Starlark

When Pi reviews Starlark, the skill has it run status first and then load reviewing.md, which holds what no command reports: the language's guarantees as a checklist, the evaluating build system and the functions it provides, load() resolution, and whether a macro should have been a rule. The skill never treats every .star file as Bazel's, never rewrites a BUILD file as text where buildozer could change it, and never claims a type check.

What it costs you

The skill's description stays in context on every turn, and reviewing.md costs context only when Starlark is reviewed. The program is a native binary shipped inside meow-core, and needs git on the machine. On a machine the unit carries no binary for, it reports the repository as unresolved and exits 3.

Read a subcommand's help

meow-starlark --help lists the subcommands, and meow-starlark <subcommand> --help names what it determines, what you read to reach the same answer without the tool, and the first word of each kind of line it prints.