Mago

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🧩 Helix Editor Recipe ​

Integrate Mago directly with the Helix editor for fast, reliable, and automatic code formatting.

Prerequisites ​

  1. Mago Installed: Ensure you have installed Mago. If not, please follow the Installation Guide.
  2. PATH Configured: The mago executable must be available in your system's PATH. The recommended installation scripts handle this for you. You can verify this by running which mago in your terminal.

Configuration ​

You only need to add a few lines to your Helix languages.toml file.

  1. Locate your languages.toml file:

    • On Linux & macOS, it's typically at ~/.config/helix/languages.toml.
    • On Windows, it's typically at %AppData%\helix\languages.toml. If the file doesn't exist, you can create it.

  2. Add the Mago formatter configuration: Add the following TOML block to the end of the file. This will override the default formatter for PHP and enable formatting on save.

    toml
    # ~/.config/helix/languages.toml

[[language]]
name = "php"

# Set Mago as the formatter.
formatter = { command = "mago", args = ["format", "--stdin-input"] }

# Set to true to format automatically on save.
auto-format = true

Usage ​

Once configured, Helix is ready to use Mago.

  • If auto-format = true, your PHP files will be formatted by Mago every time you save (:write or :w).
  • You can trigger formatting manually at any time by running the :format (or :fmt) command in Helix's command mode.

To verify the setup, open a .php file, misalign some code, and save the file. The code should snap into place as Mago formats it.