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Configure Third-Party Editors (Neovim, Helix, Emacs, Zed)

While Zenzic provides an official thin-client extension for VS Code, the Zenzic Language Server (ZLS) implements standard Language Server Protocol (LSP v3.17) over stdio (JSON-RPC 2.0).

Any editor or IDE supporting LSP over stdio can launch zenzic lsp as a background language server process for Markdown (.md and .mdx) files.

Editor Configuration Snippets

Below are verified configuration snippets for major third-party editors supporting Language Server Protocol (LSP) over stdio.

Helix

In your Helix configuration file (~/.config/helix/languages.toml):

~/.config/helix/languages.toml
[[language]]
name = "markdown"
language-servers = ["zenzic-lsp"]

[language-server.zenzic-lsp]
command = "zenzic"
args = ["lsp"]

Neovim

Using Neovim's native LSP client (vim.lsp.start) in ~/.config/nvim/init.lua:

~/.config/nvim/init.lua
vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd("FileType", {
  pattern = { "markdown", "mdx" },
  callback = function()
    vim.lsp.start({
      name = "zenzic-lsp",
      cmd = { "zenzic", "lsp" },
      root_dir = vim.fs.dirname(vim.fs.find({ ".zenzic.toml", ".git" }, { upward = true })[1]),
    })
  end,
})

Emacs (Eglot)

Using Emacs' built-in Eglot package in ~/.emacs.d/init.el:

~/.emacs.d/init.el
(with-eval-after-load 'eglot
  (add-to-list 'eglot-server-programs
               '((markdown-mode gfm-mode) . ("zenzic" "lsp"))))

Environment & Diagnostic Verification

Before configuring your editor, verify that zenzic is installed and accessible in your shell $PATH:

Terminal
# Output runtime environment diagnostics
zenzic env

To verify LSP stdio communication directly from your shell, run an inline JSON-RPC shutdown request:

Terminal
printf 'Content-Length: 44\r\n\r\n{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"shutdown"}' | zenzic lsp

A properly working server immediately emits the JSON-RPC response on stdout:

Content-Length: 38
Content-Type: application/vscode-jsonrpc; charset=utf-8

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":null}

Interactive Terminal Behavior

When zenzic lsp is launched directly in an interactive terminal shell (without stdin piping), it detects a TTY, displays an informational notice on stderr, and waits for Ctrl+C to exit cleanly.