Debugger (Beta)

Zed uses the Debug Adapter Protocol (DAP) to provide debugging functionality across multiple programming languages. DAP is a standardized protocol that defines how debuggers, editors, and IDEs communicate with each other. It allows Zed to support various debuggers without needing to implement language-specific debugging logic. This protocol enables features like setting breakpoints, stepping through code, inspecting variables, and more, in a consistent manner across different programming languages and runtime environments.

Supported Debug Adapters

Zed supports a variety of debug adapters for different programming languages:

  • JavaScript (node): Enables debugging of Node.js applications, including setting breakpoints, stepping through code, and inspecting variables in JavaScript.

  • Python (debugpy): Provides debugging capabilities for Python applications, supporting features like remote debugging, multi-threaded debugging, and Django/Flask application debugging.

  • LLDB: A powerful debugger for C, C++, Objective-C, and Swift, offering low-level debugging features and support for Apple platforms.

  • GDB: The GNU Debugger, which supports debugging for multiple programming languages including C, C++, Go, and Rust, across various platforms.

  • Go (dlv): Delve, a debugger for the Go programming language, offering both local and remote debugging capabilities with full support for Go's runtime and standard library.

  • PHP (xdebug): Provides debugging and profiling capabilities for PHP applications, including remote debugging and code coverage analysis.

  • Ruby (rdbg): Provides debugging capabilities for Ruby applications

These adapters enable Zed to provide a consistent debugging experience across multiple languages while leveraging the specific features and capabilities of each debugger.

Getting Started

For basic debugging you can set up a new configuration by opening up the New Session Modal either by the debugger: start (default: f4) or clicking the plus icon at the top right of the debug panel. Once the New Session Modal is open you can click custom on the bottom left to open a view that allows you to create a custom debug configuration. Once you have created a configuration you can save it to your workspace's .zed/debug.json by clicking on the save button on the bottom left.

For more advance use cases you can create debug configurations by directly editing the .zed/debug.json file in your project root directory. Once you fill out the adapter and label fields completions will show you the available options of the selected debug adapter.

You can then use the New Session Modal to select a configuration then start debugging.

Configuration

While configuration fields are debug adapter dependent, most adapters support the follow fields.

[
  {
    // The label for the debug configuration and used to identify the debug session inside the debug panel & new session modal
    "label": "Example Start debugger config",
    // The debug adapter that Zed should use to debug the program
    "adapter": "Example adapter name",
    // Request:
    //  - launch: Zed will launch the program if specified or shows a debug terminal with the right configuration
    //  - attach: Zed will attach to a running program to debug it or when the process_id is not specified we will show a process picker (only supported for node currently)
    "request": "launch",
    // program: The program that you want to debug
    // This field supports path resolution with ~ or . symbols
    "program": "path_to_program",
    // cwd: defaults to the current working directory of your project ($ZED_WORKTREE_ROOT)
    "cwd": "$ZED_WORKTREE_ROOT"
  }
]

Task Variables

All configuration fields support task variables. See Tasks

Breakpoints

Zed currently supports these types of breakpoints

  • Standard Breakpoints: Stop at the breakpoint when it's hit
  • Log Breakpoints: Output a log message instead of stopping at the breakpoint when it's hit
  • Conditional Breakpoints: Stop at the breakpoint when it's hit if the condition is met
  • Hit Breakpoints: Stop at the breakpoint when it's hit a certain number of times

Standard breakpoints can be toggled by left clicking on the editor gutter or using the Toggle Breakpoint action. Right clicking on a breakpoint, right clicking on a code runner symbol brings up the breakpoint context menu. That has options for toggling breakpoints and editing log breakpoints.

Other kinds of breakpoints can be toggled/edited by right clicking on the breakpoint icon in the gutter and selecting the desired option.

Settings

  • stepping_granularity: Determines the stepping granularity.
  • save_breakpoints: Whether the breakpoints should be reused across Zed sessions.
  • button: Whether to show the debug button in the status bar.
  • timeout: Time in milliseconds until timeout error when connecting to a TCP debug adapter.
  • log_dap_communications: Whether to log messages between active debug adapters and Zed
  • format_dap_log_messages: Whether to format dap messages in when adding them to debug adapter logger

Stepping granularity

  • Description: The Step granularity that the debugger will use
  • Default: line
  • Setting: debugger.stepping_granularity

Options

  1. Statement - The step should allow the program to run until the current statement has finished executing. The meaning of a statement is determined by the adapter and it may be considered equivalent to a line. For example 'for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)' could be considered to have 3 statements 'int i = 0', 'i < 10', and 'i++'.
{
  "debugger": {
    "stepping_granularity": "statement"
  }
}
  1. Line - The step should allow the program to run until the current source line has executed.
{
  "debugger": {
    "stepping_granularity": "line"
  }
}
  1. Instruction - The step should allow one instruction to execute (e.g. one x86 instruction).
{
  "debugger": {
    "stepping_granularity": "instruction"
  }
}

Save Breakpoints

  • Description: Whether the breakpoints should be saved across Zed sessions.
  • Default: true
  • Setting: debugger.save_breakpoints

Options

boolean values

{
  "debugger": {
    "save_breakpoints": true
  }
}

Button

  • Description: Whether the button should be displayed in the debugger toolbar.
  • Default: true
  • Setting: debugger.show_button

Options

boolean values

{
  "debugger": {
    "show_button": true
  }
}

Timeout

  • Description: Time in milliseconds until timeout error when connecting to a TCP debug adapter.
  • Default: 2000ms
  • Setting: debugger.timeout

Options

integer values

{
  "debugger": {
    "timeout": 3000
  }
}

Log Dap Communications

  • Description: Whether to log messages between active debug adapters and Zed. (Used for DAP development)
  • Default: false
  • Setting: debugger.log_dap_communications

Options

boolean values

{
  "debugger": {
    "log_dap_communications": true
  }
}

Format Dap Log Messages

  • Description: Whether to format dap messages in when adding them to debug adapter logger. (Used for DAP development)
  • Default: false
  • Setting: debugger.format_dap_log_messages

Options

boolean values

{
  "debugger": {
    "format_dap_log_messages": true
  }
}

Theme

The Debugger supports the following theme options

/// Color used to accent some of the debuggers elements
/// Only accent breakpoint & breakpoint related symbols right now

debugger.accent: Color used to accent breakpoint & breakpoint related symbols editor.debugger_active_line.background: Background color of active debug line