Dexter for Zed

Dexter is a lightning fast, full-featured Elixir language server optimized for speed on large codebases. This extension integrates Dexter with Zed, running alongside your existing Elixir LSP (ElixirLS, Lexical, Next LS) — use Dexter for fast navigation and your full LSP for diagnostics, completions, and refactoring.

Features

• Go-to-definition for modules, functions, aliases, imports, and delegates
• All def forms supported — def, defp, defmacro, defmacrop, defguard, defguardp, defdelegate, defprotocol, defimpl, defstruct, defexception
• Monorepo-aware with automatic reindexing on git branch switches

See the Dexter repo for the full feature list.

Installation

1. Install the Dexter binary
2. In Zed, open Extensions (Cmd+Shift+X) and search for "Dexter"
3. Click Install
4. Open any Elixir file — the index builds automatically on first startup

Add .dexter.db to your project's .gitignore:

echo ".dexter.db*" >> .gitignore

Configuration

Configure Dexter in your Zed settings.json under the lsp key:

{
  "lsp": {
    "dexter": {
      "binary": {
        "path": "/path/to/dexter",
        "arguments": ["lsp"]
      },
      "initialization_options": {
        "followDelegates": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Setting	Default	Description
binary.path	"dexter"	Path to the Dexter binary. Defaults to finding dexter on your PATH. If you manage dexter with mise, prefer the shim path (~/.local/share/mise/shims/dexter) over a version-specific path.
binary.arguments	["lsp"]	Arguments passed to the binary.
initialization_options.followDelegates	true	Follow defdelegate to the target function definition.

Development

For contributing to this extension. Requires Rust installed via rustup.

git clone https://github.com/remoteoss/dexter-zed.git
cd dexter-zed
cargo build --target wasm32-wasip1 --release

Then in Zed: Cmd+Shift+P → "zed: install dev extension" → select the dexter-zed/ directory.

To view extension logs, run Zed from the terminal:

zed --foreground

Or open the log file via Cmd+Shift+P → "zed: open log".

License

MIT