unison/unison-src/transcripts/suffixes.md

# Suffix-based resolution of names

```ucm:hide
scratch/main> builtins.merge
```

Any unique name suffix can be used to refer to a definition. For instance:

```unison:hide
-- No imports needed even though FQN is `builtin.{Int,Nat}`
foo.bar.a : Int
foo.bar.a = +99

-- No imports needed even though FQN is `builtin.Optional.{None,Some}`
optional.isNone = cases
  None -> true
  Some _ -> false
```

This also affects commands like find. Notice lack of qualified names in output:

```ucm
scratch/main> add
scratch/main> find take
```

The `view` and `display` commands also benefit from this:

```ucm
scratch/main> view List.drop
scratch/main> display bar.a
```

In the signature, we don't see `base.Nat`, just `Nat`. The full declaration name is still shown for each search result though.

Type-based search also benefits from this, we can just say `Nat` rather than `.base.Nat`:

```ucm
scratch/main> find : Nat -> [a] -> [a]
```

## Preferring names not in `lib.*.lib.*`

Suffix-based resolution prefers names that are not in an indirect dependency.

```unison
cool.abra.cadabra = "my project"
lib.distributed.abra.cadabra = "direct dependency 1"
lib.distributed.baz.qux = "direct dependency 2"
lib.distributed.lib.baz.qux = "indirect dependency"
```

```ucm
scratch/main> add
```

```unison:error
> abra.cadabra
```

```unison
> baz.qux
```

```ucm
scratch/main> view abra.cadabra
scratch/main> view baz.qux
```

Note that we can always still view indirect dependencies by using more name segments:

```ucm
scratch/main> view distributed.abra.cadabra
scratch/main> names distributed.lib.baz.qux
```