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Zed IndustriesAI Coding Agent

Zed

Zed is an open-source code editor written in Rust for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It runs the Zed Agent and external agents such as Claude Agent, Codex, and Gemini CLI through the Agent Client Protocol, predicts edits with its Zeta model, and supports real-time multiplayer editing.

The 30-Second Take

Pick Zed if your engineers want one fast editor for the Zed Agent, Claude Code and Codex.

Its own agent draws more praise from practitioners than the outside agents it hosts. Native speed and a free choice of model provider are what keep users on it.

Best fit
One fast editor for engineers who switch between the Zed Agent, Claude Code, and Codex.
Main constraint
External agents run with fewer features than in their own apps, and edit predictions trail Cursor Tab.
First move
Pilot on your own keys with tool permissions set, and run each external agent on real work before moving a team.

Why

Watch what external agents lose: Claude Code and Codex run with fewer features inside Zed than in their own apps, and edit predictions trail Cursor Tab. You still own which agents may run and the review of every agent edit.

Practitioner sentiment, all practitioners+25 Positive

56 practitioners, 95 sources reviewed, Updated Nov 1, 2026How this is measured

Read the GILD Review
Save a product your organization uses.Keep up with Zed without adding it to your stack.Visit Website
Operating stack
Agentic Software Development

Comparisons

How does Zed compare with the alternatives?

See all 4 comparisons

  1. Zed vs Cursor

    • AI Coding Agents

    Cursor builds its own agents, Tab completion, and cloud agents into an editor based on the VS Code codebase. Zed is a native editor that runs its own agent and hosts Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor's agent through ACP. Choose by whether engineers need Cursor's completion or one editor for many agents.

  2. Zed vs GitHub Copilot

    • AI Coding Agents

    GitHub Copilot adds chat, agents, and completion to VS Code and other IDEs on a GitHub seat. Zed replaces the editor and can use a Copilot subscription for its agent models and edit predictions. The decision is whether engineers stay in VS Code or move to a native editor.

  3. Zed vs Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)

    • AI Coding Agents

    Devin Desktop, formerly Windsurf, is Cognition's agent editor and hands longer work to Devin cloud agents. Zed keeps agents in a native editor and lets engineers bring their own agent and model provider.

Buying and deployment

What engineering leaders should verify before a broader rollout.

Sourced from Zed documentation

How you buy it

US$10

A month for Pro, with unlimited edit predictions and US$5 of tokens. The editor itself is free.

Source 1, Zed Industries, Zed pricing: Zed pricing

Details

The editor is free on the Personal plan with your own keys or external agents. Pro is US$10 per month with unlimited edit predictions and US$5 of hosted tokens; Business is US$30 per seat per month, with order forms from 25 seats.

Cost drivers

List price plus 10%

For hosted tokens past Pro's allowance. Own keys and external agents bill via their providers.

Source 1, Zed Industries, Zed pricing: Zed pricing

Details

Hosted model usage beyond Pro's US$5 bills at API list price plus 10%, with an optional spending cap. Business seats include no model credits. External agents and your own keys bill through their providers, and Zed charges nothing for them.

Where it runs

macOS, Windows, Linux

A native desktop app with SSH remote development, hosting ACP agents in its Agent Panel.

Source 5, zed.dev, Download Zed: Download ZedSource 6, zed.dev, Remote Development: Remote DevelopmentSource 4, Zed Industries, Agent Panel: Agent PanelSource 3, Zed Industries, External Agents: External Agents

Details

A native desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux, with SSH remote development. The Agent Panel runs the Zed Agent and ACP agents such as Claude Agent, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, and Cursor.

What to verify

No SSO yet

SSO, SAML, and SCIM are planned for Business. Panel features vary by external agent.

