lsp-bridge

The goal of lsp-bridge is to implement the fastest LSP client in the Emacs ecosystem.

Using Python multithreading techniques, lsp-bridge builds a high-speed cache between Emacs and the LSP server, ensuring that Emacs never gets stuck while providing a smooth and seamless code completion experience.

The video explains the principle of lsp-bridge

EmacsConf 2022 talk page

Installation

Install Emacs version 28 or higher.
Install Python dependencies: pip3 install epc orjson sexpdata six (orjson is optional and provides faster JSON parsing performance based on Rust).
Install Elisp dependencies:

posframe
markdown-mode
yasnippet
acm-terminal (optional, only for terminal user)

Download this repository using git clone, and replace the load-path path in the configuration below.
Add the following code to your configuration file ~/.emacs:

(add-to-list 'load-path "<path-to-lsp-bridge>")

(require 'yasnippet)
(yas-global-mode 1)

(require 'lsp-bridge)
(global-lsp-bridge-mode)

Please note that:

When using lsp-bridge, please first disable other completion plugins such as lsp-mode, eglot, company, corfu, etc. Lsp-bridge provides a complete solution from completion backend, frontend to multi-backend fusion.
When the completion menu pops up, acm-mode will be automatically enabled, and when the completion menu disappears, acm-mode will be automatically disabled. Please do not manually add acm-mode to any mode-hook or manually execute acm-mode.

Usage

Lsp-bridge works out of the box. After installing the corresponding LSP server and mode plugin for the language, you can start coding directly without any additional settings.

It should be noted that lsp-bridge has three scanning modes:

When the .git directory is detected (determined by the command git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree), lsp-bridge will scan the entire directory to provide completion.
When the .git directory is not detected, lsp-bridge only provides single-file completion for the opened file.
Custom lsp-bridge-get-project-path-by-filepath function, where the input parameter is the path string of the opened file and the output parameter is the project directory path. Lsp-bridge will provide completion based on the output directory path.

Keymap

Key	Command	Description
Alt + n	acm-select-next	Select next candidate
Down	acm-select-next	Select next candidate
Alt + p	acm-select-prev	Select previous candidate
Up	acm-select-prev	Select previous candidate
Alt + ,	acm-select-last	Select last candidate
Alt + .	acm-select-first	Select first candidate
Ctrl + v	acm-select-next-page	Select next page candidate
Alt + v	acm-select-prev-page	Select previous page candidate
Ctrl + m	acm-complete	Complete completion
Return	acm-complete	Complete completion
Tab	acm-complete	Complete completion
Alt + h	acm-complete	Complete completion
Alt + H	acm-insert-common	Insert common part of candidates
Alt + u	acm-filter	Filter candidates with overlay string
Alt + d	acm-doc-toggle	Enable or disable candidate documentation
Alt + j	acm-doc-scroll-up	Scroll up candidate documentation
Alt + k	acm-doc-scroll-down	Scroll down candidate documentation
Alt + l	acm-hide	Hide completion menu
Ctrl + g	acm-hide	Hide completion menu
Alt + Number	acm-complete-quick-access	Selecting candidate quickly, you need enable `acm-enable-quick-access` first

Commands

lsp-bridge-find-def: jump to the definition
lsp-bridge-find-def-other-window: jump to the definition in other-window
lsp-bridge-find-def-return: return to the location before calling lsp-bridge-find-def
lsp-bridge-find-impl: jump to the implementation
lsp-bridge-find-impl-other-window: jump to the implementation in other-window
lsp-bridge-find-references: traverse across code references (forked from color-rg.el)
lsp-bridge-popup-documentation: lookup documentation of symbol under the cursor
lsp-bridge-popup-documentation-scroll-up: scroll up popup document.
lsp-bridge-popup-documentation-scroll-down: scroll down popup document.
lsp-bridge-rename: rename symbol under the cursor
lsp-bridge-diagnostic-jump-next: Jump to the next diagnostic position
lsp-bridge-diagnostic-jump-prev: Jump to the previous diagnostic position
lsp-bridge-diagnostic-list: List all diagnostic information
lsp-bridge-diagnostic-copy: Copy the current diagnostic information to the clipboard
lsp-bridge-diagnostic-ignore: Insert comment to ignore the current diagnosis
lsp-bridge-code-action: Popup code action menu, you can pass special actin-kind to fix, action-kind can use one of "quickfix", "refactor", "refactor.extract", "refactor.inline", "refactor.rewrite", "source", "source.organizeImports", "source.fixAll"
lsp-bridge-workspace-list-symbols: List all symbols in workspace and jump to the symbol definition
lsp-bridge-signature-help-fetch: show signature help in minibuffer manually (move cursor to parameters area will show signature help automatically)
lsp-bridge-popup-complete-menu: Manually popup the completion menu, you only need this command when turn on option lsp-bride-complete-manually
lsp-bridge-restart-process: restart lsp-bridge process (only used for development)
lsp-bridge-toggle-sdcv-helper: Switch dictionary completion assistant
acm-insert-common: insert common prefix of candidates
acm-doc-scroll-up: API document window scroll up
acm-doc-scroll-down: API document window scroll down

