Unknown identifier

Meaning

No visible declaration matches the identifier at that source location.

Lookup considers lexical bindings, flattened top-level declarations, fields in the receiver's nominal type, and qualified enum variants according to the syntactic context.

Why it happens

The name may be misspelled, used before declaration, outside its block, absent from the resolved import set, or incorrectly qualified as though file imports created namespaces.

Invalid code

fn main() -> Int {
    if (true) { let inner = 42 }
    return inner
}

Correct code

import std.io

fn main() -> Int {
    let inner = 42
    if (true) { println(inner) }
    return inner
}

Common fixes

Correct the spelling, move the declaration to an enclosing scope, or add the local source import that contains the top-level declaration.

For imports, resolve dots beneath the entry file's directory and remember wildcard imports are non-recursive. Imported names are used directly, not as module.name. Fix earlier parse errors first because recovery can make later declarations appear missing.