• Fast — Incremental analysis powered by Rust; handles large codebases with ease
• Complete — Supports Lua 5.1 – 5.5 and LuaJIT, with EmmyLua & Luacats annotations
• Universal — Standard LSP protocol works with VS Code, Neovim, IntelliJ, and any LSP-compatible editor
• All-in-one — Language server, code formatter, static analyzer, and doc generator in a single toolchain

# Via Cargo
cargo install emmylua_ls          # Language server
cargo install emmylua_formatter   # Code formatter (binary: luafmt)
cargo install emmylua_check       # Static analyzer / linter
cargo install emmylua_doc_cli     # Documentation generator

Or download pre-built binaries from the Releases page.

Before connecting your editor:

1. Install emmylua_ls and make sure it is available in PATH, or use an absolute binary path in your LSP client.
2. Add a project config file such as .emmyrc.json, .luarc.json, or .emmyrc.lua.
3. Restart the language server after changing global editor or workspace configuration.

See the Configuration Guide for all supported options.

Recommended setup:

1. Install the EmmyLua Extension.
2. Open a Lua workspace.
3. Add .emmyrc.json at the project root if you need custom runtime, diagnostics, or library paths.

This is the easiest way to get completion, diagnostics, hover, formatting, semantic tokens, and project indexing with minimal manual setup.

Neovim 0.11+ example:

vim.lsp.config("emmylua_ls", {
	cmd = { "emmylua_ls" },
	filetypes = { "lua" },
	root_markers = { ".emmyrc.json", ".luarc.json", ".git" },
})

vim.lsp.enable("emmylua_ls")

If you manage servers manually, replace cmd with the full path to your binary.

Install the EmmyLua2 Plugin from the JetBrains Marketplace.

For most projects, no extra setup is required beyond opening the workspace. Add .emmyrc.json if you need custom workspace roots, library paths, or stricter diagnostics.

Any editor with LSP support can use emmylua_ls over stdio, which is the default and recommended mode.

Typical client command:

{
	"command": "emmylua_ls",
	"args": []
}

Use TCP only when you explicitly want a remote or debug-friendly setup:

emmylua_ls -c tcp --ip 127.0.0.1 --port 5007

Useful client root markers:

• .emmyrc.json
• .luarc.json
• .emmyrc.lua
• .git

In practice, this gives you a full day-to-day Lua editing workflow: symbol navigation, annotation-aware type feedback, project-wide references, incremental diagnostics, and formatting support in editors that expose standard LSP features.

• Static analysis with 50+ diagnostic rules
• Code formatting and style enforcement
• EmmyLua / Luacats annotation support

# Default stdio mode
emmylua_ls

# TCP mode for remote debugging
emmylua_ls -c tcp --port 5007 --log-level debug --log-path ./logs

# Specify editor for editor-specific optimizations
emmylua_ls --editor intellij

luafmt src --write                          # Format and write files in src
luafmt . --check --exclude "vendor/**"      # Verify formatting (git-diff style output)
luafmt --stdin < script.lua                 # Read from stdin
luafmt --dump-default-config                # Print the default configuration

Main options: --write, --check, --list-different, --config <FILE>, --include / --exclude glob filters, --level <Lua51|Lua52|Lua53|Lua54|Lua55|LuaJIT>, --color, --diff-style <marker|git>.

See the Formatter Guide for behavior, options, and profiles.

emmylua_check .                              # Analyze the current directory
emmylua_check ./src -c ./config/.emmyrc.json # Use a specific config file
emmylua_check . -i "vender/**,test/**"       # Ignore files/directories
emmylua_check . --severity warn              # Only show warnings and above
emmylua_check . -f json --output ./diag.json # Output diagnostics as JSON
emmylua_check . -f sarif                     # Output diagnostics as SARIF
emmylua_check . -f github                    # GitHub Actions inline annotations

emmylua_doc_cli ./src -o ./docs                     # Generate HTML docs from ./src
emmylua_doc_cli . -f markdown -o ./docs             # Generate Markdown docs
emmylua_doc_cli . -f json -o ./api.json             # Generate a JSON AST
emmylua_doc_cli . -o ./docs --site-name "My Project"
emmylua_doc_cli . -o ./docs --exclude "third_party/**,test/**"

The project reads configuration from the workspace root, in order of preference:

Example .emmyrc.json:

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EmmyLuaLs/emmylua-analyzer-rust/refs/heads/main/crates/emmylua_code_analysis/resources/schema.json",
  "runtime": {
    "version": "LuaLatest"
  },
  "workspace": {
    "workspaceRoots": ["./src"]
  },
  "diagnostics": {
    "disable": ["undefined-global"]
  }
}

See the Configuration Guide for all supported options.

• Features Guide — Comprehensive feature documentation
• Configuration — Advanced configuration options
• Formatter Guide — Formatter behavior, options, and usage guide
• Annotations Reference — Detailed annotation documentation
• External Formatter Integration — Using external formatters

Requires a recent stable Rust toolchain (Rust Edition 2024).

git clone https://github.com/EmmyLuaLs/emmylua-analyzer-rust.git
cd emmylua-analyzer-rust

cargo build --release              # Build everything
cargo build --release -p emmylua_ls   # Build only the language server

cargo test                      # Run all tests
cargo test -p emmylua_parser    # Run parser tests only

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

MIT