Source 2, Zed Industries, Zed for Business: Zed for BusinessSource 1, Zed Industries, Zed pricing: Zed pricingSource 4, Zed Industries, Agent Panel: Agent Panel

Details

Business admins can restrict hosted models, turn off edit predictions, and lock data sharing; SSO, SAML, and SCIM are planned and not yet available. History, checkpoints, and token usage display vary by external agent.

Signals

What is the current evidence saying about Zed?

A current read of what developers and technical leaders report publicly about Zed's AI features, with every finding linked to its sources.

Whose sources count

Practitioner sentiment, all practitioners

+25 Positive net

of 57 sources that take a side, each author counted once.

How this figure is made

23 more state no overall view and cast no vote.

Leaders and teams have 11 accounts; GILD prints their sentiment from 20.

Current sentiment

Positive, mixed and negative sources

The score counts them as 25 positive, 20 mixed and 11 negative votes, one per author.

Across public accounts, praise centers on the Zed Agent and on running other agents and models inside a fast editor. The most frequent concern is that Claude Code, Codex, and other ACP agents lose features inside Zed. Engineers who rely on tab completion keep going back to Cursor.

Use a task pilot to measure accepted work and review time.

Evidence field. All 95 sources, one mark each.

Arrange by

Each mark is one source: positive, mixed, negative, no opinion stated, or documentation (not counted).

By sentiment, All practitioners. Every source GILD read, grouped as the field draws it.
GroupSourcesPositiveMixedNegativeNo opinion stated and not counted in the scoreDocumentation, checked and not counted
Positive26260000
Mixed20020000
Negative11001100
Not counted29000290
Documentation900009
Every source GILD read, by the quarter it was published, as the field's time axis counts it. Documentation is dated by the day it was checked.
QuarterSources
Q2 20256
Q3 202519
Q4 20255
Q1 202613
Q2 202628
Q3 20269
Q4 20266
Documentation, checked9

By sentiment

9 documentation pages check facts and are not counted.

Hover a mark for a quick look, click it or press Enter to open its source.Tap a mark to open its source, then step to its neighbors with Previous and Next.

What practitioners praise

Top praise of 5. Each mark is a source on it; filled marks praise it.

  1. Zed Agent and Review Flow16 of 17 sources on it praise it

Most common concerns

Top concern of 6. Each mark is a source on it; filled marks raise it.

