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Imports and Navigation

This page is intentionally short and exists to prevent confusion between three related features:

  1. Go-to-definition on symbols (Identifier, MemberAccess, etc.)
  2. Go-to-definition on import strings (import "./X.sol")
  3. Find references (textDocument/references)

What goes where

  • Symbol goto and import-string goto are both handled in the goto implementation:
  • Reference collection is handled in the references implementation:

Important boundary

Import strings are treated as navigation targets, not symbol references.

That means:

  • import "./Pool.sol" can navigate to the file via go-to-definition.
  • textDocument/references does not return import-string literals as references for a declaration.

This boundary is deliberate in the current design so references remain declaration/usage based, while import paths remain file-navigation based.

Import path completions

There is a third distinct behavior for import strings: completions.

When the cursor is inside an import string literal (e.g. import "|"), the server provides filesystem-based path completions — not symbol completions. This is handled in the completions pipeline, not in goto or references.

See completions.md for details on import path completion mode.