Installation

Status: Current Last updated: 2026-06-01 00:52 PDT

This chapter walks you through installing VS Code and the TalkBank CHAT extension. The language server (chatter-lsp) ships inside each platform-specific VSIX, so there is no separate binary to install. By the end, you will have a working environment where opening any .cha file gives you syntax highlighting, real-time validation, and all the features described in this book.

Prerequisites

You need:

Visual Studio Code Insiders version 1.110 or later
A platform-specific .vsix package — each release publishes five VSIXes (darwin-arm64, darwin-x64, linux-x64, linux-arm64, win32-x64) with a prebuilt chatter-lsp bundled inside

The extension is a .vsix package installed into VS Code. Each platform-specific VSIX bundles the matching chatter-lsp binary at <extension>/server/chatter-lsp[.exe], so end users do not need a Rust toolchain or any PATH setup.

Step 1: Install VS Code Insiders

macOS

Install via Homebrew:

brew install --cask visual-studio-code@insiders

This gives you the code-insiders command in your terminal.

Windows

Download from https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders/. Run the installer and ensure “Add to PATH” is checked so the code-insiders command is available from the terminal.

Linux

Download the .deb or .rpm package from https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders/, or use snap:

sudo snap install code-insiders --classic

Step 2: Install the Extension

Option A: Platform-specific VSIX (recommended)

Open https://github.com/TalkBank/batchalign/releases
Choose the vscode-vX.Y.Z release entry and download the .vsix that matches your host:
- talkbank-chat-darwin-arm64.vsix (Apple Silicon Macs)
- talkbank-chat-darwin-x64.vsix (Intel Macs)
- talkbank-chat-linux-x64.vsix
- talkbank-chat-linux-arm64.vsix
- talkbank-chat-win32-x64.vsix
Install it:
```
code-insiders --install-extension talkbank-chat-<platform>.vsix
```
Or from inside VS Code: open the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P), type “Extensions: Install from VSIX…”, and select the .vsix file.

Each platform VSIX bundles a matching chatter-lsp binary. No Rust toolchain or PATH setup is required.

Option B: Development mode (building from source)

Contributors running from a cloned workspace can build chatter-lsp and launch the extension directly:

# From the talkbank-tools/ repository root:
cargo build --release -p chatter-lsp

cd apps/vscode-extension
npm install
npm run compile     # or: just vscode build (from repo root)

# Launch VS Code with the extension loaded in development mode:
code-insiders --extensionDevelopmentPath=.

In this mode the extension picks up the dev-tree build at ../target/release/chatter-lsp (or target/debug/ after cargo build -p chatter-lsp). Producing a full set of platform VSIXes is covered in the Releasing chapter.

Step 3: Verify the Installation

Open VS Code Insiders
Open any .cha file (if you have the repository, try one from resources/corpus/reference/)
You should see:
- Syntax highlighting – headers, speaker codes, dependent tiers, and annotations are colored by category
- Validation diagnostics – any errors or warnings appear as squiggly underlines and in the Problems panel (Cmd+Shift+M)
- “CHAT Validation” tree view in the Explorer sidebar

(SCREENSHOT: VS Code Insiders with a CHAT file open) Capture this: a .cha file from resources/corpus/reference/ open in the editor, showing syntax highlighting, the Problems panel with diagnostics, and the CHAT Validation tree view in the Explorer sidebar.

If you see plain, uncolored text, the extension did not activate. Check:

The file has a .cha extension
The language mode in the bottom status bar says “CHAT” (not “Plain Text”)
The Output panel (Cmd+Shift+U) shows a “TalkBank Language Server” channel with server startup messages

How the LSP Binary Is Found

When the extension starts, it searches for the chatter-lsp binary in this order:

talkbank.lsp.binaryPath setting – if set and the file exists, that path is used directly (explicit override)
Bundled binary – <extension>/server/chatter-lsp[.exe], shipped with each platform-specific VSIX
System PATH – which chatter-lsp, for developers who install via cargo install
Dev-tree builds – <extension>/../target/debug/chatter-lsp or .../target/release/chatter-lsp, for contributors running from a cloned workspace
If none of these find a binary, an error notification appears with a link to the talkbank.lsp.binaryPath setting

The binary is spawned with no arguments. It speaks the Language Server Protocol over stdio as soon as it starts.

See Settings Reference for the talkbank.lsp.binaryPath setting, and LSP Connection for troubleshooting a missing binary.

Next Steps

With the extension installed, open a CHAT file and follow along with Your First CHAT File to explore the core features.

Keyboard shortcuts

Batchalign