CLANGD(1)

📦
version 22.1.8 · 3 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💅 CLANGD — the clangd manual page, User Commands edition ✨

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about clangd 🫶 this is the User Commands manual page for clangd and it is genuinely iconic.

✨ NAME ✨

clangd — a language server that gives editors IDE-like features 💖

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

OVERVIEW: clangd is a language server that provides IDE-like features to editors. no cap, that's the whole vibe. 🔥

It should be used via an editor plugin rather than invoked directly. fr fr, don't just rawdog it in your terminal like it's a normal CLI — it wants to live inside your editor, plugged in, thriving, main character energy 👑

For more information, see:

https://clangd.llvm.org/
https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/

clangd accepts flags on the commandline, and in the CLANGD_FLAGS environment variable. yes queen, two whole ways to feed her 🎀

USAGE:

clangd [options]

OPTIONS:

🧰 Generic Options

  • --help — Display available options (--help-hidden for more) 🙈 there's always more hiding under the hood
  • --help-list — Display list of available options (--help-list-hidden for more) 📋
  • --version — Display the version of this program ⭐

🛠️ clangd compilation flags options

  • --compile-commands-dir=<string> — Specify a path to look for compile_commands.json. If path is invalid, clangd will look in the current directory and parent paths of each source file 🧭 she'll go hunting, don't worry
  • --query-driver=<string> — Comma separated list of globs for white-listing gcc-compatible drivers that are safe to execute. Drivers matching any of these globs will be used to extract system includes. e.g. /usr/bin/**/clang-*,/path/to/repo/**/g++-* 🔍 only the white-listed ones get to run, safety first bestie

🦋 clangd feature options

  • --all-scopes-completion — If set to true, code completion will include index symbols that are not defined in the scopes (e.g. namespaces) visible from the code completion point. Such completions can insert scope qualifiers 🌈
  • --background-index — Index project code in the background and persist index on disk. 💾 she's working while you're not looking, icon
  • --background-index-priority=<value> — Thread priority for building the background index. The effect of this flag is OS-specific. 🖥️
    • =background — Minimum priority, runs on idle CPUs. May leave 'performance' cores unused. 💀 napping on the nice cores
    • =low — Reduced priority compared to interactive work. 🐢
    • =normal — Same priority as other clangd work. 🚶
  • --clang-tidy — Enable clang-tidy diagnostics 🧹
  • --completion-style=<value> — Granularity of code completion suggestions 🎚️
    • =detailed — One completion item for each semantically distinct completion, with full type information 📚 every single one, fully dressed
    • =bundled — Similar completion items (e.g. function overloads) are combined. Type information shown where possible 🎁 bundled together, cute
  • --experimental-modules-support — Experimental support for standard c++ modules 🧪 experimental, bestie, you've been warned
  • --fallback-style=<string> — clang-format style to apply by default when no .clang-format file is found 🎀 the backup outfit
  • --function-arg-placeholders=<string> — When disabled (0), completions contain only parentheses for function calls. When enabled (1), completions also contain placeholders for method parameters 🫶
  • --header-insertion=<value> — Add #include directives when accepting code completions 📥
    • =iwyu — Include what you use. Insert the owning header for top-level symbols, unless the header is already directly included or the symbol is forward-declared ✨
    • =never — Never insert #include directives as part of code completion 🚫 not today
  • --header-insertion-decorators — Prepend a circular dot or space before the completion label, depending on whether an include line will be inserted or not 🔵🫥 a lil dot tellin' you what's up
  • --import-insertions — If header insertion is enabled, add #import directives when accepting code completions or fixing includes in Objective-C code 🍎
  • --limit-references=<int> — Limit the number of references returned by clangd. 0 means no limit (default=1000) 🔢
  • --limit-results=<int> — Limit the number of results returned by clangd. 0 means no limit (default=100) 🔢
  • --project-root=<string> — Path to the project root. Requires remote-index-address to be set. ⚠️ she literally will not do this one without the address, that's the rule
  • --remote-index-address=<string> — Address of the remote index server 🌐
  • --rename-file-limit=<int> — Limit the number of files to be affected by symbol renaming. 0 means no limit (default=50) 🔢

🎀 clangd miscellaneous options

  • --check[=<string>] — Parse one file in isolation instead of acting as a language server. Useful to investigate/reproduce crashes or configuration problems. With --check=<filename>, attempts to parse a particular file. 🕵️ perfect for when something is being weird
  • --enable-config — Read user and project configuration from YAML files. 📄
    • Project config is from a .clangd file in the project directory.
    • User config is from clangd/config.yaml in the following directories:
Windows: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local
Mac OS: ~/Library/Preferences/
Others: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME, usually ~/.config
  • -j <uint> — Number of async workers used by clangd. Background index also uses this many workers. 👯♀️
  • --malloc-trim — Release memory periodically via malloc_trim(3). 🧹 decluttering queen
  • --pch-storage=<value> — Storing PCHs in memory increases memory usages, but may improve performance ⚖️ the eternal tradeoff
    • =disk — store PCHs on disk 💽
    • =memory — store PCHs in memory 🧠

📡 clangd protocol and logging options

  • --log=<value> — Verbosity of log messages written to stderr 🗣️
    • =error — Error messages only ❌
    • =info — High level execution tracing ℹ️
    • =verbose — Low level details 🔬 every last detail, we love a yapper
  • --offset-encoding=<value> — Force the offsetEncoding used for character positions. This bypasses negotiation via client capabilities 🎯 no negotiating, we're deciding
    • =utf-8 — Offsets are in UTF-8 bytes 💜
    • =utf-16 — Offsets are in UTF-16 code units 💙
    • =utf-32 — Offsets are in unicode codepoints 💚
  • --path-mappings=<string> — Translates between client paths (as seen by a remote editor) and server paths (where clangd sees files on disk). Comma separated list of '<client_path>=<server_path>' pairs, the first entry matching a given path is used. e.g. /home/project/incl=/opt/include,/home/project=/workarea/project 🔀 first match wins, remember that
  • --pretty — Pretty-print JSON output 🌸
⚠️ reminder bestie: run clangd through your editor plugin, not directly. that's the whole design, iykyk 💅

and that's the whole page 🥹 this was clangd 22, from September 2026 — user commands, official manual page, no notes. slay, go forth, and let your editor cook 👑💖🎀

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