SymboleoAC Text Editor

The SymboleoAC IDE is an Integrated Development Environment designed for the formal specification of legal contracts using the \Symboleo/ language. It is built using the Xtext DSL framework, enabling the creation of domain-specific languages with advanced editor support such as syntax highlighting, validation, and code generation.

The IDE extends Symboleo to SymboleoAC, supporting the specification of access-controlled, and event-driven smart contracts for cyber-physical systems.

Installation and Setup

To install and use the SymboleoAC IDE, please follow the official installation guide:

Installation Guide

Headless CLI Validator

For batch experiments and automated pipelines (e.g. LLM transform-and-fix loops), a headless command-line validator is available that runs the Xtext parser and every @Check rule in SymboleoValidator without launching Eclipse.

Download

Grab the latest fat jar from the Releases page:

symboleo-cli-1.0.0-all.jar

Requires Java 17+ on PATH. No other dependencies.

Usage

java -jar symboleo-cli-1.0.0-all.jar <input.symboleo> [options]

Option	Description
-o, --out <file>	Write diagnostics to a file instead of stdout
-f, --format <fmt>	text (default) or json
-q, --quiet	Suppress the human-readable summary on stdout
-h, --help	Show usage

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	File parses, no ERROR-severity issues (warnings allowed)
1	One or more ERROR-severity issues (grammar or @Check)
2	Usage error or I/O failure (input missing, etc.)

JSON output shape

Ideal as input to an automated fixer (e.g. LLM):

{
  "summary": {
    "total": 2,
    "warnings": 0,
    "errors": 2
  },
  "file": "C:\\Users\\SomeUser\\Models\\Test.symboleo",
  "issues": [
    {
      "severity": "ERROR",
      "code": null,
      "offset": 3088,
      "line": 41,
      "column": 34,
      "length": 5,
      "message": "Type of 'name' in myAsset is Number, it does not match String"
    },
    {
      "severity": "ERROR",
      "code": null,
      "offset": 9590,
      "line": 137,
      "column": 2,
      "length": 17,
      "message": "Duplicate identifier oSomeObligation"
    }
  ]
}

Examples

Validate a single file and dump errors as JSON:

java -jar symboleo-cli-1.0.0-all.jar samples/MeatSale.symboleo \
     --format json --out errors.json

Batch-validate a directory, stopping on the first error (bash):

for f in contracts/*.symboleo; do
  java -jar symboleo-cli-1.0.0-all.jar "$f" --quiet || exit 1
done

PowerShell equivalent:

Get-ChildItem contracts\*.symboleo | ForEach-Object {
  java -jar symboleo-cli-1.0.0-all.jar $_.FullName --quiet
  if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) { throw "validation failed on $($_.Name)" }
}

Building from source

See cli/README.md for the developer build instructions.

How to Use the IDE?

Once the IDE is set up and operational:

1. Open the runtime-Eclipse workspace using the steps provided in the installation guide.

2. Create a new general project:
   File → New → Project… → General → Project

3. Explore the Sample folder, which contains several example contracts.
   You can either:

   • Generate smart contracts from the provided examples, or
   • Start writing a \Symboleo/ specification from scratch.

4. Inside your project, create a new file with the .symboleo extension.

5. You can copy and paste an example from the Sample folder into your new file as a starting point.

How to Specify AC in SymboleoAC?

Access control in SymboleoAC is specified within the Contract Body section of Symboleo contract specification.

This section defines who is authorized to perform specific actions on particular resources.

The following table summarizes the main access control concepts:

Access Control Concept	Description
ACPolicy	Indicates the beginning of the access control section. This section governs who has permission to perform specific actions on resources within the contract.
ACPolicy Controller	Defines the controller of the access control policy. Controller of contract policy is responsible for managing the policy and specifying constraints over rules.
rule	Each rule defines a decision (e.g., grant or revoke) for specific roles to access resources. These rules determine how entities interact with contract resources.
accessedRole	The role for which access is being granted or revoked.
accessedResource	The resource on which access is being controlled.
Resources Controller	The entity responsible for managing and enforcing access control to a specifc resource.

The sample contracts available in SymboleoAC-IDE/samples/ demonstrate how access control is specified in Symboleo.

Examples

Examples of three contracts with their Symboleo specifications and generated smart contracts with access control are available in another repository:

SymboleoAC2SC Repository