Symbol renaming for Rust not working

[giluis]

Summary

Can't rename symbols out of the box in Rust (seems related to rust-analyzer, but it is working in other IDEs like VsCode).

Reproduction Steps

Reproduce

1. brew install helix
2. helix --health rust see output below
3. cargo new --bin helixtest
4. hx helixtest
5. add the following code to main.rs

fn main() {
    println!("Hello, world!");
    somefunction();
}

fn somefunction() {
    println!("some function")
}

6. placecursor on top of somefunction (same behaviour if on top of function definition or function call.
   type <Space>r.

I expected this to happen

You get a prompt to rename somefunction, and press enter to rename it across the file.

Instead, this happens

Renaming does not happen and error message is shown as below:

output of `helix --health rust` right after `brew install helix`

hx --health rust
Configured language servers:
  ✓ rust-analyzer: /Users/luisgil/.cargo/bin/rust-analyzer
Configured debug adapter: lldb-dap
Binary for debug adapter: 'lldb-dap' not found in $PATH
Configured formatter: None
Tree-sitter parser: ✓
Highlight queries: ✓
Textobject queries: ✓
Indent queries: ✓

Helix log

~/.cache/helix/helix.log

2025-07-09T09:54:13.694 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err <- "error: Unknown binary 'rust-analyzer' in official toolchain '1.88.0-aarch64-apple-darwin'.\n"
2025-07-09T09:54:13.695 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err: <- StreamClosed
2025-07-09T09:54:13.695 helix_lsp [ERROR] failed to initialize language server: server closed the stream
2025-07-09T10:22:44.844 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err <- "error: Unknown binary 'rust-analyzer' in official toolchain '1.88.0-aarch64-apple-darwin'.\n"
2025-07-09T10:22:44.845 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err: <- StreamClosed
2025-07-09T10:22:44.845 helix_lsp [ERROR] failed to initialize language server: server closed the stream
2025-07-09T10:37:20.999 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err <- "error: Unknown binary 'rust-analyzer' in official toolchain '1.88.0-aarch64-apple-darwin'.\n"
2025-07-09T10:37:21.000 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err: <- StreamClosed
2025-07-09T10:37:21.000 helix_lsp [ERROR] failed to initialize language server: server closed the stream
2025-07-09T10:37:27.031 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err <- "error: Unknown binary 'rust-analyzer' in official toolchain '1.88.0-aarch64-apple-darwin'.\n"
2025-07-09T10:37:27.032 helix_lsp [ERROR] failed to initialize language server: server closed the stream
2025-07-09T10:37:27.032 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err: <- StreamClosed
2025-07-09T10:37:54.430 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err <- "error: Unknown binary 'rust-analyzer' in official toolchain '1.88.0-aarch64-apple-darwin'.\n"
2025-07-09T10:37:54.431 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err: <- StreamClosed
2025-07-09T10:37:54.431 helix_lsp [ERROR] failed to initialize language server: server closed the stream
2025-07-09T10:51:34.584 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err <- "error: Unknown binary 'rust-analyzer' in official toolchain 'nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin'.\n"
2025-07-09T10:51:34.585 helix_lsp [ERROR] failed to initialize language server: server closed the stream
2025-07-09T10:51:34.585 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err: <- StreamClosed
2025-07-09T10:52:38.202 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err <- "error: Unknown binary 'rust-analyzer' in official toolchain 'nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin'.\n"
2025-07-09T10:52:38.203 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err: <- StreamClosed
2025-07-09T10:52:38.203 helix_lsp [ERROR] failed to initialize language server: server closed the stream
2025-07-09T10:58:41.719 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err <- "error: Unknown binary 'rust-analyzer' in official toolchain 'nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin'.\n"
2025-07-09T10:58:41.720 helix_lsp::transport [ERROR] rust-analyzer err: <- StreamClosed
2025-07-09T10:58:41.721 helix_lsp [ERROR] failed to initialize language server: server closed the stream

Platform

macOS

Terminal Emulator

kitty 0.39.1

Installation Method

brew

Helix Version

helix 25.01.1 (e7ac2fc)

[the-mikedavis]

The line

error: Unknown binary 'rust-analyzer' in official toolchain 'nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin'.

in the error logs is printed by the rust-analyzer command to stderr. Rustup prints that when rust-analyzer is not installed. rustup component add rust-analyzer should fix this.

[wischi-chr]

I had the exact same issue and executing rustup component add rust-analyzer did indeed fix it, but I'm a bit confused because the health check was green/ok even before installing it.

[the-mikedavis]

--health only checks if the binary is in your PATH, it doesn't try to execute it