`ant dev example` dispatcher supports only python+csharp; 13 other SDKs have examples but are unreachable

[Nic-dorman]

Bug

ant dev example <name> -l <language> advertises itself as the way to run the bundled examples, but only Python and C# are wired up. Every other SDK in this repo (antd-cpp, antd-dart, antd-elixir, antd-go, antd-java, antd-js, antd-kotlin, antd-lua, antd-php, antd-ruby, antd-rust, antd-swift, antd-zig) ships runnable examples in its own directory, but the CLI can't reach them:

$ ant dev example --help
usage: ant dev example [-h] [-l {python,csharp}] name

Location

ant-dev/src/ant_dev/cmd_example.py:

def run(args) -> None:
    ...
    if lang == "python":
        _run_python(sdk_root, name)
    else:
        _run_csharp(sdk_root, name)

Only _run_python and _run_csharp exist; the parser also hardcodes choices=["python","csharp"] (see ant-dev/src/ant_dev/cli.py).

What examples exist today

I cloned main and looked at each SDK directory. All 14 desktop SDKs have example source files (Kotlin's are bundled into one Main.kt dispatched by arg; macOS-only Swift has Sources/AntdExamples/Main.swift):

SDK	Example sources	Invocation today
antd-cpp	examples/01-connect.cpp, 02-data.cpp, …	CMake build + run binary
antd-dart	example/01_connect.dart, …	dart run example/02_data.dart
antd-elixir	examples/01_connect.exs, …	elixir examples/02_data.exs
antd-go	examples/02-data/main.go, …	cd examples/02-data && go run .
antd-java	Example02PublicData.java, …	javac + java -cp …
antd-js	examples/02-data.ts, …	npx tsx examples/02-data.ts
antd-kotlin	examples/src/main/kotlin/…/Main.kt	./gradlew :examples:run --args="2"
antd-lua	examples/02-data.lua, …	lua examples/02-data.lua
antd-php	examples/02-data.php, …	php examples/02-data.php
antd-ruby	examples/02_data.rb, …	ruby examples/02_data.rb
antd-rust	examples/02-data.rs, …	cargo run --example 02-data
antd-swift	Sources/AntdExamples/Main.swift	swift run (macOS)
antd-zig	examples/02-data.zig, …	zig build run-02-data

Suggested shape of the fix

Three reasonable directions, in increasing scope:

1. Plugin per language. Each SDK ships a examples/.runner.json (or a [tool.ant-dev.examples] block in its native manifest) describing how to build and invoke each example. ant-dev reads the file and dispatches — no per-language Python in ant-dev.

2. Hard-coded dispatchers in ant-dev, one _run_<lang> per SDK that just shells out the canonical command above. Cheap to ship, but ant-dev grows whenever a new SDK joins.

3. Status quo + escape hatch: leave ant dev example to python+csharp, but add ant dev shell -l <lang> that drops you into the SDK directory with the right env set up. Users run examples themselves.

(1) feels right long-term, (2) is fine as a stopgap.

Why this matters

For anyone standing up a testbox (e.g. cross-language verification of a data round-trip), it's not obvious from the CLI alone that 13/15 SDKs aren't usable through ant dev example. Hitting this lengthens onboarding noticeably.

---

Surfaced while building a multi-language testbox — happy to take a stab at (2) if there's interest.