Why another language server?

While aca/emmet-ls works for what I need, there were a couple of things that annoyed me from time to time and while trying to fix one of those things (aca/emmet-ls#55) I've discovered that we can leverage microsoft/vscode-emmet-helper and make a simple language server that wraps that package to provide completions.

So I decided to do that and it worked!

The most important thing is that microsoft/vscode has an excellent integration with emmet and we can have that, in all editors that implement the Language Server Protocol.

Setup

Using npm:

npm i -g @olrtg/emmet-language-server

Using mason.nvim:

:MasonInstall emmet-language-server

Neovim

[!NOTE] Want deeper integration (eg. wrap with abbreviation)? Check out nvim-emmet.

With nvim-lspconfig:

Remember that if you don't need to support a new filetype or change the default settings of the language server you just need to pass an empty table to the setup function (like this: lspconfig.emmet_language_server.setup({})).

lspconfig.emmet_language_server.setup({
  filetypes = { "css", "eruby", "html", "javascript", "javascriptreact", "less", "sass", "scss", "pug", "typescriptreact" },
  -- Read more about this options in the [vscode docs](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/emmet#_emmet-configuration).
  -- **Note:** only the options listed in the table are supported.
  init_options = {
    ---@type table<string, string>
    includeLanguages = {},
    --- @type string[]
    excludeLanguages = {},
    --- @type string[]
    extensionsPath = {},
    --- @type table<string, any> [Emmet Docs](https://docs.emmet.io/customization/preferences/)
    preferences = {},
    --- @type boolean Defaults to `true`
    showAbbreviationSuggestions = true,
    --- @type "always" | "never" Defaults to `"always"`
    showExpandedAbbreviation = "always",
    --- @type boolean Defaults to `false`
    showSuggestionsAsSnippets = false,
    --- @type table<string, any> [Emmet Docs](https://docs.emmet.io/customization/syntax-profiles/)
    syntaxProfiles = {},
    --- @type table<string, string> [Emmet Docs](https://docs.emmet.io/customization/snippets/#variables)
    variables = {},
  },
})

Without nvim-lspconfig:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({ "FileType" }, {
  pattern = "css,eruby,html,htmldjango,javascriptreact,less,pug,sass,scss,typescriptreact",
  callback = function()
    vim.lsp.start({
      cmd = { "emmet-language-server", "--stdio" },
      root_dir = vim.fs.dirname(vim.fs.find({ ".git" }, { upward = true })[1]),
      -- Read more about this options in the [vscode docs](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/emmet#_emmet-configuration).
      -- **Note:** only the options listed in the table are supported.
      init_options = {
        ---@type table<string, string>
        includeLanguages = {},
        --- @type string[]
        excludeLanguages = {},
        --- @type string[]
        extensionsPath = {},
        --- @type table<string, any> [Emmet Docs](https://docs.emmet.io/customization/preferences/)
        preferences = {},
        --- @type boolean Defaults to `true`
        showAbbreviationSuggestions = true,
        --- @type "always" | "never" Defaults to `"always"`
        showExpandedAbbreviation = "always",
        --- @type boolean Defaults to `false`
        showSuggestionsAsSnippets = false,
        --- @type table<string, any> [Emmet Docs](https://docs.emmet.io/customization/syntax-profiles/)
        syntaxProfiles = {},
        --- @type table<string, string> [Emmet Docs](https://docs.emmet.io/customization/snippets/#variables)
        variables = {},
      },
    })
  end,
})

Helix

Install normally with npm (or your favourite package manager), then add the following to languages.toml:

[language-server.emmet-lsp]
command = "emmet-language-server"
args = ["--stdio"]

[[language]]
name = "html"
roots = [".git"]
language-servers = ["emmet-lsp"]

Credits

• @aca for the first language server (aca/emmet-ls)
• @wassimk for bringing the microsoft/vscode-emmet-helper repo to my attention in aca/emmet-ls#55
• microsoft/vscode for having such an amazing integration with emmet and the easy and open package to integrate with
• emmetio/emmet for the awesome tool