LSP server options

lsp-bridge-c-lsp-server: C language server, you can choose clangd or ccls
lsp-bridge-python-lsp-server: Python language server, you can choose pyright, jedi, python-ms, pylsp, ruff
lsp-bridge-php-lsp-server: PHP language server, you can choose intelephense or phpactor
lsp-bridge-tex-lsp-server: LaTeX language server, you can choose texlab or digestif
lsp-bridge-csharp-lsp-server: C# language server, you can choose omnisharp-mono or omnisharp-dotnet, note that you need to give execute permissions to the OmniSharp file
lsp-bridge-python-multi-lsp-server: Python multi-language servers, you can choose pyright_ruff, jedi_ruff, python-ms_ruff, pylsp_ruff

Options

lsp-bridge-python-command: The path of the python command, if you use conda, you may customize this option. Windows platform using python.exe rather than python3, if lsp-bridge can't work, try set to python3
lsp-bridge-complete-manually: Only popup completion menu when user call lsp-bridge-popup-complete-menu command, default is nil
lsp-bridge-get-workspace-folder: You need to put multiple project in a workspace directory in Java before you can jump function defintion normally. This function can be customized, the function input is the project path and returns the workspace directory corresponding
lsp-bridge-org-babel-lang-list: list of language to support org-mode code block completion, need move cursor to code block and execute command org-edit-special, then lsp-bridge can show completion menu in popup window
lsp-bridge-enable-diagnostics: code diagnostic, enable by default
lsp-bridge-enable-hover-diagnostic: show diagnostic tooltip when cursor hover diagnostic place, disable by default
lsp-bridge-enable-search-words: index the word of the file, enable by default
lsp-bridge-enable-auto-format-code: automatic format code, disable by default
lsp-bridge-enable-signature-help: show function parameter in minibufer, enable by default
lsp-bridge-enable-log: enable LSP message log, disable by default, only enable this option for development purposes, usually do not turn on this option to avoid affecting performance
lsp-bridge-enable-debug: enable program debugging, disable by default
lsp-bridge-disable-backup: forbidden version manage of emacs, enable by default
lsp-bridge-code-action-enable-popup-menu: enable code action posframe popup menu, enable by default
lsp-bridge-diagnostic-fetch-idle: diagnostic delay, start pulling diagnostic information 0.5 second after stopping typing
lsp-bridge-signature-show-function: The function used for displaying signature info, default show message in minibuffer, set lsp-bridge-signature-posframe to show signature info in frame
lsp-bridge-completion-popup-predicates: the predicate function for completion menu, completion menu popup after all the functions pass
lsp-bridge-completion-stop-commands: completion menu will not popup if these commands are executed
lsp-bridge-completion-hide-characters: completion menu will not popup when cursor after those characters
lsp-bridge-user-langserver-dir: the dir where user place langserver configuration file, if the configuration file name in the dir is the same as that in lsp-bridge/langserver , lsp-bridge will use the configuration file in this dir
lsp-bridge-user-multiserver-dir: the dir where user place multiserver configuration file, if the configuration file name in the dir is the same as that in lsp-bridge/multiserver , lsp-bridge will use the configuration file in this dir
lsp-bridge-symbols-enable-which-func: Using lsp backend for which-func, disable by default
lsp-bridge-enable-org-babel: Using lsp backend for org babel, disable by default
acm-frame-background-dark-color: Menu background color in dark theme
acm-frame-background-light-color: Menu background color in light theme
acm-markdown-render-font-height: The font height of function documentation, default is 130
acm-enable-doc: Whether the complete menu display the help document
acm-enable-doc-markdown-render: Richly render Markdown for completion popups, you can choose 'async, t or nil. When set to 'async, styles are applied asynchronously, choose t, styles are applied synchronously and will slow down the completion speed, default is async
acm-enable-icon: Whether the complete menu shows the icon, macOS users need to add option --with-rsvg to the brew command to install emacs to display SVG icon
acm-enable-tabnine: Enable tabnine support， enable by default，when enable need execute lsp-bridge-install-tabnine command to install TabNine, and it can be used. TabNine will consume huge CPUs, causing your entire computer to be slow. If the computer performance is not good, it is not recommended to enable this option
acm-enable-search-file-words: Whether the complete menu display the word of the file, enable by default
acm-enable-quick-access: Whether the index is displayed behind the icon, you can quickly select the candidate through Alt + Number, disable by default
acm-enable-yas: yasnippet completion, enable by default
acm-enable-citre: Integration with citre(ctags). Enable this to add citre (ctags) backend (disabled by default)
acm-doc-frame-max-lines: Max line number of help documentation, default is 20
acm-candidate-match-function: The complete menu matching algorithm, the algorithm prefix of orderless-* needs to be installed additional orderless
acm-backend-lsp-candidate-min-length: The minimum characters to trigger completion, default is 0
acm-backend-lsp-enable-auto-import: automatic insert import code, enable by default
acm-backend-lsp-candidate-max-length: Maximum length of LSP candidate, some language, such as Java, argument list is very long, you can increase the value of this option to see clear argument list
acm-backend-yas-candidates-number: yasnippet display number，2 by default
acm-backend-citre-keyword-complete: Completion is performed according to the keywords of each mode defined by acm-backend-citre-keywords-alist, which takes effect only after citre is enabled.
acm-backend-search-sdcv-words-dictionary: StarDict dictionary for word completion, default is kdic-ec-11w, you can replace it with StarDict dictionary path, example, if you have dictionary /usr/share/stardict/dic/stardict-oxford-gb-formated-2.4.2/oxford-gb-formated.ifo, you need set this value to /usr/share/stardict/dic/stardict-oxford-gb-formated-2.4.2/oxford-gb-formated, not include .ifo extension.

