Zed, the open-source code editor known for its speed and Rust-based design, has introduced a new option that allows users to completely turn off all AI features.
In a blog post published on July 23, the Zed team announced a new global setting — "disable_ai": true — which can be added to the settings.json file. This update is now available in preview and will be included in the stable release next week. Additionally, a one-click onboarding option to disable AI will be rolled out soon for new users.
“If you don’t want AI in your workflow, it won’t be there,” the team stated.
According to the post, the decision to introduce this setting came in response to user feedback, especially from the GitHub community. Developers shared concerns about the environmental impact of AI, ethical issues related to training data, and company policies that restrict the use of AI tools.
“We’ve heard these concerns from our users, and we agree these are valid engineering decisions,” the team said.
Even with its focus on AI, Zed is making efforts to support user privacy and flexibility. The editor allows the use of personal API keys for preferred AI providers and has implemented a zero-retention policy for requests sent to its AI service, powered by Anthropic. There is also support for local AI models, helping users keep their data private and workflows offline.
Zed is built as a faster alternative to popular AI-based code editors like Cursor and Windsurf. Written in Rust, it aims to offer high performance and simplicity. Developers have praised its fast response, built-in Vim mode, and ability to use AI editing tools without needing an internet connection.
Despite its advancements in agentic AI features, Zed remains committed to user control and freedom of choice.
The editor, released under the GPL license, continues to grow in both AI-enabled and traditional development areas. Future updates will focus on adding Windows support and expanding compatibility with various AI models.
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