`workspace/symbol` does not return attributes defined in `__init__`

[AdrianSosic]

Describe the Bug

Not sure if this is a bug or intended behavior, but VS Code's workspace symbol search (#, or Ctrl+T) does not return any attributes defined in init, regardless of prefix, when using the Pyrefly extension.

This worked with Pylance before switching to Pyrefly.

Minimal reproduction

class Example:
    def __init__(self) -> None:
        self._private_member = 1

    def _private_method(self) -> None:
        pass

    def public_method(self) -> None:
        pass

Expected behavior

Workspace symbol search should return _private_member and _private_method, as it did with Pylance.

Actual behavior

The public symbol appears, but the underscore-prefixed members do not.

Sandbox Link

No response

(Only applicable for extension issues) IDE Information

No response

[dantrapp]

#claim

I will check the current workspace-symbol search behavior and add a focused regression test for underscore-prefixed members. Before changing the filtering, I will check how it interacts with auto-import suggestions. Investigation and code changes are assisted by OpenAI Codex.

[github-actions]

@dantrapp you've claimed this issue — it's now assigned to you. Thanks for picking it up! 🎉

[dantrapp]

Reproduced the remaining attribute failure on main at c9020af with a lightweight workspace-symbol test. The control test finds both _private_method and public_method; the test expecting _private_member fails with zero results.

The current flat symbol collector skips assignments inside function bodies, including self._private_member = 1. I propose recording direct receiver-attribute assignments in methods, attaching them to the enclosing class, while continuing to exclude local variables and assignments to unrelated objects. The change would be limited to workspace-symbol indexing; auto-import behavior would remain unchanged.

I am preparing the patch and regression coverage with Codex assistance. Please let me know if instance attributes are intentionally excluded from workspace search.