Find a file
morgankrey d8afa2d036
docs: Document configuration boundaries for external agents (#54759)
## Summary

- Add a new "Configuration Boundaries" section to the external agents
documentation explaining what settings are shared between Zed and ACP
agents
- Clarify bidirectional configuration story: what Zed forwards to agents
AND what agents inherit from native installations
- Add troubleshooting section for common user confusion points
- Update MCP docs with clearer cross-links

## Context

Users are confused about which Zed settings apply to external ACP agents
like Claude and Codex. Common questions:
- "I configured MCP in Zed but Claude can't see it"
- "My Codex config.toml isn't being used"
- "Do profiles apply to external agents?"

## Key Points

**What Zed forwards to ACP agents:**
- Model/mode selection, env vars, MCP servers (with limitations),
CLAUDE.md

**What's NOT forwarded:**
- Profiles, tool permissions settings, `.rules` files

**What agents DON'T inherit from native installations:**
- `~/.claude/` config, `~/.codex/config.toml`, native MCP servers,
authentication state

## Test plan

- [x] Review for technical accuracy against codebase
- [x] Check brand voice compliance

Release Notes:

- N/A
2026-04-24 15:04:03 +00:00
.cargo livekit: Use our build of libwebrtc.a (#51433) 2026-03-16 10:47:36 +01:00
.cloudflare docs: Document context servers (#21170) 2024-11-25 11:05:14 -05:00
.config Increase timeout for test_random_blocks (#50724) 2026-03-04 12:25:12 -05:00
.factory Add humanizer skill for AI writing pattern detection (#50021) 2026-02-24 14:58:52 -06:00
.github ci: Reduce compliance notifications on success (#54669) 2026-04-24 08:56:22 +00:00
.zed Revert "jsonc: Recognize renovate.json as JSONC" (#54537) 2026-04-22 19:45:26 +00:00
assets Reveal all go to definitions in the center by default (#54778) 2026-04-24 12:43:30 +00:00
ci Move Nightly release to gh-workflow (#41349) 2025-10-28 13:57:23 -06:00
crates Fix when agent-powered merge conflict button shows up (#54791) 2026-04-24 14:41:44 +00:00
docs docs: Document configuration boundaries for external agents (#54759) 2026-04-24 15:04:03 +00:00
extensions proto: Bump to v0.3.2 (#53235) 2026-04-06 12:51:13 +00:00
legal Update legal docs to reflect new terms of service (#50530) 2026-03-02 12:36:31 -08:00
nix nix: Fix build on x86_64-linux (#52917) 2026-04-01 20:50:04 +02:00
script ci: Add workflow for bumping Zed versions (#54485) 2026-04-23 00:56:18 +02:00
tooling ci: Reduce compliance notifications on success (#54669) 2026-04-24 08:56:22 +00:00
.git-blame-ignore-revs Add PR 50413 to .git-blame-ignore-revs (#50421) 2026-03-01 00:50:33 +01:00
.gitattributes windows: Make sure zed.sh using the correct line ending (#37650) 2025-09-05 16:25:55 +00:00
.gitignore agent_ui: Unify draft and background threads into retained threads (#53737) 2026-04-13 09:07:09 +00:00
.mailmap Update .mailmap (#47413) 2026-01-22 23:57:26 +05:30
.prettierrc ci: Add check for formatting default.json (#30034) 2025-05-06 18:55:26 +00:00
.rules Update AI docs for retired hosted models (#49486) 2026-02-18 10:36:38 -06:00
AGENTS.md ai: Symlink an AGENTS.md file to .rules (#45939) 2026-01-19 15:29:42 +01:00
Cargo.lock title_bar: Add "panel layout" menu to the user menu (#54771) 2026-04-24 12:47:15 +00:00
Cargo.toml Remove smol as a dependency from a bunch of crates (#53603) 2026-04-24 10:29:51 +00:00
CLAUDE.md Initial .rules file for agent with symlinks for other rules file paths (#29014) 2025-04-17 23:41:23 +00:00
clippy.toml Revert "Revert scheduler update (#46659)" (#46671) 2026-01-14 07:19:13 +00:00
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md Remove community content from docs and point to zed.dev (#19895) 2024-10-29 09:44:58 -04:00
codebook.toml editor: Introduce Bookmarks (#54174) 2026-04-17 13:54:43 +02:00
compose.yml Remove Postgres and stripe-mock from Docker Compose (#48313) 2026-02-04 03:42:58 +00:00
CONTRIBUTING.md Add Zed Feature Process document (#50747) 2026-03-06 14:14:53 -08:00
debug.plist WIP 2023-12-14 09:25:14 -07:00
default.nix nix: Use flake-parts, partitions, and treefmt-nix (#45321) 2026-02-02 14:26:42 +00:00
Dockerfile-collab Bump Rust version to 1.94 (#51086) 2026-03-30 09:06:59 +00:00
Dockerfile-collab.dockerignore ci: Move collab to Dockerfile-collab (#18515) 2024-09-30 16:14:26 -04:00
Dockerfile-cross.dockerignore Add remote server cross compilation (#19136) 2024-10-12 23:23:56 -07:00
Dockerfile-distros Removal of mold/wild scripts and mentions in docs (#53078) 2026-04-08 21:20:02 +03:00
Dockerfile-distros.dockerignore Support More Linux (#18480) 2024-09-30 17:46:21 -04:00
flake.lock nix: Fix build on x86_64-linux (#52917) 2026-04-01 20:50:04 +02:00
flake.nix Try to improve nix caching (#48297) 2026-02-03 20:31:02 -07:00
GEMINI.md Add missing GEMINI.md rule file for gemini-cli (#38885) 2025-10-02 09:47:29 -04:00
LICENSE-AGPL Update license year (#24191) 2025-02-04 09:02:59 -05:00
LICENSE-APACHE Update license year (#24191) 2025-02-04 09:02:59 -05:00
LICENSE-GPL Licenses: change license fields in Cargo.toml to AGPL-3.0-or-later. (#5535) 2024-01-27 13:51:16 +01:00
livekit.yaml Add LiveKit server to Docker Compose (#7907) 2024-02-16 10:49:48 -05:00
lychee.toml ci: Check for broken links (#30844) 2025-06-06 09:39:35 +00:00
Procfile Update instructions for local collaboration (#35689) 2025-08-06 11:10:28 -07:00
Procfile.all Add agent thread sharing (#46140) 2026-01-06 12:49:51 -08:00
Procfile.web Remove PostgREST (#41299) 2025-10-27 13:27:59 -04:00
README.md Add sponsor button to main Zed repo (#46807) 2026-01-14 10:38:51 -06:00
renovate.json Remove workspace-hack (#40216) 2025-10-17 18:58:14 +00:00
REVIEWERS.conl Remove past reviewer (#51767) 2026-03-17 16:34:35 +00:00
rust-toolchain.toml Bump Rust version to 1.94 (#51086) 2026-03-30 09:06:59 +00:00
rustfmt.toml nix: Use flake-parts, partitions, and treefmt-nix (#45321) 2026-02-02 14:26:42 +00:00
shell.nix nix: Use flake-parts, partitions, and treefmt-nix (#45321) 2026-02-02 14:26:42 +00:00
typos.toml fuzzy_nucleo: Add strings module and route several pickers through it (#54123) 2026-04-20 14:41:29 +02:00