Customize language server configuration

The configuration for the LSP server of each language in lsp-bridge is stored in lsp-bridge/langserver.

In most cases, you can customize the server configuration according to the following priority order:

lsp-bridge-get-single-lang-server-by-project: A user-defined function that takes project-path and file-path as input parameters and returns the corresponding LSP server string. You can query the names of all LSP servers in the lsp-bridge-single-lang-server-mode-list list. By default, this function returns nil.
lsp-bridge-single-lang-server-extension-list: Returns the server based on the file extension, for example, when opening a *.wxml file, we will use the wxml LSP server for completion.
lsp-bridge-single-lang-server-mode-list: Returns the corresponding server based on Emacs's major-mode.

If you are writing JavaScript code, you may need to customize multiple server configurations:

lsp-bridge-get-multi-lang-server-by-project: A user-defined function that takes project-path and file-path as input parameters and returns the multiple server configuration names. You can search for them in the subdirectory lsp-bridge/multiserver.
lsp-bridge-multi-lang-server-extension-list: Returns multiple server configuration names based on the file extension. For example, when opening a *.vue file, we will use volar_emmet to simultaneously utilize volar and emmet-ls for completion.
lsp-bridge-multi-lang-server-mode-list: Returns the corresponding multiple server configuration names based on Emacs's major-mode.

For example, we can enable the Deno LSP server for Deno scripts with the following configuration:

(setq lsp-bridge-get-single-lang-server-by-project
      (lambda (project-path filepath)
        ;; If typescript file include deno.land url, then use Deno LSP server.
        (save-excursion
          (when (string-equal (file-name-extension filepath) "ts")
            (dolist (buf (buffer-list))
              (when (string-equal (buffer-file-name buf) filepath)
                (with-current-buffer buf
                  (goto-char (point-min))
                  (when (search-forward-regexp (regexp-quote "from \"https://deno.land") nil t)
                    (return "deno")))))))))

Customize language server configuration file

Copy the configuration files in lsp-bridge/langserver or lsp-bridge/multiserver to lsp-bridge-user-langserver-dir or lsp-bridge-user-multiserver-dir for customization. Lsp-bridge will prioritize reading the configuration files in lsp-bridge-user-langserver-dir or lsp-bridge-user-multiserver-dir.

