tsgo: Native TypeScript Compiler Integration for Zed

This extension integrates tsgo, Microsoft's native Go-based TypeScript compiler, into the Zed editor, delivering enhanced performance and efficiency for TypeScript development.

🚀 Why tsgo?

Microsoft is transitioning the TypeScript compiler from its JavaScript implementation to a native version written in Go, aiming for significant performance improvements:

• Faster Compilation: Achieves up to 10x speed improvements in large projects.
• Reduced Memory Usage: Optimized memory handling in native execution.
• Improved Editor Performance: Faster IntelliSense and language services.
• Scalability: Better handling of large codebases.

Example Benchmarks:

• VS Code: 77.8s → 7.5s (10.4x speedup)
• Playwright: 11.1s → 1.1s (10.1x speedup)
• TypeORM: 17.5s → 1.3s (13.5x speedup)

Source: Microsoft Developer Blog

🛠 Installation

1. Open Zed's Extensions page.
2. Search for tsgo and install the extension.

⚙️ Configuration

Note: tsgo is currently in preview and may not support all features of the standard tsc compiler.

Basic Setup

Enable tsgo in your Zed settings:

{
  "languages": {
    "TypeScript": {
      "language_servers": ["tsgo"]
    }
  }
}

You can also use tsgo in tandem with other language servers (e.g. typescript-language-server or vtsls). Zed will use tsgo for features it supports and fallback to the next language server in the list for unsupported features. To do that with vtsls, use:

{
  "languages": {
    "TypeScript": {
      "language_servers": ["tsgo", "vtsls"]
    }
  }
}

Advanced Configuration

Specifying a Package Version

By default, the extension installs and uses the latest version of the @typescript/native-preview npm package. To pin a specific version:

{
  "lsp": {
    "tsgo": {
      "settings": {
        "package_version": "7.0.0-dev.20251029.1"
      }
    }
  }
}

This is useful for:

• Ensuring consistent behavior across the project
• Testing specific versions
• Avoiding automatic updates that might introduce issues

🧪 Status

This extension is in early development stages. While it offers significant performance benefits, some features may be incomplete or unstable. Contributions and feedback are welcome to improve its functionality.