Using Claude Code in Zed

Good news! Zed now can run Claude Code natively via ACP

You will find this as of Sep 3, 2025 in version 0.202.5 of Zed in public beta, so be sure to update. If you’ve been waiting to pair Zed’s fast UI with Claude Code’s agentic power, it’s here.

Why this matters

• Native UI, not just a terminal: Watch Claude Code’s edits across multiple files with syntax highlighting and LSP context, and approve/reject diffs in Zed’s multibuffer.
• Open standard (ACP): The integration is built on the Agent Client Protocol, so any ACP-speaking agent can plug into Zed’s Agent Panel, vendor lock-in ↓, portability ↑.
• Open-sourced adapter: Zed’s Claude Code adapter wraps the official SDK and speaks ACP. Other editors that adopt ACP (e.g. Neovim’s CodeCompanion) can use it too.

Quick start (60 seconds)

1. Update Zed to the latest stable.
2. Open Agent Panel (cmd-? / ctrl-?) → click + → New Claude Code Thread.
3. If you don’t have Claude Code installed, Zed can install and run it for you; otherwise it uses your existing binary on $PATH.
4. Give it context by @-mentioning files, symbols, or threads and start working.

Optional hotkey: add a keybinding for quicker threads:

[
  {
    "bindings": {
      "cmd-alt-c": ["agent::NewExternalAgentThread", { "agent": "claude_code" }]
    }
  }
]

Notes & caveats (beta)

• Feature coverage is evolving: some built-in slash commands work; custom slash commands are fully supported. Subagents are supported; hooks aren’t yet.
• A few first-party Zed-agent features are not yet available with external agents (e.g., editing past messages, resuming from history, checkpointing, SSH projects).
• Debugging tip: run dev: open acp logs from the Command Palette to see ACP traffic.

What to try

• Port your favorite Claude Code slash commands into your repo (.claude/commands/…) and run them inside Zed.
• Compare flows: Zed Claude Code vs Cursor/Windsurf vs Zed’s Gemini CLI external agent. Where does Claude shine (refactors? multi-file changes? reviews)?

Sources:

• Zed blog announcement (Sep 3, 2025)
• Zed Stable release notes
• Zed docs on External Agents (ACP) and Claude Code limitations
• Claude Code SDK & slash commands
• ACP adapter repo (usage & npm install)
• ACP overview.