From 0c671895f74d0fe574b1d7506adbb400cdf7a618 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Mark Tareshawty <mark@marktareshawty.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2026 01:44:21 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] highlights: treat private/protected/public as methods

`private`, `protected` and `public` are `Module` instance methods, not
keywords. They take arguments (`private :foo`), accept a `def`
expression (`private def foo; end`), can be reached through `send`, and
can be shadowed by a local variable. Highlighting them as `@keyword`
made them read like `def` or `end` and diverged from how RubyMine and
Ruby LSP render them.

Capture them as `@function.method.builtin`, matching how this query
already treats other well-known method calls such as `require` and
`defined?`.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
---
 queries/highlights.scm    | 6 ++++--
 test/highlight/classes.rb | 6 +++---
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/queries/highlights.scm b/queries/highlights.scm
index dd1c9139..3f308db0 100644
--- a/queries/highlights.scm
+++ b/queries/highlights.scm
@@ -33,8 +33,10 @@
   "yield"
 ] @keyword
 
-((identifier) @keyword
- (#match? @keyword "^(private|protected|public)$"))
+; `private`, `protected` and `public` are `Module` instance methods, not
+; keywords: they can be called with arguments, passed a `def`, or shadowed.
+((identifier) @function.method.builtin
+ (#match? @function.method.builtin "^(private|protected|public)$"))
 
 (constant) @constructor
 
diff --git a/test/highlight/classes.rb b/test/highlight/classes.rb
index f5aa258c..9139d903 100644
--- a/test/highlight/classes.rb
+++ b/test/highlight/classes.rb
@@ -22,12 +22,12 @@ def init(id)
   end
 
   private
-  # ^ keyword
+  # ^ function.method.builtin
 
   public
-  # ^ keyword
+  # ^ function.method.builtin
 
   protected
-  # ^ keyword
+  # ^ function.method.builtin
 end
 # <- keyword