Ballerina Library Tool

A Ballerina CLI tool for searching and retrieving library information. It enables AI copilots and developers to discover Ballerina packages and retrieve detailed API information including functions, connectors, types, and parameters.

Usage

Search libraries

Search for libraries by keywords. Returns a ranked list ordered by relevance.

bal library search http client
bal library search kafka messaging
bal library search fhir healthcare

Get library details

Retrieve full API details of one or more libraries including functions, connectors, and type definitions.

bal library get ballerina/http
bal library get ballerina/http ballerinax/github

Install a Released Version

Grab the latest bal-library-tool-<version>.zip from the Releases page, unzip it, and run the installer for your platform.

macOS / Linux:

unzip bal-library-tool-<version>.zip
cd bal-library-tool-<version>
./install.sh

Windows (PowerShell):

Expand-Archive bal-library-tool-<version>.zip -DestinationPath .
Set-Location bal-library-tool-<version>
.\install.ps1

Both installers are fully offline and only need bal on your PATH.

Building from the Source

Setting Up the Prerequisites

1. OpenJDK 21 (Adopt OpenJDK or any other OpenJDK distribution)

   Info: You can also use Oracle JDK. Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to the pathname of the directory into which you installed JDK.

2. Export GitHub credentials to pull build dependencies from GitHub Packages:

   export packageUser=<GitHub username>
   export packagePAT=<GitHub personal access token with read:packages scope>

Building the Source

Execute the commands below to build from the source.

1. To build the tool:

    ./gradlew clean build
   

2. To build without running checks:

    ./gradlew clean build -x check
   

3. To run the tests:

    ./gradlew :native:test
   

4. To install locally as a bal tool:

    ./install-local.sh
   

5. To build against a specific language server version:

    ./gradlew clean build -PlsVersion=<x.y.z>
   

6. To build against a locally built language server JAR:

    ./gradlew clean build -PlsLocalJar=<path/to/ballerina-language-server.jar>
   

Contributing to Ballerina

As an open-source project, Ballerina welcomes contributions from the community.

You can also check for open issues that interest you. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

For more information, go to the contribution guidelines.

Code of Conduct

All contributors are encouraged to read the Ballerina Code of Conduct.

Useful Links

• Chat live with us via our Discord server.
• Post all technical questions on Stack Overflow with the #ballerina tag.