Configuration

A map of where Zed reads its configuration from.

Per-user configuration

File / dir	Contents
~/.config/zed/settings.json (POSIX) %APPDATA%\Zed\settings.json (Windows)	User-level settings JSON
~/.config/zed/keymap.json	User-level keymap overrides
~/.config/zed/themes/	User themes
~/.local/share/zed/extensions/	Installed extensions
~/.local/share/zed/db/	SQLite local DB (recent projects, sessions, …)

The exact paths live in crates/paths and per-OS branches under crates/util.

Per-project configuration

File	Contents
<project>/.zed/settings.json	Project-scoped settings overrides
<project>/.zed/tasks.json	Task definitions
<project>/.zed/debug.json	DAP launch configurations
<project>/.editorconfig	Honored by editor (where present)
<project>/.rules (and AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md/GEMINI.md)	Project-scoped rules read by AI agents

Bundled defaults

Path	Purpose
assets/settings/default.json	Base settings shipped with Zed
assets/keymaps/default-vim.json	Default vim keymap
assets/keymaps/default-{macos,linux,windows}.json	Default keymaps per OS
assets/keymaps/atom.json, jetbrains.json, sublime_text.json, …	Preset keymaps
assets/themes/	Bundled themes
assets/icons/ assets/fonts/	Visual assets
assets/prompts/	Default agent / edit-prediction prompts
assets/sounds/	Notification sounds
assets/badge/	The version badge SVG used in the README

Schema

Settings schemas (and the JSON schema served to the editor's JSON LSP) are produced by crates/schema_generator. The schemas live alongside the crates that own each setting block.

Environment variables

A non-exhaustive list of env vars Zed responds to (defined across crates/zed_env_vars, crates/cli, and provider crates):

• ZED_PATH — explicit path to the Zed binary (used by the CLI).
• ZED_LOG / RUST_LOG — log filter override.
• FORCE_CLI_MODE — force the CLI shim to use CLI behaviour even in GUI context.
• Provider tokens: OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, GOOGLE_API_KEY, etc., consumed by the matching provider crates.
• EDITOR=zed — combined with the CLI shim, makes Zed the system editor.

Settings precedence is documented in Settings.