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Open Dylan

v0.0.1 · by Dylan Paulus · added 3 November 2026

Open Dylan language support with lsp-dylan LSP

LanguagesLanguage servers
Install in Forge SuperView the source

How to install

With Forge Super installed, the button above opens the app on this extension, where you press Install. Nothing is installed until you do.

You can also open the Extensions panel in the app and search for Open Dylan. The extension's id is open-dylan.

Don't have Forge Super yet? Download it here.

README

From the extension's repository, written by its authors and not by Mentenaz. See the source.

Open Dylan Zed Extension

A Zed extension for the Open Dylan language: syntax highlighting, bracket matching, comment toggling, and LSP features (hover, diagnostics, go-to-definition, completion) via dylan-lsp-server.

Prerequisites

The extension does not bundle the language server (per Zed publishing rules). You need the Open Dylan language server (dylan-lsp-server) on your PATH.

Installing dylan-lsp-server

  1. Install Open Dylan (2023.1 or newer).

  2. Clone and build lsp-dylan:

    git clone --recursive https://github.com/dylan-lang/lsp-dylan
cd lsp-dylan
deft update
make install

  3. Confirm the install directory (typically ${DYLAN}/bin, or ~/dylan/bin if DYLAN is unset) is on your PATH:

    which dylan-lsp-server

Features

Syntax highlighting

Highlighting uses a tree-sitter grammar: ganderzz/tree-sitter-dylan. It is a lexical grammar whose token classes are derived from the official dylan-lang/vscode-dylan TextMate grammar (DRM spec). It recognizes:

  • Control-flow, definer, and modifier keywords
  • DRM built-in functions
  • Type names by the <name> convention
  • Strings, raw strings (#r"..."), #"symbols", characters
  • keyword: arguments
  • Numbers (decimal, #x/#o/#b)
  • Booleans (#t/#f), #rest/#key/#all-keys/#next
  • \== style operator references
  • // line comments and /* */ block comments

The grammar is lexical, not full-syntax. It parses the great majority of real Dylan cleanly; macro-heavy and generated FFI files may show partial highlighting.

Language server

With dylan-lsp-server on PATH, the extension provides:

  • Hover — type information and argument lists
  • Go to definition / declaration
  • Diagnostics — compiler warnings inline
  • Completion

Editor behavior

  • Line comments — //
  • Block comments — /* */
  • Auto-closing brackets — {}, [], (), ""

File types

Recognized by extension:

  • .dylan — Dylan source files
  • .lid — Library Interchange Definition files

Installing as a dev extension

  1. Open Zed.
  2. Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P) → Extensions: Install Dev Extension.
  3. Select this directory (zed-open-dylan).
  4. Open a .dylan file — highlighting activates and the language server connects if dylan-lsp-server is on PATH.

If something goes wrong, check ~/Library/Logs/Zed/Zed.log (macOS) for grammar compilation or failed to load language errors.

Contributing

  • Keep the extension TOML-only (no Rust unless procedural behavior is needed).
  • Pin tree-sitter grammar dependencies to a specific commit.
  • Grammar changes live in ganderzz/tree-sitter-dylan.

License

MIT — see LICENSE. dylan-lsp-server is distributed separately under its own license by the Dylan Hackers / dylan-lang project.