Zed: Difference between revisions

Line 66:

== Home manager support ==

Zed is supported by home-manager, ~~this way~~ you ~~are able~~ to make a reproducible Zed setup.

Zed is supported by home-manager, which allows you to make a reproducible initial Zed setup.

However, due to the method Zed uses for installing, running, and managing Extensions, only the initial set of preinstalled extensions can currently be defined in home-manager. It's possible to install additional extensions from the Zed GUI on any system without including it in the home-manager config. This is partially a technical limitation of the format of extensions (which follow a similar model to VSCode and require external binaries to be downloaded and used at run-time}, and a Zed extensions management design (that doesn't track the installed extensions in the settings but does allow a list to be manually added that will be auto-installed if not already present).

~~'''~~userSettings~~''' option~~ will be translated directly ~~to '''json''' file~~.

The <code>userSettings</code> and <code>userkeyMaps</code> options will be translated directly into JSON.

The <code>extensions</code> currently just defines the <code>userSettings.auto_install_extensions</code> (see Zed documentation).

The <code>extraPackages</code> includes extra nixpkgs in the environment Zed executes in (an FHS), so extra LSP server packages (e.g. <code>pkgs.nixd</code>) or optional tools for LSP servers (e.g. <code>pkgs.shellcheck</code> for the "Basher" LSP) should be included.

Note that home-manager configuration produces a ~~'''~~read only <code>settings.json</code>~~'''.~~ Zed assumes the <code>settings.json</code> is writable~~, and modifies it for all~~ settings ~~changed directly or indirectly from~~ the GUI~~. Using a~~ read-only ~~version will prevent changing features like~~ the current ~~working~~ model of the AI engine~~, or switching between~~ AI ~~engines~~.

Note that home-manager configuration produces a <b>read only <code>settings.json</code></b>, but Zed <b>assumes/requires the <code>settings.json</code> to be writable</b>. Using home-manager configuration will prevent you from changing most settings in the GUI since Zed will be unable to modify the read-only <code>settings.json</code> accordingly. This includes the current/default AI engine to use, or even switching the model of the AI engine (as well as most non-AI settings).

You can see an example of the home-manager configuration:

Line 81:

Line 84:

enable = true;

## This populates the userSettings "auto_install_extensions" ~~which is a very odd optional Zed setting.~~

## This populates the userSettings "auto_install_extensions"

~~## It is not automatically populated or updated by Zed itself, and is only used at Zed startup to verify~~

~~## these are present in the set of installed extensions. Other extensions may have been installed from the~~

~~## GUI and Zed will do nothing to change those. Removing an extension from this list will NOT remove it from~~

~~## Zed, that must be done manually from the GUI for every Zed instance using this config.~~

extensions = ["nix" "toml" "elixir" "make"];

@@ Line 66: / Line 66: @@
 == Home manager support ==
-Zed is supported by home-manager, this way you are able to make a reproducible Zed setup.
+Zed is supported by home-manager, which allows you to make a reproducible initial Zed setup.
+However, due to the method Zed uses for installing, running, and managing Extensions, only the initial set of preinstalled extensions can currently be defined in home-manager. It's possible to install additional extensions from the Zed GUI on any system without including it in the home-manager config. This is partially a technical limitation of the format of extensions (which follow a similar model to VSCode and require external binaries to be downloaded and used at run-time}, and a Zed extensions management design (that doesn't track the installed extensions in the settings but does allow a list to be manually added that will be auto-installed if not already present).
-'''userSettings''' option will be translated directly to '''json''' file.
+The <code>userSettings</code> and <code>userkeyMaps</code> options will be translated directly into JSON.
+The <code>extensions</code> currently just defines the <code>userSettings.auto_install_extensions</code> (see Zed documentation).
+The <code>extraPackages</code> includes extra nixpkgs in the environment Zed executes in (an FHS), so extra LSP server packages (e.g. <code>pkgs.nixd</code>) or optional tools for LSP servers (e.g. <code>pkgs.shellcheck</code> for the "Basher" LSP) should be included.
-Note that home-manager configuration produces a '''read only <code>settings.json</code>'''. Zed assumes the <code>settings.json</code> is writable, and modifies it for all settings changed directly or indirectly from the GUI.  Using a read-only version will prevent changing features like the current working model of the AI engine, or switching between AI engines.
+Note that home-manager configuration produces a <b>read only <code>settings.json</code></b>, but Zed <b>assumes/requires the <code>settings.json</code> to be writable</b>. Using home-manager configuration will prevent you from changing most settings in the GUI since Zed will be unable to modify the read-only <code>settings.json</code> accordingly.  This includes the current/default AI engine to use, or even switching the model of the AI engine (as well as most non-AI settings).
 You can see an example of the home-manager configuration:
@@ Line 81: / Line 84: @@
          enable = true;
-         ## This populates the userSettings "auto_install_extensions" which is a very odd optional Zed setting.
+         ## This populates the userSettings "auto_install_extensions"
-        ## It is not automatically populated or updated by Zed itself, and is only used at Zed startup to verify
-        ## these are present in the set of installed extensions. Other extensions may have been installed from the
-        ## GUI and Zed will do nothing to change those.  Removing an extension from this list will NOT remove it from
-        ## Zed, that must be done manually from the GUI for every Zed instance using this config.
          extensions = ["nix" "toml" "elixir" "make"];