Syntax Highlighting

Using bat

bat is a cat clone with syntax highlighting and Git integration. You can use mq’s Sublime syntax file to enable syntax highlighting for mq files in bat.

Setting up mq syntax highlighting

1. Create the bat syntax directory if it doesn’t exist:

mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"

2. Copy the mq syntax file:

# Clone the mq repository or download mq.sublime-syntax
curl -o "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes/mq.sublime-syntax" \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harehare/mq/main/assets/mq.sublime-syntax

3. Rebuild bat’s cache:

bat cache --build

Usage

Now you can use bat to display mq files with syntax highlighting:

# View an mq file with syntax highlighting
bat query.mq

Example

Create a sample mq file:

cat > example.mq << 'EOF'
# This is a comment
def greet(name):
  s"Hello, ${name}!"
end

.h | .text | greet("World")
EOF

View it with syntax highlighting:

bat example.mq

Helix

Helix discovers languages, tree-sitter grammars, and LSP servers through its languages.toml config file rather than a dedicated plugin. mq syntax highlighting is provided by tree-sitter-mq, and language features (completion, hover, diagnostics) by mq-lsp.

Setting up mq support

1. Add the following to languages.toml in your Helix config directory (~/.config/helix/languages.toml):

[[language]]
name = "mq"
scope = "source.mq"
file-types = ["mq"]
comment-token = "#"
language-servers = ["mq-lsp"]
indent = { tab-width = 2, unit = "  " }

[language-server.mq-lsp]
command = "mq-lsp"

[[grammar]]
name = "mq"
source = { git = "https://github.com/harehare/tree-sitter-mq", rev = "main" }

2. Fetch and build the grammar:

hx --grammar fetch
hx --grammar build

3. Copy the highlight queries from tree-sitter-mq into your Helix runtime directory, since Helix does not bundle queries for externally configured grammars:

mkdir -p ~/.config/helix/runtime/queries/mq
curl -o ~/.config/helix/runtime/queries/mq/highlights.scm \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harehare/tree-sitter-mq/main/queries/highlights.scm

4. Make sure mq-lsp is installed and on your PATH.

5. Verify the setup:

hx --health mq

This should report the tree-sitter grammar as found and mq-lsp as configured.

Editor Support

In addition to bat, mq syntax highlighting is available for:

• Visual Studio Code: Install the mq extension
• Obsidian: Install the mq plugin
• Helix: See the Helix section above for languages.toml setup