Zed

Zed is a GPU-accelerated code editor built from scratch in Rust by Nathan Sobo, who led GitHub's Atom project, and Max Brunsfeld, the creator of Tree-sitter. Zed Industries launched a public preview in March 2023, open-sourced the editor in 2024, and released version 1.0 in April 2026 after raising $32 million from Sequoia Capital. The editor targets developers who want native performance and model-agnostic AI rather than an AI-first VS Code fork.

Key Capabilities:

• GPUI framework using GPU-accelerated rendering for zero-perceptible-lag editing across macOS, Windows, and Linux

• Zeta edit prediction model built on Qwen, open source with open training data

• Agent Client Protocol support for running Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and OpenCode inside the editor

• Parallel agents executing concurrently with MCP server integration for extended context

• Multi-provider AI covering Anthropic, OpenAI, Google AI, GitHub Copilot Chat, and local models via Ollama

• Real-time collaborative editing with CRDT-based multiplayer and team channels

• Vim and Helix modal editing with first-class keybinding support

• Native debugging across multiple languages and Jupyter kernel integration for interactive code execution

• Tree-sitter syntax parsing with full LSP integration and hundreds of community extensions

• "Disable all AI features" setting for developers who want a pure editor environment

• GPL 3.0 licensed editor with AGPL 3.0 server components and Apache 2.0 GPUI framework

See Zed pricing details →