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Editor setup

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mz-deploy includes a language server that gives your editor deep understanding of your project — not just SQL syntax, but cross-file dependencies, column schemas, and Materialize-specific features.

What the language server provides

  • Parse error diagnostics — SQL syntax errors appear inline as you type.
  • Go-to-definition — Click a table or view name to jump to the file that defines it, across your entire project.
  • Find references — See every object that depends on the one under your cursor.
  • Completions — Context-aware suggestions for column names, object names, functions, and keywords. Column completions are scoped to your file’s actual dependencies.
  • Hover — Hover over an object to see its column schema (names, types, nullability) pulled from types.lock or the internal type cache.
  • Document symbols — Outline view showing the primary object, indexes, constraints, grants, and unit tests in each file.
  • Workspace symbols — Fuzzy-find any object across your project by name.
  • Code lens — Clickable “Run Test” above unit tests and “Explain” above materialized views.

VS Code

Install the Materialize mz-deploy extension from the VS Code Marketplace — search for mz-deploy in the Extensions view, or install it from the command line:

code --install-extension MaterializeInc.mz-deploy

The extension activates automatically when your workspace contains a project.toml.

The extension adds:

  • All language server features listed above.
  • A data catalog sidebar for browsing objects, columns, and metadata.
  • A dependency graph panel for visualizing how objects relate.
  • Keyword highlighting that understands SQL strings, comments, and identifiers.

To configure a custom binary path, add to your VS Code settings:

{
  "mz-deploy.path": "/path/to/mz-deploy"
}

Neovim

Using nvim-lspconfig:

local lspconfig = require('lspconfig')
local configs = require('lspconfig.configs')

configs.mz_deploy = {
  default_config = {
    cmd = { 'mz-deploy', 'lsp', '-d', '.' },
    filetypes = { 'sql' },
    root_dir = lspconfig.util.root_pattern('project.toml'),
  },
}

lspconfig.mz_deploy.setup({})

Helix

Add to your languages.toml:

[[language]]
name = "sql"
language-servers = ["mz-deploy"]

[language-server.mz-deploy]
command = "mz-deploy"
args = ["lsp", "-d", "."]

How it works

The language server communicates over stdio using the standard LSP protocol. Start it manually with:

mz-deploy lsp -d <project-root>

Diagnostics update on every keystroke. The project model (used for go-to-definition, completions, and references) rebuilds on file save. If a rebuild fails, the last successful model is kept so navigation continues working.

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