Debug Adapter Protocol

An industry-standard JSON-RPC protocol that decouples development tools from language-specific debuggers.

Microsoft designed the Debug Adapter Protocol (DAP) to eliminate the need for custom debugging code in every editor. It acts as an intermediary (the adapter) that translates generic UI commands like 'step over' or 'set breakpoint' into the specific instructions required by runtimes like Node.js, Python, or GDB. By standardizing this communication over JSON-RPC, a single debugger implementation serves multiple IDEs including VS Code, Vim, and Emacs. This architecture allows developers to maintain one robust debugger backend rather than writing unique integrations for every tool in the ecosystem.

https://microsoft.github.io/debug-adapter-protocol/