Undefined global for builtins

How are you using the lua-language-server?

NeoVim

Which OS are you using?

Linux

What is the issue affecting?

Diagnostics/Syntax Checking

Expected Behaviour

I think I'm encountering the same issue as #1600. In my case it happens sporadically - reloading a lua file in Neovim will often randomly introduce or resolve this behavior.

I'm running version 3.6.4-1 installed from pacman.

Actual Behaviour

Seeing warnings on all builtins as "undefined global"

Reproduction steps

I'm not sure how to reproduce reliably - it seems to happen somewhat randomly when I load the buffer.

Additional Notes

No response

Log File

(I'm time-constrained at the moment but I plan to add this later)

Ditto - I'm seeing the same problem:

MacOS 12.5.1
NVIM v0.8.0
Sumneko 3.6.3

Same for me. The problem sometimes disappears when I open certain lua files but it's hard to reproduce consistently.

Ubuntu LTS 22.04
Nvim v0.9.0-dev-47-gcfdb4cbad
Sumneko v3.6.4

Check neovim/nvim-lspconfig#2355

Nothing really helpful there.

In my case, out of all globals, I'm getting warnings only for the type standard function: Undefined global 'type'

Really weird, I can't tell where is the root of the problem, is it the Language Server, nvim-lspconfig, the neovim lsp implementation, or something else.

Nothing really helpful there.

In my case, out of all globals, I'm getting warnings only for the type standard function: Undefined global 'type'

Really weird, I can't tell where is the root of the problem, is it the Language Server, nvim-lspconfig, the neovim lsp implementation, or something else.

Please open an issue about it.

I've also had this issue, and for me explicitly extending Lua.workspace.library with one of the meta-directories worked, ie.

nvim_lsp.lua_ls.setup {
    settings = {
        Lua = {
            workspace = {
                library = vim.tbl_extend("keep",
                    -- this will probably vary depending on setup, not sure if plugins like mason even install it.
                    {"/usr/lib/lua-language-server/meta/template"},
                    -- and runtime-directories.
                    vim.api.nvim_get_runtime_file("", true)),
            },
        },
    },
}

(might have undesired consequences, but I haven't found any so far 🤷)

Please try to startup server with parameters --meta=<WRITEABLE_PATH>.
Maybe it generated meta files failed.

Ah, yes you're right 👍
cmd = {sumneko_binary, "--logpath", "/home/simon/.cache/lua-language-server/", "--metapath", "/home/simon/.cache/lua-language-server/meta/"} works perfectly, thank you!

I've encountered this when the directory lua-language-server is installed into is not writable by the user. As with the above comment I had to set logpath (or the LS failed to start at all) and metapath (or there would be these undefined global errors).

Perhaps the defaults for logpath and metapath ought to be in a writable directory by default (like $XDG_CONFIG_HOME or $HOME/.cache or on macOS $HOME/Library/Caches?)

For me when I use lsp-zero I do not get this error but with the kickstart.nvim default config I do? strange

I got same issue in win 11, and fix by this suggession, #1788 (comment)

L3MON4D3's comment helped solve this undefined built-ins for me too, but since I'm using vim-lsp-settings, I solved it with this in my vimrc:

call lsp_settings#set('sumneko-lua-language-server', 'args', ["--metapath", expand('~/.vim-cache/lsp/meta')])

feat(neovim): add support for C/C++, Lua, Rust, and Java

I'm sorry if this is too late, but I would think this is a relevant issue to the problem I'm also seeing:

-- Require the hello-world module
local hello_world = require("hello-world")

-- Define a module named hello-world. This module should return a single
-- function named hello that takes no arguments and returns a string.

describe("hello-world", function()
	it("says hello world", function()
		local result = hello_world.hello()
		assert.are.equal("Hello, World!", result)
	end)
end)

This hello-world_spec.lua gives me warnings for Undefined global 'describe'., Undefined global 'it'. and Undefined field 'are'. while using lua_ls in mason within the LazyVim distro.

I tried setting the command in the lsp config without much success. How can I better investigate the problem?
This also happens on some example configs from LazyVim, e.g. the supertab extension gives an Undefined type or alias 'cmp.ConfigSchema'.

Chiming in to say that the solution suggested here still worked for me 3 years later.

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Undefined global for builtins #1788

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Undefined global for builtins #1788

Description

How are you using the lua-language-server?

Which OS are you using?

What is the issue affecting?

Expected Behaviour

Actual Behaviour

Reproduction steps

Additional Notes

Log File

Activity

andrewferrier commented on Dec 28, 2022

zenoli commented on Dec 29, 2022

sumneko commented on Jan 3, 2023

caldwell-63 commented on Feb 9, 2023

sumneko commented on Feb 13, 2023

L3MON4D3 commented on Mar 10, 2023

sumneko commented on Mar 11, 2023

L3MON4D3 commented on Mar 11, 2023

benjamineskola commented on Mar 31, 2023

godalming123 commented on Apr 20, 2023

wsdjeg commented on Jun 19, 2023

idbrii commented on Aug 10, 2023

massimopavoni commented on Jan 31, 2025

tkatter commented on Apr 9, 2026

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