# Install docker-language-server with Homebrew, Nix

Language server for Dockerfiles, Compose files, and Bake files. Version 0.20.1 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-28. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#docker-language-server.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:docker-language-server
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install docker-language-server
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#docker-language-server
```

  Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/do/docker-language-server/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:docker-language-server
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 0.20.1
- **Source summary:** Language server for Dockerfiles, Compose files, and Bake files
- **Homepage:** <https://www.docker.com>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/docker/docker-language-server>
- **Last updated:** 2026-07-28T14:10:40+02:00
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- docker-language-server (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 0.20.1
## Project history and usage

Docker Language Server is Docker's LSP server for Dockerfiles, Compose files, and Bake files. It moves Docker authoring features into editors through the Language Server Protocol.

### Project history

The README describes the project as a language server for the Docker ecosystem, covering Dockerfiles, Compose files, and Bake files. It depends on Buildx for some features and exposes diagnostics, hover, completion, code navigation, formatting, document links, inlay hints, and related editor behaviors.

The public tag history starts with v0.1.0 in March 2025, and the changelog shows rapid feature work through 2025. Early releases added Compose and Bake editing features, Dockerfile linting and image intelligence, Docker Hub suggestions, WSL URI fixes, schema updates, and release automation.

### Adoption history

The project is young, but its adoption path is official: the README says Docker maintains the Docker DX Visual Studio Code extension as a supported client, and CLIENTS.md documents use with any LSP-capable editor plus JetBrains through LSP4IJ. Homebrew and Nix packaging make it available outside VS Code-centric distribution.

### How it is used

Users run docker-language-server start over stdio or TCP and connect it to an editor. The server provides Dockerfile, Compose, and Bake language features, with optional initialization settings for telemetry, Compose support, Dockerfile diagnostic overlap handling, and experimental Bake code-lens capabilities.

### Why package nerds care

This package is significant because Docker authoring moved from syntax highlighting into an official language-server binary. For package nerds, it is a compact example of modern CLI packaging: an editor-facing Go executable that pulls together Dockerfile syntax, Compose schemas, Bake, Buildx, BuildKit, Docker Scout, telemetry settings, and cross-editor LSP conventions.

### Timeline

- 2025: v0.1.0 is tagged as the first public release line.
- 2025: v0.5.0-v0.10.x releases add rapid Compose, Dockerfile, and Bake language features.
- 2025: v0.17.0 adds Dockerfile inlay hints for image push age and Docker Hub image-tag suggestions for Compose.
- 2025: v0.20.1 is documented in the changelog with Bake schema fixes.
- 2026: the package appears in Homebrew and Nix metadata.

### Related projects

- Related projects include Docker DX for Visual Studio Code, the Language Server Protocol, Dockerfile reference documentation, Compose specification, Docker Bake, Buildx, BuildKit, Docker Scout, rcjsuen/dockerfile-language-server, tliron/glsp, and LSP4IJ.

### Sources

- <https://github.com/docker/docker-language-server#readme>
- <https://github.com/docker/docker-language-server/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md>
- <https://github.com/docker/docker-language-server/blob/main/CLIENTS.md>
- <https://github.com/docker/docker-language-server/releases>
- <https://github.com/docker/docker-language-server/tags>


## Security Notes

broad file, network, media, or database tool signal.

- **Geiger risk:** blue / medium
- broad file, network, media, or database tool signal

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Nix - docker-language-server: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/do/docker-language-server/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1


## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/docker-language-server.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/docker-language-server.yml)


## Sources

- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- external package-manager database matches
- cross-ecosystem install command graph