Zed Copilot

AI-powered chat assistant for Zed IDE

Zed Copilot brings conversational AI directly into your editor. Ask questions about code, get explanations, and collaborate with AI—all without leaving Zed.

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What Can It Do?

• 💬 Interactive Chat — Converse with AI about your code
• 🤖 Multiple AI Providers — Choose OpenAI or Anthropic Claude
• 📚 Conversation History — Maintain context across exchanges
• 🚀 Real-time Streaming — See responses as they're generated
• 📍 Code Context — Reference files, selections, and cursor position

Status: Early development. Chat interface coming Q2 2025. Foundation, provider integration, and HTTP layer complete.

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Quick Start

Takes 5 minutes — Get the extension running in Zed.

Prerequisites

• Zed IDE (latest version)
• Rust via rustup
• API key from OpenAI or Anthropic

Install

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/zed-industries/zed-copilot.git
cd zed-copilot

# Install git hooks (optional but recommended)
bash scripts/setup-hooks.sh

# Build extension
cargo build --release

# Open Zed → Extensions → Install Dev Extension
# Select the zed-copilot directory

Configure

Add to your Zed settings.json:

{
  "zed_copilot": {
    "enabled": true,
    "provider": "openai",
    "openai": {
      "api_key": "${OPENAI_API_KEY}",
      "model": "gpt-4o"
    }
  }
}

Set your API key:

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

Verify

Open Zed logs (zed: open log) and look for:

[Zed Copilot] Extension initialized

✅ You're ready! See docs/ for detailed setup and configuration.

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Development Setup

After cloning, install git hooks to ensure code quality:

bash scripts/setup-hooks.sh

This enables pre-commit and pre-push hooks that:

• ✅ Format and lint checks on commit (fast, ~5-10 sec)
• ✅ Smart test validation on push (~20-45 sec, tests changed modules only)

Learn more: Git Hooks Documentation

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What Works Now

Feature	Status
Extension foundation	✅ Complete
OpenAI integration	✅ Complete
Anthropic integration	✅ Complete
Configuration system	✅ Complete
HTTP client & retry	✅ Complete
Streaming responses	✅ Complete
E2E testing	✅ Complete
Chat interface	📅 Q2 2025
Code completions	📅 Q3 2025+

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📚 Documentation

Complete documentation: docs/

Quick Links

Getting Started:

• 5-Minute Setup — Quick installation
• Detailed Setup — Troubleshooting included
• Configuration Examples — 13+ ready-to-use configs

Configuration:

• Examples Cookbook — Copy-paste configurations
• Schema Reference — Complete options guide

Development:

• Contributing Guide — How to contribute
• Architecture — Understanding the codebase
• Testing Strategy — Testing guidelines
• Roadmap — Feature timeline

Technical:

• Provider Integration — AI provider implementation
• HTTP Integration — Network layer
• All Technical Docs — Deep dives

Other:

• Changelog — Version history

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Supported AI Models

OpenAI

• GPT-4o — Best for general coding (recommended)
• o1 — Advanced reasoning for complex problems
• o3-mini — Lightweight reasoning model

Anthropic Claude

• Claude Opus 4.1 — Most powerful, best for complex analysis
• Claude Sonnet 4 — Balanced speed and quality (recommended)
• Claude Haiku 4.5 — Fastest, most affordable

📖 See Configuration Examples for model comparison and configs.

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Roadmap

Current Phase: Phase 2.4 — E2E Testing ✅

Timeline:

• ✅ Phase 1 — Foundation complete
• ✅ Phase 2 — Provider integration, HTTP & streaming complete
• 📅 Phase 3 — Chat interface (Q2 2025) 🎯 Next milestone
• 📅 Phase 4 — GitHub Copilot LSP & completions (Q3 2025+)

📖 See ROADMAP.md for detailed timeline.

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Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please:

1. Read CONTRIBUTING.md
2. Follow coding standards in zed-rules/AGENTS.md
3. Run make check-all before submitting
4. Write tests for new features

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Development

Build Commands

make fmt          # Format code
make clippy       # Check warnings
make test         # Run tests
make check-all    # Run all checks

Project Structure

zed-copilot/
├── src/
│   ├── lib.rs              # Main extension
│   ├── providers/          # AI provider implementations
│   └── config/             # Configuration system
├── tests/                  # Integration tests
├── docs/                   # Documentation
└── Cargo.toml              # Dependencies

📖 See DEVELOPMENT.md for architecture details.

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Troubleshooting

Extension won't load?

• Verify Rust is installed: rustup --version
• Rebuild: cargo clean && cargo build --release
• Check logs: zed: open log

API errors?

• Verify API key is set: echo $OPENAI_API_KEY
• Check settings.json syntax
• Ensure model name is correct

📖 See SETUP.md for comprehensive troubleshooting.

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License

MIT License — Free to use, modify, and distribute.

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Support

• 📖 Documentation — docs/
• 🐛 Issues — GitHub Issues
• 💬 Discussions — GitHub Discussions

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Built with ❤️ for the Zed community

Next Milestone: Chat Interface (Phase 3, Q2 2025) 🚀