We can set the value of lsp-bridge-user-langserver-dir or lsp-bridge-user-multiserver-dir before starting lsp-bridge-mode to achieve different project-specific configuration files.

(defun enable-lsp-bridge()
  (when-let* ((project (project-current))
              (project-root (nth 2 project)))
    (setq-local lsp-bridge-user-langserver-dir project-root
                lsp-bridge-user-multiserver-dir project-root))
  (lsp-bridge-mode))

Add support for new language?

Create a configuration file in the lsp-bridge/langserver directory. For example, pyright.json is the configuration file for the pyright server (use pyright_windows.json for Windows and pyright_darwin.json for macOS).
Add (mode . server_name) to the lsp-bridge-single-lang-server-mode-list option in the lsp-bridge.el file, for example, (python-mode . "pyright").
Add a new mode-hook to the lsp-bridge-default-mode-hooks option in the lsp-bridge.el file.
Add a new indentation variable to the lsp-bridge-formatting-indent-alist option in the lsp-bridge.el file.

We welcome patches to help us support more LSP servers. Thank you for your help!

Supported language servers

You need to install the LSP server corresponding to each programming language, then lsp-bridge can provide code completion service.

LSP Server	Language	Note
clangd	C, C++, Object-C	need you config compile_commands.json first
ccls	C, C++, Object-C	`lsp-bridge-c-lsp-server` set to `ccls`, need you config compile_commands.json first
pyright	Python	`lsp-bridge-python-lsp-server` set to `pyright`, `pyright-background-analysis` is faster sometimes, but it can't response diagnostic informations
jedi	Python	`lsp-bridge-python-lsp-server` set to `jedi`
python-ms	Python	Legacy language server for Python2
pylsp	Python	`lsp-bridge-python-lsp-server` set to `pylsp`
ruff	Python	`pip install ruff-lsp`,`lsp-bridge-python-lsp-server` is set to `ruff`, which only has the function of linter. If you need to complete the functions, install other Python language servers, and set the `lsp-bridge-python-multi-lsp-server` to `[LSP NAME]_ruff`
solargraph	Ruby
rust-analyzer	Rust
elixirLS	Elixir	Please ensure that the `elixir-ls` release directory is in your system PATH at first
gopls	Go	Make sure install go-mode and gopls in PATH, please do `ln -s ~/go/bin/gopls ~/.local/bin`, and do `go mod init` first
hls	Haskell
dart-analysis-server	Dart
metals	Scala
typescript	Typescript, Javascript
ocamllsp	Ocaml
erlang-ls	Erlang
texlab	Latex
eclipse.jdt.ls	Java	Please ensure that `org.eclipse.jdt.ls.product/target/repository/bin` is in your system PATH at first
clojure-lsp	Clojure	If you use `homebrew` , please ensure install `clojure-lsp/brew/clojure-lsp-native` clojure-lsp-native
bash-language-server	Bash
volar	Vue	`npm install -g typescript @volar/vue-language-server`
sumneko	Lua	Please ensure `bin` under sumneko installation is in your system PATH at first
wxml-language-server	Wxml
vscode-html-language-server	HTML	`npm i -g vscode-langservers-extracted`
vscode-css-language-server	CSS	`npm i -g vscode-langservers-extracted`
vscode-eslint-language-server	JavaScript	`npm i -g vscode-langservers-extracted`
vscode-json-language-server	JSON	`npm i -g vscode-langservers-extracted`
elm-language-server	Elm
intelephense	PHP
Phpactor	PHP	lsp-brige-php-lsp-server set to `phpactor`
yaml-language-server	Yaml	`npm install -g yaml-language-server`
zls	Zig	Execute `zls config` to generate configuration for zls. see Configuration Options
groovy-language-server	Groovy	Create a script "groovy-language-server" in PATH, with `$JAVA_HOME/bin/java -jar <path>/groovy-language-server-all.jar`
docker-language-server	Dockerfiles
serve-d	D	serve-d does not support single file mode, please init .git repository under project root at first or custom `lsp-bridge-get-project-path-by-filepath` function
fortls	Fortran
emmet-ls	HTML, JavaScript, CSS, SASS, SCSS, LESS
rnix-lsp	Nix
texlab	Latex	`lsp-bridge-tex-lsp-server` set to `texlab`
digestif	Latex	`lsp-bridge-tex-lsp-server` set to `digestif`
rlanguageserver	R
graphql-lsp	GraphQL
cmake-language-server	Cmake	`pip install cmake-language-server`
ds-pinyin	Org-mode	`cargo install ds-pinyin-lsp`, download dict.db3 of ds-pinyin, and save to ~/.emacs.d/ds-pinyin/ directory, then turn on option `lsp-bridge-use-ds-pinyin-in-org-mode`
Wen	Org-mode	`pip install pygls pypinyin`, then turn on option `lsp-bridge-use-wenls-in-org-mode`
sourcekit-lsp	Swift	The SourceKit-LSP server is included with the Swift toolchain.
omnisharp-mono	C#	OmniSharp is a .NET development platform based on Roslyn workspaces. use `M-x lsp-bridge-install-omnisharp` to install it. `lsp-bridge-csharp-lsp-server` set to `omnisharp-mono`
omnisharp-dotnet	C#	OmniSharp is a .NET development platform based on Roslyn workspaces. use `M-x lsp-bridge-install-omnisharp` to install it. `lsp-bridge-csharp-lsp-server` set to `omnisharp-dotnet` (6.0)
deno	Deno	Deno runtime use TypeScript as source code, you need customize option `lsp-bridge-get-single-lang-server-by-project` that return result "deno" when `project-path` match Deno project.
ansible-language-server	Ansible	Ansible uses YAML as source code, you'll need to customize `lsp-bridge-get-single-lang-server-by-project` to return "ansible-language-server".
astro	Astro	`npm i -g @astrojs/language-server`
qmlls	QML	The `qmlls` binary should be part of the normal Qt packages since Qt 6.3.0 Ensure that the directory of `qmlls` binary file is in PATH
kotlin-language-server	Kotlin
vhdl-tool	VHDL
julials	Julia