  1. External Agents Lose FeaturesAll 17 sources on it raise it as a concern
All 95 sources behind these findings
  1. Zed pricingZed Industries (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 25, 2026
  2. Zed for BusinessZed Industries (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 25, 2026
  3. Agent PanelZed Industries (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 25, 2026
  4. External AgentsZed Industries (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 25, 2026
  5. Edit PredictionZed Industries (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 25, 2026
  6. Parallel AgentsZed Industries (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 25, 2026
  7. Tool PermissionsZed Industries (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 25, 2026
  8. AI PrivacyZed Industries (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 25, 2026
  9. Zed is 1.0Zed Industries (Official), Product documentation, checked Oct 25, 2026
  10. Post on X by Kang Cahya KerenKang Cahya Keren, developer and blogger (self-described: Moved to Zed from VS Code and Antigravity), Post on X, published Oct 16, 2026
  11. Post on X by Nenad NovakovicNenad Novakovic, founder (self-described: Founder building his own apps), Post on X, published Oct 9, 2026
  12. Post on X by Jacob WolfJacob Wolf, leads podcasts and integrations engineering at beehiiv (self-described: Engineering lead switching between OpenCode, Cursor, and Claude Code), Post on X, published Oct 7, 2026
  13. Post on X by Eluert MukjaEluert Mukja, full-stack developer (self-described: Built a phone companion for Zed's agent panel), Post on X, published Oct 4, 2026
  14. Comment on: Zed and devcontainersjackjeff, developer using Zed with devcontainers (self-described: Zed and devcontainers for a development environment), Hacker News comment, published Oct 3, 2026
  15. Post on X by rodesiarodesia, solo builder of a web platform (self-described: Building and running a web platform alone), Post on X, published Oct 2, 2026
  16. Post on X by Chris ReynoldsChris Reynolds, IT Director (self-described: IT director using Zed and Sublime as minimal editors), Post on X, published Sep 25, 2026
  17. Post on X by ArisAris (riipandi), developer on X (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Post on X, published Sep 25, 2026
  18. Vibe Coding Developer Productivity ToolsMike McQuaid, CTPO at Administrate (Built AgentIDE for his own agent workflow; coworkers at Administrate and Homebrew maintainers use it), Blog post, mikemcquaid.com, published Sep 24, 2026
  19. Comment on: Zed collaborative agent workflowemerongi, engineer reviewing Zed's collaborative agent workflow (self-described: Response to a video of Zed collaborative review), Hacker News comment, published Sep 18, 2026
  20. Post on X by Andrey TarantsovAndrey Tarantsov, Technical director at Bubblehouse (self-described: Technical director trying Codex and Grok Build as external agents), Post on X, published Sep 18, 2026
  21. Comment on: Zed prompt overheadNortySpock, developer evaluating Zed's default prompt (self-described: Zed editor prompt overhead), Hacker News comment, published Sep 17, 2026
  22. Comment on: trying Zed againjackjeff, developer evaluating Zed's agent workflow (self-described: Retesting Zed after an earlier trial), Hacker News comment, published Aug 29, 2026
  23. Cannot resume/open an existing Claude Code session in Zed when it is running as a background agent (works in VS Code)faisal-fida, GitHub issue author (self-described: Claude Code over SSH remote development), GitHub issue, published Aug 11, 2026
  24. External agents are unavailable in shared projects while in Collaborationxbt573, GitHub issue author (self-described: Using a shared project in a Zed collaboration channel), GitHub issue, published Jul 20, 2026
  25. Post on X by Peter ThomsonPeter Thomson, CTO at Icehouse Ventures (Icehouse Ventures engineering team, which keeps full-agent tools as daily drivers), Post on X, published Jun 22, 2026
  26. Comment on: Software is made between commitsslopinthebag, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Jun 11, 2026
  27. Post on X by arcarc (arcbjorn), agent systems and ML engineer (self-described: Zed user since the 2022 private beta), Post on X, published May 30, 2026
  28. Claude Code ACP session enters unrecoverable state after hitting usage limitjordandakota, GitHub issue author (self-described: Claude Code over ACP on a Claude plan with usage limits), GitHub issue, published May 2, 2026
  29. Comment on: Zed 1.0zephod, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Apr 30, 2026
  30. Comment on: Zed 1.0presentation, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer whose company pays for Cursor), Hacker News comment, published Apr 30, 2026
  31. Comment on: Zed 1.0matthewtse, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Apr 30, 2026
  32. Comment on: Zed 1.0recov, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Apr 29, 2026
  33. Comment on: Zed 1.0sodacanner, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Apr 29, 2026
