AI: When editing a single file, agent thinks it is a “project directory”

[quinncomendant]

Summary

When opening a single file in Zed, the agent is unable to find the project directory, and believes the file itself is a directory.

Description

Steps to trigger the problem:

1. Create a “Hello world” bash script at ~/bin/test
2. Open the file: zed ~/bin/test
3. Using the “Write” profile, ask the agent to execute the script and return its output with this prompt:

This file is a bash script named `test`. Please execute the file and provide me with its contents. 

Expected Behavior: The agent will execute ~/bin/test and return its output (“Hello world”).
Actual Behavior: The agent thinks ~/bin/test is a directory, and you will see cd: /Users/q/bin/test: Not a directory errors.

I'm guessing the problem may be caused by opening Zed with a single file, rather than opening a “project directory”. The agent was designed to work in the context of a project directory, and isn't makes the assumption that the path provided to it is a directory, rather than a single file.

This issue is important for me, because I often edit single file scripts from my ~/bin/ directory and want the agent to be able to modify the file and execute it.

Model Provider Details

• Provider: Anthropic via API key
• Model Name: Sonnet 4 Thinking
• Mode: Agent Panel
• Other Details: using Write profile with default tools.

Zed Version and System Specs

Zed: v0.190.6 (Zed)
OS: macOS 15.5.0
Memory: 32 GiB
Architecture: aarch64

[quinncomendant]

Here's another example.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Close all Zed windows.
2. Open a file from the terminal: zed ~/tmp/test.py
3. Open the agent panel and select the test.py file so the agent has access to it.
4. Ask the agent: "Rename the file from test.py to test2.py

Result: the agent can't find the file.

Conclusion: the agent only functions when there is an open project, it doesn't work on single files.

Expectation: the agent should be able to use tools on single files.

Screenshot:

[quinncomendant]

I inspected the LM Studio API transaction log and I think I see what's going on. It seems the find_path tool finds the file asked to edit, but returns it in the form of a path instead of a file. In this case, my file's name is ~/bin/restic-repo, but the find_path tool returned restic-repo/.

Here's the tool call sequence that led to this:

1. First the edit_file tool is called on the path ~/bin/restic-repo (which is correct for the file I want to edit, but I guess edit_file wants a path to a directory?):

<tool_call>
{"name": "edit_file", "arguments": {"display_description": "Add a new 'info' command to handle object metadata retrieval", "path": "~/bin/restic-repo", "mode": "edit"}}
</tool_call>
<tool_response>
Can't edit file: path not found
</tool_response>

2. Then the find_path tool is called, which returns the nonsensical restic-repo/ path value:

<tool_call>
{"name": "find_path", "arguments": {"glob": "restic-repo"}}
</tool_call>
<tool_response>
Found 1 total matches.
restic-repo/
</tool_response>

Here the full LM Studio API log that shows the full context and response from the LLM (with only my code redacted).

[github-actions]

Hi there! 👋
We're working to clean up our issue tracker by closing older bugs that might not be relevant anymore. If you are able to reproduce this issue in the latest version of Zed, please let us know by commenting on this issue, and it will be kept open. If you can't reproduce it, feel free to close the issue yourself. Otherwise, it will close automatically in 14 days.
Thanks for your help!

[quinncomendant]

I’m still experiencing this is issue. Please don’t close the ticket.

I just followed the testing above and the Zed agent is having the same problem:

The tool layer tells me there is a project root directory:

- `/Users/q/tmp/x/test`

From the agent’s perspective, this is **defined as a directory root**, even if on your real machine it’s actually a file. All file operations (`read_file`, `edit_file`, `terminal.cd`, etc.) must start with one of these root paths, so I’m forced to treat `/Users/q/tmp/x/test` as a directory, not a file.