zed-industries/zed · error

Failed to start remote server process

Error message

Failed to start remote server process

What it means

Raised in docker start_proxy when spawning the `docker exec ... proxy` command fails (util::command::new_command could not launch docker or the child errored immediately). Without the remote server process inside the container, the proxy connection cannot be established.

Source

Thrown at crates/remote/src/transport/docker.rs:724

        let val = remote_binary_relpath
            .display(self.path_style())
            .into_owned();
        docker_args.push(val);
        docker_args.push("proxy".to_string());
        docker_args.push("--identifier".to_string());
        docker_args.push(unique_identifier);
        if reconnect {
            docker_args.push("--reconnect".to_string());
        }
        let mut command = util::command::new_command(self.docker_cli());
        command
            .kill_on_drop(true)
            .stdin(Stdio::piped())
            .stdout(Stdio::piped())
            .stderr(Stdio::piped())
            .args(docker_args);

        let Ok(child) = command.spawn() else {
            return Task::ready(Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
                "Failed to start remote server process"
            )));
        };

        let mut proxy_process = self.proxy_process.lock();
        *proxy_process = Some(child.id());

        cx.spawn(async move |cx| {
            super::handle_rpc_messages_over_child_process_stdio(
                child,
                incoming_tx,
                outgoing_rx,
                connection_activity_tx,
                cx,
            )
            .await

View on GitHub (pinned to 5a9b9558db)

Solutions

1. Verify the docker CLI and daemon are working
2. Check container state (is it running?) and retry

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/remote/src/transport/docker.rs:714 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of zed-industries/zed@5a9b9558db (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/31f0e1a3c6bcce2d. Report an issue: GitHub.