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Symbol Validity Gate

Definition​

The Symbol Validity Gate is a centralized filter that decides whether a name extracted from code can become a node in the tree. It applies on every extraction path (LSP, Tree-sitter, regex fallback, PHP).

A name is rejected if​

  • It has fewer than 2 characters, or it is <anonymous> / starts with <.
  • It is a 1 to 2 letter lowercase identifier (e, cb, fn, etc.).
  • It is in the "noise names" list (NOISE_NAMES): callback, cb, fn, func, handler, resolve, reject, next, done, err, error, e, evt, event, res, req, ctx, data, item, then, catch, finally, body, args, kwargs, params, opts, options.
  • It is a reserved word of the language (a cross-language list of more than 100 words covering JS/TS, Python, Rust, Go, Java, C#, C/C++, Ruby, SQL, and others).

Why it matters​

This explains why an anonymous callback (.then(res => ...)) or a function function e() {} does not appear as a node in the Ghost Tree. It is intentional, to avoid noise.

Examples of code that intentionally does NOT create nodes​

// Does not appear: 1 to 2 character lowercase name
function e() {}

// Does not appear: anonymous callback in .then()
fetchData().then(res => {
  console.log(res);
});

// Does not appear: "data" is in NOISE_NAMES
const data = items.map(item => transform(item));

// Does not appear: "constructor" is reserved / context-sensitive
class Foo {
  constructor() {}
}

// Does appear: descriptive name, not reserved, not noise
function calculateMonthlyInterest(principal: number) {}

Note: If a function or variable you expected to see is missing from the tree, it probably falls in one of these cases. It is not a GhostMap bug.

Next step​

You have finished the Guide section. Continue with the Syntax reference to see every valid form of @ghost.

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