A Defold game engine extension for the Zed editor that provides Lua language support for Defold script files.

The easiest way to install this extension is to use Zed's "Install Dev Extension" feature, which handles compilation automatically:

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/whiterabbit1983/zed-defold.git
cd zed-defold

2. Open Zed and install the dev extension:

   • Press Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+P (macOS)
   • Type zed: install dev extension
   • Select the command and navigate to this extension's directory
   • Zed will automatically compile and install the extension

3. Done! The extension will appear in your installed extensions list.

Note: Zed will automatically install the required wasm32-wasip1 Rust target and compile the extension if needed. You can skip the manual steps below.

If you prefer to build manually or Zed's auto-compilation doesn't work:

1. Install the WebAssembly target (if not already installed):

rustup target add wasm32-wasip1

2. Build the extension:

cargo build --release --target wasm32-wasip1

This creates target/wasm32-wasip1/release/zed_defold.wasm

3. Install using Zed:
   • Press Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+P (macOS)
   • Type zed: install dev extension
   • Navigate to this extension's directory
   • Zed will register the pre-built extension

• Rust (latest stable version) - for manual builds
• Zed editor installed

1. Install Defold: Download from https://defold.com/download/
2. Install bob.jar: Defold's command-line build tool
   • Download from: https://github.com/defold/defold/releases
   • Or use the one from your Defold installation

To use build tasks, add these to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or Windows Environment Variables):

# Path to bob.jar (required for build tasks)
export BOB_JAR="/path/to/bob.jar"

# Defold credentials (optional, needed for cloud builds)
export DEFOLD_EMAIL="[email protected]"
export DEFOLD_AUTH="your_auth_token"

# Android signing (optional, for Android bundles)
export ANDROID_KEYSTORE="/path/to/keystore.keystore"
export ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PASS="your_password"
export ANDROID_KEYSTORE_ALIAS="your_alias"

# iOS signing (optional, for iOS bundles)
export IOS_IDENTITY="iPhone Developer: Your Name"
export IOS_PROVISIONING="/path/to/profile.mobileprovision"

1. Open Defold Editor
2. Go to File → Preferences
3. Copy your authentication token from the General tab

If you prefer shell scripts over Zed tasks, create these in your project:

build.sh (macOS/Linux):

#!/bin/bash
java -jar "$BOB_JAR" \
  --email "$DEFOLD_EMAIL" \
  --auth "$DEFOLD_AUTH" \
  build

bundle.sh (macOS/Linux):

#!/bin/bash
PLATFORM=${1:-js-web}
java -jar "$BOB_JAR" \
  --email "$DEFOLD_EMAIL" \
  --auth "$DEFOLD_AUTH" \
  --platform "$PLATFORM" \
  --bundle-output build/bundle \
  --variant debug \
  resolve build bundle

Make them executable:

chmod +x build.sh bundle.sh

Then run from Zed's terminal:

./build.sh
./bundle.sh x86_64-win32

• js-web - HTML5
• x86_64-win32 - Windows 64-bit
• x86_64-macos / arm64-macos - macOS Intel/Apple Silicon
• x86_64-linux - Linux 64-bit
• arm64-android / armv7-android - Android
• arm64-ios / x86_64-ios - iOS

While Zed extensions don't support custom commands (yet), you can use Zed's task system to run Defold build commands:

Use the installer script from the scripts/ folder of this repository.

Run from your Defold project root:

Windows:

# From your Defold project root
path\to\zed-defold\scripts\install-tasks.ps1

Linux/macOS:

# From your Defold project root
/path/to/zed-defold/scripts/install-tasks.sh

1. Copy defold-tasks.json from this repository to .zed/tasks.json in your Defold project
2. Set up environment variables (see Environment Variables section above)
3. Run tasks via Ctrl+Shift+P → "task: spawn"

• Resolve Dependencies - Download project dependencies
• Clean Build - Clean the build folder
• Build - Build the project
• Bundle - Bundle for HTML5, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS

"Could not find or load main class"

• Check that BOB_JAR environment variable points to a valid bob.jar file
• Download bob.jar from https://github.com/defold/defold/releases

"Authentication required"

• Set DEFOLD_EMAIL and DEFOLD_AUTH environment variables
• Or remove --email and --auth from task arguments for local builds

"Keystore not found"

• Check that keystore paths in environment variables are correct
• Or remove keystore arguments from Android bundle tasks

Note: Zed extensions do NOT support bundled snippets. Install them separately using the provided script.

Use the installer script from the scripts/ folder of this repository:

Windows:

path\to\zed-defold\scripts\install-snippets.ps1

Linux/macOS:

/path/to/zed-defold/scripts/install-snippets.sh

If you prefer to install snippets manually:

Windows:

# Create snippets directory
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "$env:APPDATA\Zed\snippets"

# Copy the snippets file
Copy-Item defold-snippets.json "$env:APPDATA\Zed\snippets\defold.json"

macOS:

# Create snippets directory
mkdir -p "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Zed/snippets"

# Copy the snippets file
cp defold-snippets.json "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Zed/snippets/defold.json"

Linux:

# Create snippets directory
mkdir -p ~/.config/zed/snippets

# Copy the snippets file
cp defold-snippets.json ~/.config/zed/snippets/defold.json

After installation, restart Zed or run zed: reload extensions.

The extension provides 26 code snippets for common Defold patterns:

• init - Initialize script
• final - Finalization logic
• update - Frame update
• fixed_update - Fixed timestep update
• on_message - Message handling
• on_input - Input handling
• on_reload - Hot-reload handling

• gui_init - GUI initialization
• gui_on_message - GUI message handling
• gui_on_input - GUI input handling

• factory_create - Create object from factory
• go_animate - Animate game object
• msg_post - Post message
• go_property - Define script property
• timer_delay - Create timer
• http_request - HTTP request
• acquire_input - Acquire input focus
• collision_response - Handle collision
• contact_point_response - Handle contact point
• module - Lua module template

• gui_init - GUI initialization
• gui_on_message - GUI message handling
• gui_on_input - GUI input handling
• gui_animate - Animate GUI node

• property - Define script property
• class - Annotate script class
• field - Add field annotation
• selftype - Annotate self parameter
• script_template - Complete script with properties

Type init and press Tab (or Enter) to insert:

function init(self)
    -- Initialization logic
end

No external dependencies needed! Everything is bundled in the project.

Apache-2.0

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.