Join development

The following is the framework of lsp-bridge:

The following is the directory structure of the lsp-bridge project:

File	Explanation
lsp-bridge.el	Elisp main logic part that provides custom options and elisp functions for python sub-process calls like code jumping, renaming, etc.
lsp-bridge-epc.el	Communicating with lsp-bridge python sub-process, which mainly implements elisp IPC to connect to python EPC for data serialization, sending, receiving, and deserialization
lsp-bridge-call-hierarchy.el	Show call hierarchy in popup frame.
lsp-bridge-code-action.el	Code action functions
lsp-bridge-diagnostic.el	Diagnostic functions
lsp-bridge-ref.el	Framework of code referencing, providing references viewing, batch renames, regex filtering of reference results, etc. The core code is forked from color-rg.el
lsp-bridge-jdtls.el	Provide java language third-party library jumping function
lsp-bridge-lsp-installer.el	Install TabNine and Omnisharp
lsp-bridge.py	Python main logic part that provides event loop, message scheduling and status management
acm/acm.el	Asynchronous completion menu, specially designed for lsp-bridge backend, supports LSP, elisp, words, TabNine and other backend
core/fileaction.py	Tracking the status of each file, processing LSP response messages, calling Emacs elisp function
core/lspserver.py	LSP message processing module, mainly to analyze, send and receive LSP messages, and ensure that the sequence of LSP requests conforms with the LSP protocol specification
core/utils.py	Utility functions of convenience for each module call
core/mergedeep.py	JSON information merger is mainly used to send custom options to LSP server
core/hanlder/	The implementation of sending and receiving LSP message, where init.py is a base class
langserver	The configurations of the LSP servers, each server corresponding to a JSON file that defines the name of the server, language ID, starting command, options, etc.

Please read below articles first:

Then turn on develop option lsp-bridge-enable-log and happy hacking! ;)

Report bug

For some common problems, please read Wiki first.

Please use emacs -q and load a minimal setup with only lsp-bridge to verify that the bug is reproducible. If emacs -q works fine, probably something is wrong with your Emacs config.

If the problem still exists, please report it here with *lsp-bridge* buffer content, it contains many clues that can help us locate the problem faster.

If you get a segfault error, please use the following way to collect crash information:
1. Install gdb and turn on option lsp-bridge-enable-debug
2. Use the command lsp-bridge-restart-process to restart the LSP-BRIDGE process
3. Send issue with *lsp-bridge* buffer content when next crash
If you get other errors, please use the following way to collection information:
1. turn on option lsp-bridge-enable-log
2. Use the command lsp-bridge-restart-process to restart the LSP-BRIDGE process
3. Send issue with *lsp-bridge* buffer content

kira-bruneau / lsp-bridge