Zed Code Editor: Next-Gen Tool for Fast AI-Powered Coding

In today's AI revolution, code editors are becoming more interesting when they add support for AI integration; otherwise, they will remain limited.

Every developer now needs an editor that can provide AI assistance directly within the editor itself, without the need to open a chatbot or another AI tool.

Rust has become one of the most loved programming languages among Linux users and the community, as it is powerful, stable, and blazing fast. Many modern tools use it, and its products show significant performance improvements compared to those created with languages like Python.

Today, we have a new and powerful code editor built with Rust called Zed, which is an open-source editor that is easy to use and install, fast, and feature-rich. It’s worth trying out, and who knows, it could even become the default editor for future projects.

In this guide, we will learn how to use Zed, including installation, examples, and how to leverage AI within it.

What is Zed?

As we mentioned earlier, Zed is an open-source project. It is defined as the next-generation code editor with a modern look, and its AI support makes it the best choice over other tools available.

Compared to other editors, Zed offers high performance, thanks to Rust under the hood, along with some game-changing features.

Here are some of them:

• High performance: If you are working with a large project that has many directories and files, you definitely need an editor that is fast and can manage all the work while switching between files smoothly and efficiently.
• Remote development: With this functionality, you can run the Zed UI on your machine and the code on a server in a remote location.
• REPL: With this capability, you can run your code interactively using the built-in REPL, similar to being inside a Jupyter Notebook.
• Multibuffer: This is a significant addition from Zed. It allows you to edit and change code from multiple files simultaneously, making editing and refactoring simple and fast.
• Built-in terminal: A fast and simple terminal inside Zed with AI capabilities.
• Vim support: Zed supports Vim bindings and other Vim features like text objects and marks.
• Extensive extensions: Zed offers a wide range of extensions, just like VSCode, which you can install.
• Git support: Zed now has native Git support. You can use Git commands directly within Zed, with support for Vim mode and AI assistance for commit messages using the commit message generator.

If you're a VSCode user and want an editor that is fast and open-source, you should definitely give Zed a try - you’ll love it.

Installing Zed Editor in Linux

For most Linux users, the easiest way to install Zed is through the installation script:

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

If you'd like to help and test new features, you can also install the preview build:

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

Once it's installed, you can run it from the terminal with the command zed or from the application menu like a normal program.

The first screen will look like this:

Theme Configuration

Let’s begin with configuring the theme. I know many of you aren’t fans of the default theme since it's simple and doesn't appeal to everyone.

To customize the theme, simply click on the icon in the left sidebar. This will open the "Select Theme" tab, where you can choose the theme that suits you best.

For now, only pre-installed themes will be visible. However, you can easily add more by going to the extensions section. You can access it by pressing Ctrl + Shift + X or by clicking the same sidebar where the theme tab is located.

This applies to any extension, not just themes. You can install language-specific plugins and other tools to boost your productivity. You can view all the extensions you’ve installed under the 'Installed' tab.

All the configuration settings for Zed can be found in a file called settings.json. You can use this file to manually set your preferences in JSON format instead of using the graphical interface.

If you already have a configuration you like, you can simply copy and paste it into this file to apply it.

For example, I use a font called Liga Comic, and I can set it like this:

The ui_font_family sets the font for the entire program's interface, while buffer_font_family controls the font used in the code editor.

You should now see that both the UI and the code font have changed.

Just make sure you have installed the font you want to use on the system before changing it in the settings.

Collaboration Coding

We didn’t mention earlier one of the most powerful features of the Zed editor: the ability to collaborate with multiple developers on one project.

In case you work in a team on a project and you need to collaborate together, or if you are teaching someone and need a way to work with them at the same time, you can use this feature.

For this, you will need to sign up using a GitHub account to launch the Collab tab at the bottom menu; you will see a Collab tab.

After that, it will ask you to connect using your GitHub account.

Integrated Terminal in Zed

Zed, like many editors, comes with a built-in terminal. It’s easy to use and works just like a regular terminal.

To open the terminal, use the bottom menu or use the keybind `Ctrl + ``.

You can modify keybinds to fit your needs and preferences if you don't like the default ones or if they interfere with some configurations you have. You can find the keybinds by using Ctrl + K followed by Ctrl + S.

From there, you can customize the keymap.

To get all the default keymaps, open the file found in the menu before the theme called Default Key Maps, and you will get all the default keys that Zed uses:

Integrated AI in Zed

Zed, as we said before, has AI integrated, and you can use it to assist you in different tasks, save time searching, and make you more productive.

To open the AI assistance in Zed, use the bottom menu as always, or use the keybind Ctrl + ?. It will show you a window like this:

For now, the AI assistance is not working by default; it first needs you to specify the provider you want to use. It could be OpenAI or another one.

To configure it, click on Configure Provider, and it will show a window like this:

Zed supports multiple LLMs that you can choose from, like DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic, and so on...

Get the API key from the provider you want to use and paste it in the place of the key.

Once you set the key, you are ready to use AI inside Zed, how cool is that!

We explored some of Zed's features, but there is a lot more waiting for you to see and experiment with.

From my experience, if you like graphical editors, Zed is the best choice. It combines all the necessary elements for a better development environment, with AI assistance and Rust’s performance.