  34. Comment on: Zed 1.0NortySpock, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Apr 29, 2026
  35. Comment on: Zed 1.0JnnydevDude, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Light Zed user for a few months), Hacker News comment, published Apr 29, 2026
  36. Comment on: Zed 1.0jeppester, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Apr 29, 2026
  37. Comment on: Zed 1.0mlsu, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer new to Zed on a mixed C and Rust project), Hacker News comment, published Apr 29, 2026
  38. Comment on: Zed 1.0scottmessinger, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Zed user for years), Hacker News comment, published Apr 29, 2026
  39. Comment on: Zed 1.0ksajadi, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Apr 29, 2026
  40. Post on X by Omar McAdamOmar McAdam, CTO at Different AI (CTO of Different AI, which builds OpenWork, with OpenCode as his coding agent), Post on X, published Apr 29, 2026
  41. Post on X by 0xSero0xSero, developer on X (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Post on X, published Apr 26, 2026
  42. Comment on: Parallel agents in Zedtankmohit11, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Apr 23, 2026
  43. Comment on: Parallel agents in Zedjamie_ca, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer whose employer provides GitHub Copilot), Hacker News comment, published Apr 22, 2026
  44. Comment on: Parallel agents in Zedverse, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Daily Zed user), Hacker News comment, published Apr 22, 2026
  45. Comment on: Parallel agents in Zedlfx, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Zed user for over a year), Hacker News comment, published Apr 22, 2026
  46. Comment on: Parallel agents in Zedconqrr, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer using Zed at home and Claude Code at work), Hacker News comment, published Apr 22, 2026
  47. Sandboxes and Worktrees: My secure Agentic AI SetupMike McQuaid, CTPO at Administrate (Runs sandboxed Codex and Claude Code agents on Homebrew and Administrate repositories), Blog post, mikemcquaid.com, published Apr 14, 2026
  48. Comment on: Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouterkisamoto (Ewan), author of the Braw.dev post under discussion (self-described: Developer moving a US$100 per month Claude Code budget to Zed and OpenRouter), Hacker News comment, published Apr 9, 2026
  49. Comment on: Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouterphilipp-gayret, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Apr 9, 2026
  50. Comment on: Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouteravilay, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Apr 9, 2026
  51. Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code spend to Zed and OpenRouterEwan (kisamoto on Hacker News), author of Braw.dev (self-described: Developer moving a US$100 per month Claude Code budget to Zed and OpenRouter), Blog post, Braw.dev, published Apr 6, 2026
  52. All agent actions extremely slowsecondl1ght, GitHub issue author (self-described: Zed Agent on Linux), GitHub issue, published Apr 3, 2026
  53. Claude Code ACP increases zed energy consumption 100xprinchman, GitHub issue author (self-described: Running the Claude agent over ACP on macOS), GitHub issue, published Mar 15, 2026
  54. GPT-5.3 Codex from copilot provider is unusable in zedsomtooo, GitHub issue author (self-described: Using GPT-5.3 Codex from a GitHub Copilot subscription in the Zed Agent), GitHub issue, published Mar 3, 2026
  55. Post on X by Quinn SlackQuinn Slack, CEO and Member of Technical Staff at Amp (Runs Amp as his coding agent and Zed as his editor), Post on X, published Feb 14, 2026
  56. Comment on: Zed editor switching graphics lib from blade to wgputrcf23, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Feb 13, 2026
  57. Post on X by Quinn SlackQuinn Slack, CEO and Member of Technical Staff at Amp (Moving Amp's own codebase toward feedback loops that coding agents use), Post on X, published Feb 10, 2026
  58. Post on X by Stephen HaneyStephen Haney, founder of Paper (Founder of Paper, a design tool company), Post on X, published Jan 28, 2026
  59. Comment on: I switched from VSCode to ZedAbishek_Muthian, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Jan 6, 2026
  60. Comment on: I switched from VSCode to ZedRamblingCTO, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Jan 5, 2026
  61. Comment on: I switched from VSCode to Zedgiancarlostoro, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer leaving a JetBrains subscription after nearly 10 years), Hacker News comment, published Jan 5, 2026
  62. Comment on: I switched from VSCode to Zeddmix, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Jan 5, 2026
  63. Comment on: I switched from VSCode to ZedOctoth0rpe, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Early Zed adopter), Hacker News comment, published Jan 5, 2026
