Installing Debug Adapters

dap relies on language-specific debug adapters (backends). Many IDEs already ship them — check before installing.

Python — debugpy

Check: python3 -m debugpy --version

Install: pip install debugpy

Virtualenv: dap picks up the active venv automatically via $VIRTUAL_ENV. Activate the venv (source .venv/bin/activate) before running dap debug, or pass --python /path/to/venv/bin/python to override. Without either, dap falls back to python3 on PATH — which may not have debugpy installed or may be the wrong interpreter version.

Go — Delve

Check: dlv version

Install:

macOS: brew install delve (or go install github.com/go-delve/delve/cmd/dlv@latest)
Linux: go install github.com/go-delve/delve/cmd/dlv@latest

macOS note: you may need sudo DevToolsSecurity -enable for debugging permissions.

Node.js/TypeScript — js-debug

dap auto-discovers js-debug from common locations:

VS Code extensions (~/.vscode/extensions/)
Cursor extensions (~/.cursor/extensions/)
Standalone install (~/.dap-cli/js-debug/)

Check: Look for js-debug in the paths above, or run dap debug --backend js-debug script.js — if it fails, install below.

Standalone install (only if not found above):

DAP_VER=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/microsoft/vscode-js-debug/releases/latest | grep -o '"tag_name":"[^"]*"' | cut -d'"' -f4) && \
mkdir -p ~/.dap-cli/js-debug && \
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-js-debug/releases/download/${DAP_VER}/js-debug-dap-${DAP_VER}.tar.gz" | tar -xz -C ~/.dap-cli/js-debug

Also supports Chrome DevTools debugging for browser-side JavaScript.

Rust/C/C++ — lldb-dap

Check: lldb-dap --version

Install:

macOS: brew install llvm (v18+ required)
Linux: apt install lldb (or equivalent for your distro)

After Homebrew install, ensure the Homebrew llvm bin is on your PATH (e.g. export PATH="$(brew --prefix llvm)/bin:$PATH").

Known Gotchas

lldb-dap on macOS: The version bundled with Xcode Command Line Tools (v17) lacks the --connection flag that dap requires. Use the Homebrew llvm package (v18+) instead.

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