What for: a blazing-fast Rust code editor with an AI agent and live collaboration — the open-source answer to heavy IDEs.

What it is and who it's for

Zed is a high-performance code editor written in Rust by the team behind Atom: instant response, GPU-rendered UI, a built-in AI agent and real-time collaborative editing. For developers who find heavy Electron IDEs sluggish and want speed plus modern AI plus open source. It stands out for combining native speed, an agentic AI that works with any model, and collaboration in a single free tool.

Key features

Native speed (Rust, GPU rendering) — instant response even on large files.
Built-in AI agent: chat, edits, agentic actions; connect different models (including via API keys and local ones).
MCP server support to extend what the agent can do.
Real-time collaborative editing and calls (pair programming).
LSP and tree-sitter, multibuffer, vim mode, extensions.
Open source and cross-platform (macOS/Linux; Windows on the way).

Getting started in 5 minutes

Install it:

curl -f https://zed.dev/install.sh | sh

Open a project, open the assistant panel and connect a model (your own API key or a local one).
Ask the agent to make a change and review the diff; connect an MCP server if you need one.

When to use it and when not to

✅ Use it if you want the fastest possible editor with modern AI, and open source.
✅ Use it if real-time collaborative editing and native performance matter to you.
❌ Skip it → go with "Cursor" if you want the most mature AI IDE, built on VS Code with its rich extension ecosystem.
❌ Skip it → go with "Claude Code" if you want a fully autonomous terminal agent that works on top of any editor.

Honest pricing

The editor itself is free and open source; AI features run on your own API keys (you pay the model provider) or through their hosted plan. Local models are free. Exact numbers are on the provider's site and do change.

Gotchas

The extension ecosystem is younger and thinner than VS Code's.
Some plugins and integrations you rely on in VS Code may simply not exist yet.
The quality of AI edits depends on the model you connect.
Windows support is still catching up with macOS/Linux — check the status for your OS.

🤖 Prompt booster

"I'm switching to the Zed editor and want to set up AI for a <LANGUAGE/FRAMEWORK> stack. Help me pick a model for the agent (cloud via API key vs local), explain how to connect the right MCP server for the task , and give me a step-by-step setup for collaborative editing with my team. Tell me what parts of my VS Code workflow might not carry over."