To concretize, we need the runtime shapes, and to get them, we actually apply the lenses: https://github.com/TuringLang/AbstractPPL.jl/blob/9b64dd89dcde2dc0d8845cd01b4cc305ea83086e/src/varname.jl#L428 It would be good if this were only views. Related: https://github.com/TuringLang/DynamicPPL.jl/issues/341