The Atom team (Atom, Electron, Tree-sitter at GitHub) shipped Zed 1.0 on April 29 after five years and a million-plus lines of Rust. Not a VS Code fork — a from-scratch editor with its own GPU-accelerated UI framework. The first credible open-source contender in the AI-native editor race Cursor and Windsurf have owned.
What it actually is
A native Rust code editor with built-in AI agent support, real-time multiplayer collaboration, and zero Electron. Free tier gives 2,000 AI edit predictions a month plus unlimited use of external agents. Pro is $10/month with unlimited predictions and $5 in token credits. There’s an Enterprise tier with SSO and usage analytics. Mac, Windows, Linux.
The AI angle
Zed isn’t building its own model. It runs multiple agents in parallel, and the team pushed the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) with Google and JetBrains so Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and even Cursor’s own agent can plug in. That’s the wedge — Cursor locks you to its stack; Zed lets you bring whichever agent you want.
Why now
Cursor’s at a reported $9B valuation, Windsurf got acquired, and the AI editor war was starting to feel like a closed-source duopoly. Zed 1.0 — Sequoia-backed, Apache 2.0, native speeds — gives the open-source camp something real to point at.
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