  64. I switched from VSCode to ZedVictor Skvortsov, author of Ten thousand meters (self-described: Python and Go developer who uses a CLI agent (Codex) for AI work), Blog post, Ten thousand meters, published Jan 3, 2026
  65. Post on X by Dhravya ShahDhravya Shah, founder of Supermemory (Founder of Supermemory, a memory layer for AI apps), Post on X, published Jan 3, 2026
  66. Comment on: Zed is our officetravisgriggs, Hacker News commenter at a 2-3 person shop (self-described: A 2-3 person shop working across four operating systems and 5+ languages), Hacker News comment, published Nov 13, 2025
  67. Comment on: Codex Is Live in Zedlukaslalinsky, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Oct 18, 2025
  68. Comment on: Codex Is Live in Zedmcjiggerlog, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Oct 17, 2025
  69. Comment on: Codex Is Live in Zedmosselman, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Oct 16, 2025
  70. A new direction for AI developer tooling featuring José Valim, creator of Tidewave (Changelog & Friends #112)José Valim, Chief Adoption Officer at Dashbit (Creator of Elixir, building Dashbit's Tidewave coding agent on ACP), Podcast episode transcript, Changelog & Friends, published Oct 10, 2025
  71. Comment on: Zed's Pricing Has Changed: LLM Usage Is Now Token-Basedagrippanux, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Sep 24, 2025
  72. Comment on: Zed's Pricing Has Changed: LLM Usage Is Now Token-Basedgenshii, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Sep 24, 2025
  73. Comment on: Zed's Pricing Has Changed: LLM Usage Is Now Token-BasedWD-42, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Sep 24, 2025
  74. Comment on: Zed's Pricing Has Changed: LLM Usage Is Now Token-Basedoakesm9, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Sep 24, 2025
  75. Comment on: Zed's Pricing Has Changed: LLM Usage Is Now Token-Basedpkilgore, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Sep 24, 2025
  76. Comment on: Zed's Pricing Has Changed: LLM Usage Is Now Token-Basedsethhochberg, Hacker News commenter buying AI tools for an organization (self-described: Corporate purchaser governing employee AI access through a company-managed OpenAI tenant), Hacker News comment, published Sep 24, 2025
  77. Comment on: Zed's Pricing Has Changed: LLM Usage Is Now Token-Basedhakanensari, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Sep 24, 2025
  78. Zed + Claude Code: A Beautiful Promise That's Not Quite There YetAlek Dobrohotov, Product Manager at C&C (self-described: Builds internal tools for retail, education, and B2B teams at C&C, an Apple Premium Partner), Blog post, The Vibe Coding Post, published Sep 6, 2025
  79. Comment on: Claude Code: Now in Beta in Zedchillfox, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Sep 4, 2025
  80. Comment on: Claude Code: Now in Beta in Zedlemontheme, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Sep 4, 2025
  81. Comment on: Claude Code: Now in Beta in Zedppeetteerr, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Sep 3, 2025
  82. Comment on: Claude Code: Now in Beta in Zedcedws, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Sep 3, 2025
  83. Comment on: Claude Code: Now in Beta in Zeddcre, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Sep 3, 2025
  84. Comment on: Claude Code: Now in Beta in Zedkelthuzad, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Sep 3, 2025
  85. Support history with external ACP agentsaexvir, GitHub issue author (self-described: Using Gemini CLI through ACP on a pre-release Zed build), GitHub issue, published Aug 28, 2025
  86. Comment on: Claude Opus 4.1trenchpilgrim, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Aug 5, 2025
  87. Comment on: You can now disable all AI features in Zedgwking, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Jul 23, 2025
  88. Comment on: You can now disable all AI features in Zedkbdiaz, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Jul 23, 2025
  89. Comment on: Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 (an update)senko, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published Jul 21, 2025
  90. The path to Tidewave: beyond code intelligenceJosé Valim, Chief Adoption Officer at Dashbit (Introducing Tidewave, Dashbit's runtime-aware tools for coding agents), Company blog post, Dashbit, published Jun 6, 2025
  91. Post on X by Victor MotaVictor Mota, co-founder of CoPlane (Trying Zed's new AI features against Cursor, including on his team's Python monorepo), Post on X, published May 10, 2025
  92. Comment on: Zed: High-performance AI Code Editorvolkk, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published May 7, 2025
  93. Comment on: Zed: High-performance AI Code Editorgyre007, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published May 7, 2025
  94. Comment on: Zed: High-performance AI Code Editorthestephen, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published May 7, 2025
  95. Comment on: Zed: High-performance AI Code EditorDreaminDani, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Developer describing their own use of Zed's AI features), Hacker News comment, published May 7, 2025