Zed

Zed CI

Welcome to Zed, a high-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter.


Installation

On macOS, Linux, and Windows you can download Zed directly or install Zed via your local package manager (macOS/Linux/Windows).

Other platforms are not yet available:

Developing Zed

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for ways you can contribute to Zed.

Also... we're hiring! Check out our jobs page for open roles.

Licensing

License information for third party dependencies must be correctly provided for CI to pass.

We use cargo-about to automatically comply with open source licenses. If CI is failing, check the following:

  • Is it showing a no license specified error for a crate you've created? If so, add publish = false under [package] in your crate's Cargo.toml.
  • Is the error failed to satisfy license requirements for a dependency? If so, first determine what license the project has and whether this system is sufficient to comply with this license's requirements. If you're unsure, ask a lawyer. Once you've verified that this system is acceptable add the license's SPDX identifier to the accepted array in script/licenses/zed-licenses.toml.
  • Is cargo-about unable to find the license for a dependency? If so, add a clarification field at the end of script/licenses/zed-licenses.toml, as specified in the cargo-about book.

Sponsorship

Zed is developed by Zed Industries, Inc., a for-profit company.

If youd like to financially support the project, you can do so via GitHub Sponsors. Sponsorships go directly to Zed Industries and are used as general company revenue. There are no perks or entitlements associated with sponsorship.