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.

§ 1Lexical 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

§ 2Block 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

§ 3Reserved 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.

§ 4Naming conventions

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