mcpls: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Type safety

Tool parameter structs must use domain types, not raw primitives, for values with protocol-specific conventions. Position fields (line, column) must be documented as 1-based in both the /// doc comment and the #[schemars(description)] — the MCP↔LSP coordinate conversion happens in the bridge layer, not here.

Path parameters must accept absolute paths. State this in the schema description; AI clients use it to form requests correctly.

New tool structs require #[derive(JsonSchema)]. Omitting it silently removes the tool from the schema exposed to clients — they cannot discover or invoke it.

Error handling

Tool handlers must return structured MCP error responses on failure, never panic. unwrap() and expect() in handler code kill the entire server process and drop all active client sessions. Use ? with proper error mapping instead.

All error variants must carry enough context for the caller to understand what went wrong. A bare "internal error" string is not actionable. Include the file path, method name, or other relevant detail.

Idiomatic dispatch

When adding a new tool, register it in both the capability advertisement (tool list) and the dispatch match arm. A tool missing from the list is undiscoverable; a tool missing from dispatch panics at runtime. A compile-time check (e.g. a const assertion or a test that calls every listed tool name through dispatch) is preferable to relying on manual review.

Prefer exhaustive match arms over wildcard catch-alls in dispatch. A wildcard silently swallows unhandled tool names; exhaustive matching makes unregistered names a compile error.