gleam-lang/gleam

LSP: Renaming aliased value when alias has same name breaks alias

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#5,681 opened on May 3, 2026

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help wanted

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Description

Sorry, I know the title is hard to understand. An example will make much more sense:

// foo.gleam
pub type Foo { Bar }
//             ^^^ (a)

// main.gleam
import foo.{Bar as Bar}
//      (b) ^^^    ^^^ (c)
pub fn main() {
    let _ = Bar
    //      ^^^ (d)
}

To reproduce: Move the cursor over (a) and trigger a rename to a new name.

Expected outcome: (a) and (b) change to the new value, (c) and (d) remain unchanged.

Actual outcome: (a), (b), and (d) change to the new value. (c) remains Bar. However, since (d) changes to the new value as well, the rename causes an unknown variable error at (d).

Gleam version: 1.16.0 OS: macOS Tahoe 26.4 (25E246) Editor: helix 25.07.1 (a05c151b)

Contributor guide

Research direction
Investigate the LSP rename implementation to understand how aliases are resolved and ensure that when an alias has the same name as the original, renaming the original does not change the alias definition.
Tech stack
rust
Domain
backenddeveloper experience
Issue type
Bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
RustGitGleam
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
60