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Lua Debugger installs statistics

By devCAT · VS Code Marketplace · Debuggers

Visual Studio Code debugger extension for Lua 5.1, 5.2, 5.3

View on VS Code Marketplace Fresh · Oct 18, 2026

Lua Debugger has 101,606 recorded installs on VS Code Marketplace.

It ranks #2343 of 2,500 tracked VS Code Marketplace listings by installs.

It is rated 4.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings.

PluginStats has 3 daily observations since Oct 16, 2026; the latest is from Oct 18, 2026.

Installs
101,606
Official API · Oct 18, 2026
7-day growth
—
Insufficient history
30-day growth
—
Insufficient history
90-day growth
—
Insufficient history
Rank
#2343
Among tracked VS Code Marketplace listings

Rating: 4.00 / 5 from 2 ratings

About Lua Debugger

한국어 문서 읽기

Introduction

You can use the Lua Debugger extension to debug Lua programs with Visual Studio Code.

Requirements

• You should be able to use luasocket in a Lua program to be debugged. • You should be able to use a JSON library in a Lua program to be debugged. cjson and dkjson are recommended, but you can use other JSON libraries whose interfaces are compatible. • Your code or third party library should not call debug.sethook.

Configuration

In order to debug Lua programs with Lua Debugger, you have to put vscode-debuggee.lua in the program to be debugged. If you have used mobdebug, you are familiar with it.

Debugger Connection

1. Download vscode-debuggee.lua and put it in your project.

2. Paste the following code into your program to run after all the Lua source code is loaded. Depending on which JSON library you are using, you may need to modify your code accordingly.

3. Open the folder that contains the program you want to debug in Visual Studio Code, open the Debug window with Ctrl-Shift-D, and edit the debugging settings accordingly.

4. Set the breakpoint by pressing F9 at the appropriate location in the program to be debugged.

5. Press the F5 key to start debugging.

Setting to Enter the Debugger When an Error Occurs

Paste the following code at the location where you want to handle the error.

Enabling Debug Commands to be Processed During Execution

To enable the Lua program to respond to commands from the debugger, such as setting a pause or a breakpoint, while running, set the following code to be called at appropriate intervals.

If your project is a game client, you can call it every frame.

Gideros Support

You can run Gideros Player directly from Visual Studio Code. Please refer to the 'launch-gideros' section of the debugging settings.

Remote Debugging

If you set the debugging setting to wait and start debugging, Visual Studio Code will wait for a debuggee without executing one. This is useful if you want to see the string that the debugging target leaves on the console, or if the debugger and the debugging target must be running on different machines.

OP_HALT Patch

Basically Vscode-debuggee.lua drops the speed of running Lua programs because it implements the breakpoint mechanism using debug.sethook. This performance degradation can be overcome by applying a simple patch to the Lua VM.

Download: • lua 5.1.5 : Patch, Code • lua 5.3.4 : Patch, Code

Acknowledgments

• The OP_HALT patch relies heavily on the work mentioned in the Lua mailing list. Thanks to Dan Tull. • We got an idea from mobdebug about how to connect the debuggee to the debugger. Thanks to Paul Kulchenko. • Thanks to Google Translator for translating this article!

vscode-debuggee.lua Reference

debuggee.start(jsonLib, config)

Connect with the debugger. jsonLib is a JSON library containing .encode and .decode functions. Config.onError is a callback to receive when an error occurs in the vscode-debuggee module. Config.connectTimeout, config.controllerHost, and config.controllerPort are settings for remote debugging. If config.redirectPrint is true, the print call is intercepted and displayed in the Visual Studio Code output window. Use this item if you want Gideros to print the results of a print called just before the breakpoint.

debuggee.start returns two values. The first return value is true if it is normally connected to the debugger, otherwise it is false. If the OP_HALT patch is applied in the current Lua VM, the second return value is 'halt', otherwise it is 'pure'.

debuggee.poll()

Processes queued debugging commands and returns immediately.

debuggee.enterDebugLoop(depth[, what])

Stops running the Lua program and start debugging from the current location. depth specifies the relative depth of the stack to indicate where the debugger is currently running. 0 means the place to call debuggee.enterDebugLoop, and 1 means a step shallow. what is the message you want to pass to the Visual Studio Code as you start debugging.

debuggee.print(category, ...)

