Zed

What is Zed?

Zed is an open-source code editor built entirely from scratch in Rust — not a VS Code fork — by Nathan Sobo, Antonio Scandurra and Max Brunsfeld, the original creators of Atom, after GitHub discontinued that editor in 2022. It runs on GPUI, a custom UI framework rendering directly against the platform's graphics API instead of through Electron/Chromium, and reached its 1.0 release in April 2026. The core editor is open source (GPL-3.0-or-later, select components under Apache-2.0) with 87,000+ GitHub stars. Rather than build one closed-source agent, Zed created the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), an open standard letting any compliant editor run any compliant AI coding agent natively — since adopted by JetBrains. Zed Industries has raised $42M+, including a Sequoia-led $32M Series B (August 2025).

What does Zed do?

Zed pairs a from-scratch, GPU-accelerated native editor (GPUI, written in Rust) with two layers of AI: first-party features (Zeta2 edit prediction, an Inline Assistant, and an Agent Panel) that connect to ten-plus model providers or a user's own API keys, and External Agents — full coding agents (Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode and others) that run as separate processes communicating with Zed over the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), an open standard Zed authored and released in August 2025. JetBrains partnered with Zed to bring ACP support to IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm and WebStorm, and the two companies co-launched a shared ACP Agent Registry in January 2026 for one-click agent installation across both editors. Real-time multiplayer collaboration (shared screens, joint editing, chat), native Git, Language Server Protocol support and a Debug Adapter Protocol-based debugger run alongside whichever agent is active, in the same window.

How Zed works

1. 1Zed is a native application built on GPUI, a Rust UI framework the team wrote from scratch that talks directly to the platform's GPU rather than rendering through Chromium/Electron like most competitors.
2. 2Its own first-party AI features — Zeta2 edit prediction, an Inline Assistant, and an Agent Panel — connect to any of ten-plus model providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Mistral, DeepSeek, Bedrock, OpenRouter, Ollama, LM Studio) or a user's own API keys.
3. 3For a full coding agent rather than inline completions, Zed runs External Agents — Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and others — as separate processes communicating over the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), an open standard Zed created in August 2025 and JetBrains has since adopted for its own IDEs.
4. 4Real-time multiplayer features (shared screens, joint editing, chat) and Git/LSP/DAP-debugger integrations run alongside whichever agent is active, all inside the same window.

Who is Zed for?

• Developers who want GPU-native editor performance instead of an Electron-based IDE
• Teams standardizing on one editor while wanting to run different vendors' coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI) without switching tools
• Open-source-minded engineers who want to inspect, self-build or extend the editor itself, not just the AI layer on top of it
• Anyone comparing multiple External Agents side by side in one interface instead of juggling separate terminal windows

Key features

• GPUI native rendering: A Rust UI framework Zed wrote from scratch that talks directly to the platform GPU instead of rendering through Electron/Chromium, the architecture behind its startup and typing-latency speed.
• Agent Client Protocol (ACP): An open, Apache-licensed standard Zed created (released August 2025) that lets any compliant editor run any compliant coding agent as a native External Agent; JetBrains adopted it for IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm and WebStorm, co-launching a shared ACP Agent Registry in January 2026.
• External Agents: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode and other agents run natively inside Zed's Agent Panel over ACP, each owning its own runtime, auth and model selection.
• Zeta2 edit prediction: A first-party, open-weight model powering inline next-edit suggestions, distinct from the External Agents and included in every plan.
• Real-time multiplayer collaboration: Shared screens, joint editing and in-editor chat, a direct descendant of the collaboration work the founding team originally built into Atom.
• Native Git, LSP and DAP debugging: Built-in Git staging/committing/diffs, Language Server Protocol support, and a Debug Adapter Protocol-based debugger with breakpoints, stepping and variable inspection across 11+ languages.

What are Zed's use cases?

• Editor performance at scale: A developer working in large monorepos wants GPU-native rendering and Rust-level responsiveness instead of an Electron/Chromium-based editor slowing down as the codebase grows.
• Running multiple coding agents side by side: A team wants to try Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI in the same editor without three separate terminal windows — Zed's Agent Client Protocol runs each as a native External Agent in one Agent Panel.
• Avoiding single-vendor agent lock-in: An engineering org standardizing on an editor wants the freedom to swap or run multiple vendors' agents as pricing or quality shifts, rather than committing to one closed-source agent baked into the editor.

What does Zed integrate with?

• Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Mistral, DeepSeek (first-party model providers)
• Amazon Bedrock, OpenRouter, LM Studio, Ollama, Vercel (BYOK / local & routed model access)
• Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode (External Agents via ACP)
• MCP servers (extending agent context)
• JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm (share the ACP Agent Registry, not Zed integrations per se)

Why use Zed?

• The only editor in this index built from scratch (GPUI/Rust) rather than forked from VS Code — Cursor, Windsurf and GitHub Copilot all build on Microsoft's editor and Electron.
• Created and open-sourced the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) itself, since adopted by JetBrains for IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm and WebStorm (co-launched ACP Agent Registry, January 2026) — a genuinely vendor-neutral way to run Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot natively.
• The core editor is open source (GPL-3.0-or-later, Apache-2.0 for select components) with 87,000+ GitHub stars and a Personal plan that is free forever with unlimited BYOK usage.
• Backed by $42M+ including a Sequoia Capital-led Series B (August 2025) with angel investors Dylan Field (Figma) and Tom Preston-Werner (GitHub) — real runway for a young challenger to Cursor and Windsurf.

Pros & cons

Zed pricing

Free forever (Personal); Pro $10/month; Business $30/seat/month

• Personal$0 / forever
• Pro$10 / month
• Business$30 / seat/month

See current pricing on zed.dev ↗Compare Zed alternatives →

Zed review

Zed's real differentiation in this index isn't a single proprietary agent, it's the platform decision underneath every rival: Cursor and Windsurf both forked VS Code and built one closed-source agent into it; GitHub Copilot is tied to GitHub's own stack. Zed rebuilt the editor from zero in Rust for GPU-native performance, then open-sourced the connection layer itself — the Agent Client Protocol — so Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and others run natively inside Zed as swappable External Agents, and JetBrains now speaks the same protocol in its own IDEs. That buys real vendor-independence and raw editor speed, but it's genuinely earlier-stage on ecosystem maturity: Zed's own extension catalog is, in its own words, "hundreds" of community packages against VS Code's much larger marketplace; remote development requires bringing your own SSH-reachable server (no managed, Codespaces-style cloud environment, and Windows isn't yet supported as a remote target); and its DAP-based debugger — documented as breakpoints, stepping and variable inspection — doesn't list the watch-window and data-breakpoint features VS Code's debugger has had for years. Pick Zed if editor performance and not being locked into one vendor's built-in agent matter more to you than ecosystem breadth; stay on Cursor or GitHub Copilot for the single most mature, batteries-included agent experience today.

The only editor in this index built from scratch rather than forked from VS Code — and the one that created the open protocol (ACP) letting it run Claude Code, Codex and other rivals' own agents natively, now adopted by JetBrains too.

Frequently asked questions