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Ben Kunkle b9256fa8f0
Stop the npm cache from growing without bound (#61750)
# Objective

- Fixes #59409. Closes FR-143. Zed's managed npm directory reaches
10–17GB on machines that use
  external agents, and is never pruned.
- Two independent causes: registry agents are launched with `npm exec`,
which keys its
install directory on the requested version, so every agent release
leaves a full
~250MB copy behind; and npm never evicts anything from its download
cache.

## Solution

- Install registry agents into a directory we reuse, so npm replaces the
previous
version in place instead of accumulating one copy per release. As a side
effect,
updates now download only the changed dependencies rather than the whole
tree.
- Empty the download cache on startup. Nothing in it needs to survive a
restart, since
packages are installed elsewhere. It has to go wholesale: deleting
individual
downloads leaves npm's index pointing at missing files, and npm then
fails with
  `ENOENT` rather than fetching them again.
- The first launch after this does one full agent install as it moves
into its new
  home, and reclaims whatever the old directories were holding.

## Testing

- Installed the real agent at 0.33.1, then upgraded to 0.42.0 in the
same directory:
253MB → 256MB, against two separate copies today. The resolved
executable answers an
  ACP `initialize`.
- macOS only. Windows deserves a look — it should be better than before,
since the
agent is now launched as a plain `.js` file with Node instead of through
npm's `.cmd`
  shim, but I can't verify it.

## Self-Review Checklist:

- [x] I've reviewed my own diff for quality, security, and reliability
- [x] Unsafe blocks (if any) have justifying comments
- [x] The content adheres to Zed's UI standards
([UX/UI](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#uiux-checklist)
and
[icon](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/crates/icons/README.md)
guidelines)
- [ ] Tests cover the new/changed behavior
- [x] Performance impact has been considered and is acceptable

---

Release Notes:

- Fixed the bundled npm cache growing without bound, which could consume
many gigabytes of disk.
2026-07-29 15:16:39 +00:00
.agents/skills Add dylint lint library for Zed-specific patterns (#58496) 2026-07-03 22:05:34 +00:00
.cargo livekit: Use our build of libwebrtc.a (#51433) 2026-03-16 10:47:36 +01:00
.cloudflare Improve docs AI readiness (#59577) 2026-07-08 20:54:51 +00:00
.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: Grant version bump token more permissions (#61709) 2026-07-27 10:28:32 +00:00
.zed agent: Remove old edit file tool (#55612) 2026-05-04 09:54:39 +00:00
assets vim: Add Helix _ action to trim whitespace from selections (#55253) 2026-07-28 13:33:21 +00:00
ci Move Nightly release to gh-workflow (#41349) 2025-10-28 13:57:23 -06:00
crates Stop the npm cache from growing without bound (#61750) 2026-07-29 15:16:39 +00:00
docs agent: Re-enable sandbox (#61711) 2026-07-29 13:03:22 +00:00
extensions ci: Set and enforce more default permissions (#60222) 2026-07-06 16:02:54 +00:00
legal Document provider safety retention for designated Zed-hosted models (#58967) 2026-06-09 21:54:48 +00:00
nix agent: Re-enable sandbox (#61711) 2026-07-29 13:03:22 +00:00
script Fix musl linking failure in bundle-linux by setting CC for musl target (#61203) 2026-07-22 09:37:55 +00:00
tooling ci: Grant version bump token more permissions (#61709) 2026-07-27 10:28:32 +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 csv_preview: Add single-line row displaying mode (#61127) 2026-07-16 19:28:22 +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 Fix typo in .rules (#61693) 2026-07-27 05:59:53 +00:00
AGENTS.md ai: Symlink an AGENTS.md file to .rules (#45939) 2026-01-19 15:29:42 +01:00
Cargo.lock Bump Zed to v1.15.0 (#61866) 2026-07-29 15:02:06 +00:00
Cargo.toml Move OpenAI subscription code to separate crate (#61787) 2026-07-28 14:17:18 +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
compose.yml Remove Postgres and stripe-mock from Docker Compose (#48313) 2026-02-04 03:42:58 +00:00
CONTRIBUTING.md CONTRIBUTING.md: Document the cap on simultaneous PRs (#61516) 2026-07-23 14:34:29 +00:00
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 Rust 1.95 (#55104) 2026-04-29 10:27:47 +00:00
flake.nix ci: Remove garnix substitutor (#58033) 2026-05-29 05:56:42 +00:00
GEMINI.md Add missing GEMINI.md rule file for gemini-cli (#38885) 2025-10-02 09:47:29 -04:00
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.web Remove PostgREST (#41299) 2025-10-27 13:27:59 -04:00
README.md docs: Remove readme junk (#60008) 2026-06-27 15:06:29 +00:00
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 Rust 1.95 (#55104) 2026-04-29 10:27:47 +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 agent: Show MCP tool primary argument in tool-call header (#54604) 2026-07-13 14:00:40 +00:00

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

Zed source code is licensed primarily under GPL-3.0-or-later, with Apache-2.0 components where marked.

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.