Prints text on vscode debug console. category colorize print text, you can choose log, warning, or error.

Description from the VS Code Marketplace listing.

  • debuggers

Where Lua Debugger sits in the listing

Each band is one page of 20. Installs on a log scale. Placement is projected from installs, so it can differ from the marketplace's own sort order. Hover a dot to see the listing.

All VS Code Marketplace2,500 listings · 125 pages · page 118, #3 (overall #2343)
All VS Code Marketplace: every listing in installs order
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Debuggers217 listings · 11 pages · page 11, #3 (overall #203)
Debuggers: every listing in installs order
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Charts

Images: 30d · 1y · all time · 1600×900 dark

Adoption over time

Lua Debugger installs on VS Code Marketplace, last 90 days: 101,606 installs as of Oct 18, 2026.Lua DebuggerInstalls on VS Code Marketplace · Last 90 days101,606installs101.6K101.6K101.6K101.6K101.6K101.6KJul 20Aug 4Aug 19Sep 3Sep 18Oct 3Oct 18installsobservedarchived (Internet Archive)no observationsOct 16, 2026 – Oct 18, 2026 · 3 observations · Updated Oct…pluginstats.com
Lua Debugger installs on VS Code Marketplace, last 90 days: 101,606 installs as of Oct 18, 2026.
PNG SVG

7/30/90-day growth

Lua Debugger installs growth on VS Code Marketplace: 7-day growth unavailable, 30-day growth unavailable, 90-day growth unavailable.Lua DebuggerInstalls growth on VS Code Marketplace101,606installs now7-day growthinsufficient historyInsufficient history30-day growthinsufficient historyInsufficient history90-day growthinsufficient historyInsufficient historyGrowth vs. nearest observation to each baseline date · Updated Oct 18, 2026pluginstats.com
Lua Debugger installs growth on VS Code Marketplace: 7-day growth unavailable, 30-day growth unavailable, 90-day growth unavailable.
PNG SVG

Ranking history

Lua Debugger VS Code Marketplace ranking history: currently #2343 (by installs).Lua DebuggerVS Code Marketplace ranking · by installs · Last 90 days#2343current rank#2340#2341#2342#2343#2344#2345Jul 20Aug 4Aug 19Sep 3Sep 18Oct 3Oct 18rankOct 16, 2026 – Oct 18, 2026 · 3 observations · Updated Oct 18, 2026pluginstats.com
Lua Debugger VS Code Marketplace ranking history: currently #2343 (by installs).
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Ratings over time

Lua Debugger ratings on VS Code Marketplace, last 90 days: 2 ratings as of Oct 18, 2026.Lua DebuggerRatings on VS Code Marketplace · Last 90 days2ratings1.81.922.12.2Jul 20Aug 4Aug 19Sep 3Sep 18Oct 3Oct 18ratingsobservedarchived (Internet Archive)no observationsOct 16, 2026 – Oct 18, 2026 · 3 observations · Updated Oct…pluginstats.com
Lua Debugger ratings on VS Code Marketplace, last 90 days: 2 ratings as of Oct 18, 2026.
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Filled points are observed values; hollow points come from Internet Archive snapshots of the listing page. Dashed segments span periods with no observations — values between points are not interpolated.

Recent observations

Full history (3)
Recent installs observations for Lua Debugger
Date (UTC)InstallsChange vs. previous
101,606+2
101,604+7
101,597—

Similar VS Code Marketplace Debuggers plugins

Data source

Install counts, average rating, and rating counts come from the public Visual Studio Marketplace gallery API. Installs are cumulative and exclude updates.

Listing: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=devCAT.lua-debug. First seen Oct 16, 2026; last successful collection Oct 18, 2026. See the methodology.