Claude Code: Now in Beta in Zed

I like Zed in concept. I like Zed in the architectural and foundational aspects. I want more tools like Zed to exist.

But, I find Zed challenging to adopt due to random nuances. First, settings management is a mixed bag and sometimes I just want a quick way to open the "settings.json" from the settings pane without fussing around. Then I'd like the "settings.json" to stay open (reopen) on a restart of Zed. Then I'd like the ability to use an LLM that doesn't have native tool calling support, which Zed seems to be the only app I've used that doesn't have a workaround. Then I'd like the UI to be a little easier to navigate as a new user, it feels a bit scattered and overwhelming at times.

I haven't used Zed much and I may give it another shot (soon), but it very much feels like a tool built by engineers for engineers... Which is great for power users, but seems not so great for new adopters.

I don't think the shortcomings are a blocker, but they are the reason I haven't adopted Zed. The shortcomings are just enough for me to take a step back and say "maybe I'll try again later".

The nuance situation is rapidly improving. I had several minor issues with Zed ~6 months ago, and most of them have been patched away.

I spent a while trying to set it up, as I share your general take on their ethos. Personally, I'm okay with a 'power user'-focused text editor, even! But the relative lack of syntax highlighting options got me to give up. Maybe I'm just spoiled from SublimeText's dope, complex, extensible system for specifying "contexts" in themes, but Zed was just nowhere near enough for me.

The keybinding system is also nuts if you turn on Vim mode, but I think I'd eventually get used to that. But functions need to be a different color than arguments, which need to be a different color than local variables... Just non-negotiable.

I look forward to trying it again sometime soon! The AI features seem rad, this included.

For what it's worth, I think Zed now has a default keybind to open settings.json: Ctrl+,

I assume that keybind is also configurable?

Good to know, thanks!

Zed does have a way to run LLMs without tool calling. From the agent pane, in the menu, select “new text thread”. I believe there’s a keyboard shortcut but I’m on my phone right now.

I'll take another look but from what I perceived all attempts to start a thread included tool calling in the payload.

I couldn't seem to get any message through without tool calling instructions in the payload. What you're describing sounds exactly like what I attempted.

I tried something like over 6 different variations of model configs with restarts of Zed in-between. The documentation and what Zed tries to configure are different as well. The fields don't match up with the built in type checking. I tried "openai" with the endpoint configured, "openai_compatible", and even "openrouter" hoping the REST signatures would be match well enough. Each configured with various fields to turn tool calling off and every single request that hit the REST server had tool calling.

While true, I've noticed there's so many changes between Zed and the plugins that other things break, and it's hard to track down exactly what broke.

protip on macOS cmd+, is the standard keybind for opening any app's settings.

Minus web browsers. I read your comment and literally zoomed haha. Totally blanked out.

They mean holding the Command key when pressing the comma key, which should work.

You should have a drop-down for selecting a tool profile next to the drop-down for model selection. Select "Minimal" for no tools.

"New text thread" should also have no tools I believe.

https://zed.dev/docs/ai/agent-panel#profiles

Text threads include no tooling. They are plain markdown texts you can freely edit (including llm's responses) so you can fix small stuff yourself without annoying, context-polluting back and forths with the llm, at the potential cost of possible caching optimisations.

You can also use the command palette searching for "open settings". And the settings.json editor have LSP support