Zed (zed)

Output

.rules                                 # canonical entry-point pointer body + inlined rules (written by sync)
.agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md         # one folder per skill (shared tree with codex/amp/crush)
.zed/settings.json                     # when MCP entries exist (merged with existing user config)
.zed/tasks.json                        # one task per hook, only when tasks-file is set

• Rules: Zed 1.4.2 retired its rules library, so always-on project instructions are now an instruction file. sync writes the pointer body plus the sentinel-marked ## Rules block to the root .rules. Zed reads the first matching file from .rules, .cursorrules, .windsurfrules, .clinerules, .github/copilot-instructions.md, AGENT.md, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, GEMINI.md and stops there.
  • AGENTS.md is rank 7, behind Copilot's entry-point at rank 5, which carries the pointer body alone since Copilot delivers its rules through .github/instructions/, so writing the rules to AGENTS.md left Zed with none of them whenever copilot was enabled too (target-audit 2026-08-27, #624). .rules is rank 1 and nothing agnostic-ai emits can outrank it.
  • Zed still calls AGENTS.md its primary instruction file and .rules a compatibility one, so a Zed release dropping .rules moves this back. Set outputs.zed.rules-file: .rules to replace the pointer body with the legacy merged document (which also carries agent bodies) for older Zed versions.
• Skills: native Zed skills folders at .agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md, the cross-tool path codex, amp, and crush emit too. Identical rendered bytes dedupe into one write; divergent x-zed overrides surface through the collision check. Zed also documents disable-model-invocation ("Set to true to hide from the agent's catalog (invocable via slash command or @-mention only)"): it reaches the emitted file via x-zed: {disable-model-invocation: true}, since this renderer merges only x-zed keys. A plain top-level disable-model-invocation: field, the form Cursor promotes to a native key, has no effect here.
• Agents: no per-agent surface in current Zed; sync prints a coverage note unless outputs.zed.rules-file is set (the merged document carries agent sections).
• MCP: written into .zed/settings.json under context_servers (Zed's key, not mcpServers). Stdio servers use a flat command/args/env shape; remote (HTTP / SSE) servers use a native url/headers shape. A spec's disabled: true emits as Zed's own enabled: false; an enabled server gets no key, since Zed defaults it to true.
  • That toggle is file-backed, not UI-only. The evidence is Zed's Rust settings struct rather than its docs: every variant of ContextServerSettingsContent in crates/settings_content/src/project.rs carries /// Whether the context server is enabled. over #[serde(default = "default_true")] enabled: bool, and context_servers is a field of ProjectSettingsContent, the struct .zed/settings.json deserializes into (target-audit 2026-08-27, #641). zed.dev/docs/ai/mcp names none of it; its only enabled-family key is enable_all_context_servers, an agent-profile key rather than a per-server one, which is why earlier audits missed this.
  • The same source carries three more per-server fields no doc page names: timeout on either transport, oauth on an HTTP server, and remote on stdio and extension servers. Those reach the file through x-zed, since no other target documents a same-named field with the same meaning. timeout is on both transports because the Stdio variant #[serde(flatten)]s ContextServerCommand, whose own field reads "Timeout for tool calls in seconds. Defaults to 60 if not specified" (target-audit 2026-09-11, #737).
  • User-managed keys (theme, buffer_font_size) are preserved. See disabled support by target.
• Hooks: when outputs.zed.tasks-file is set, hook specs emit as Zed Tasks using sh -c "<hook command>". WorktreeCreate writes hooks: ["create_worktree"], so Zed runs the task after creating a linked worktree; import restores that event. Tasks without that hook import as OnDemand and run from the command palette. The adapter manages label, command, args, and hooks. Any other documented Zed Task field passes through under x-zed, such as cwd, env, shell, reveal, hide, save, allow_concurrent_runs, use_new_terminal, tags, and reevaluate_context. hooks is managed so WorktreeCreate can add create_worktree without dropping other native hook names.

Zed skill names must contain 1-64 lowercase letters or digits, with single hyphens between segments. Invalid names such as Deploy, my_skill, and my--skill fail sync with the name and required format; they are not renamed.

Config keys

Import

agnostic-ai import zed reads .rules, .zed/tasks.json (back into hook specs, as described under Hooks), and MCP servers from .zed/settings.json. It copies .agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md and all bundled assets.

Verify

1. Install Zed from zed.dev.
2. Check the tree: ls .rules .agents/skills/ .zed/settings.json .zed/tasks.json, test -f .agents/skills/*/SKILL.md, python -m json.tool .zed/settings.json > /dev/null, python -m json.tool .zed/tasks.json > /dev/null.
3. Open the project. The agent panel reads .rules as project instructions and lists each .agents/skills/<name>/ as a skill (@skill / slash command).
4. The MCP picker shows each context_servers.<name> ready.
5. The command palette runs every entry from .zed/tasks.json as a Zed Task.