workspace/symbol returns results from projects outside the workspace folder

[stewartmcgown]

Extension Version

0.20260731.1

VS Code Version

Cursor 3.13.25 (VS Code 1.128.0) — also reproduces the LSP workspace/symbol behavior via TypeScript Native Preview / tsgo

Operating system Version

macOS 26.6 (darwin arm64)

Steps to reproduce

1. Enable TypeScript Native Preview (js/ts.experimental.useTsgo: true).
2. Open a single-folder workspace, e.g. /path/to/repo (not multi-root).
3. At some point open (or have the editor restore) TypeScript files from a sibling folder / git worktree of the same repo, e.g. /path/to/repo-other-worktree/..., or from an unrelated repo. Those documents may not remain as visible tabs — only one in-workspace file (or none) may be shown.
4. Invoke Go to Symbol in Workspace (workspace/symbol).

Observed in Native Preview logs:

• handled method 'workspace/symbol'
• Prior DidOpenFile / Creating ConfiguredProject entries for paths outside the workspace folder
• Symbol results include duplicates from those out-of-folder projects

Example from a session where the UI showed a single file under the workspace root, while the language server still had dozens of out-of-folder documents open (sibling git worktrees + other repos) and returned their symbols.

Issue

Expected: workspace/symbol should prefer or be limited to projects under the workspace folder(s) provided to the language server. Opening (or silently restoring) a file outside the folder for a one-off look should not permanently pollute Go to Symbol in Workspace with every symbol from that external project tree.

Actual: tsgo loads configured projects for every opened document, including those outside the workspace folder, and workspace/symbol searches all loaded projects. With a large monorepo + many git worktrees, this yields:

• Duplicate / confusing symbol hits from other worktrees
• Very slow symbol queries (multi-second to ~20s observed)
• High memory use when many external projects stay loaded (typescript.native-preview.goMemLimit set high makes this worse)

There does not appear to be a setting to scope workspace/symbol to workspace folders only.

Ask: Scope workspace/symbol to workspace folders by default (or add a preference), and/or unload / exclude configured projects whose roots lie outside the workspace folders once those documents are no longer open — especially when the client only has a single workspace folder.

Related context (not duplicates, but nearby):

• VS Code feature request on symbol picker visibility: Allow to configure symbol visibility in pickers that may show symbols vscode#86761
• Classic TS discussion of unloading idle projects: Grace period strategy for unloading projects TypeScript#35115

Happy to provide redacted Native Preview logs showing DidOpenFile / Creating ConfiguredProject for out-of-folder roots alongside workspace/symbol timings if useful.

[jakebailey]

We were missing js/ts.workspaceSymbols.scope support; #4805 adds it, at the expense of an LSP extension.