May 2025 to Oct 2026.

86 sources from practitioners, by month and sentiment.

The full readExplore all Zed Signals5 praise themes, 6 concerns, 3 points of agreement and 2 disagreements across all three groups, with all 95 sources open to inspect.

Where It Fits

Where does Zed belong in the stack?

Open Where It Fits: the Stack Field and the full map

Zed is Core across Build, supports Validate, and touches Plan, Ship, and Operate.

Business area
Product & Engineering
Function
Software Development
Operating stack
Agentic Software Development
Primary role
AI Code Editor with Built-in and External Agents
Zed beside the rest of its stackThe Stack Field, every product on every layer
FootprintZed across the Agentic Software Development stack. Bar height is its role on each layer.

  1. Plan

    1. Work planning: Touches

      Work planning, touches. The Zed Agent can discuss an approach before it edits, but Zed has no task tracker or planning screen; planning stays in the team's issue tracker.

  2. Build

    1. Codebase context: Supports

      Codebase context, supports. The Zed Agent reads, searches, and greps the project through its tools and language servers, and external agents bring their own context handling; Zed does not sell a separate code search product.

    2. Coding: Core

      Coding, core. This is Zed's primary stack role: a native editor on macOS, Windows, and Linux with edit predictions from Zeta or another provider, an inline assistant, and agents that edit across the project.

    3. Agent runtime: Core

      Agent runtime, core. The Agent Panel and Threads Sidebar run the Zed Agent and external agents such as Claude Agent, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, and Cursor over ACP, several threads at once in separate worktrees.

    4. Tool execution: Supports

      Tool execution, supports. The Zed Agent runs terminal commands, file edits, web fetches, and MCP tools under regex allow, deny, and confirm rules; external agents keep their own tools and permissions.

  3. Validate

    1. Debugging: Supports

      Debugging, supports. Zed ships a debugger and the agent can read diagnostics and run commands to chase a failure; production debugging stays with error-tracking tools.

    2. Testing: Touches

      Testing, touches. Agents can write tests and run the project's test commands in the terminal; Zed provides no test infrastructure of its own.

    3. Code review: Touches

      Code review, touches. Engineers accept or reject agent edits hunk by hunk in a multibuffer before commit; pull request review belongs to a review product.

    4. Application security: Touches

      Application security, touches. Tool permission rules and Business-plan controls over hosted models and data sharing limit what agents and Zed's services do, but Zed is not a security scanner.

  4. Ship

    1. Source control: Touches

      Source control, touches. Zed has a Git panel, a git graph, and AI commit messages, and parallel threads can run in linked Git worktrees; the repository host stays the system of record.

    2. CI/CD: Touches

      CI/CD, touches. Zed is a desktop editor with no build or deployment pipeline; delivery stays in the team's CI/CD.

  5. Operate

    1. Observability: Touches

      Observability, touches. Zed does not monitor running systems; incident work reaches it only as code the engineer opens.

Market mapThe layers Zed covers, and who else owns each one.

  1. Coding & implementation

    CoreBuild

  2. Agent interface & developer runtime

    CoreBuild

  3. Codebase context & intelligence

    SupportsBuild

  4. Tool execution & integrations

    SupportsBuild

  5. Debugging & investigation

    SupportsValidate

7 more layers on the full map. Core, Supports and Touches describe coverage. They say nothing about quality.

More on Zed

  1. GILD ReviewGILD's evaluation, with the buying facts
  2. Research1 piece
  3. Guides2 guides
  4. Where It FitsOn the Agentic Software Development stack
  5. Related Products8 products