Identifiers

The naming rule for fields, types, kinds, labels, and bindings, plus reserved words.

Identifiers are the names used throughout WCL — for fields, types, block kinds, block labels, variants, symbols, let bindings, and imported items. The lexical rule is the same everywhere, with one convenience exception for block labels.

Lexical rule

An identifier starts with an ASCII letter (a-z, A-Z) or an underscore, and continues with letters, digits, or underscores. No Unicode, no dashes, no spaces.

name           // ok
my_field       // ok
_internal      // ok
v2             // ok
HTTPStatus     // ok

2nd_attempt    // NOT ok — must not start with a digit
kebab-case     // NOT ok as a field/type name — dashes aren't identifier chars

Block labels: kebab-case and paths

Block labels (the name after a block kind) are the one place a bare identifier may contain - and / connectors — so kebab-case class names and path-like page names need no quoting. The connector sits directly between name parts (no surrounding spaces).

class dgm-box {}              // kebab-case, bare
class wdoc-series-1 {}        // trailing number is fine
page reference/intro {}       // path-like
page api/v1/users {}

class "dgm-box" {}            // quoting still works

Reserved words

A handful of words are reserved by the lexer and cannot be used as identifiers in any position:

Other words that look special — type, interface, union, symbol_set, let, import, connection, fn, extends, as — are recognised only in declaration positions, so they may also appear as ordinary identifiers. It reads more clearly to keep them for their declaration use.

Naming conventions

The standard library follows Rust-like conventions, but the language does not enforce them. Pick a style and stay consistent.

Related

- Namespaces

- Symbols