The Zed Debugger Is Here

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reception of Zed & the new debugger

  • Many commenters use Zed daily and praise its fast startup, snappy editing, strong Vim mode, and good Rust/TypeScript/Go support. Several have recently switched from Neovim, VS Code, or Sublime and are “nearly full-time” on Zed.
  • The debugger was widely seen as the major missing piece; people are excited it exists, but some feel the “it’s here” framing is premature.
  • Critiques of the debugger: currently missing or under-emphasizing watch expressions, richer stack-trace views, memory/disassembly views, data breakpoints, and advanced multithreaded UX. For some, plain breakpoints + stepping is enough; others say it’s not adequate for most real debugging.
  • A Zed developer replies that stack traces and multi-session/multithread debugging already exist in basic form, watch expressions are about to land, and more advanced views and data breakpoints are planned.

Core editor features, Git, and ecosystem

  • Git integration is considered usable but not yet a replacement for Magit or VS Code’s Git UI; merge conflict handling still pushes some back to other tools.
  • Extension support is a recurring adoption blocker (e.g., PlatformIO), with the limited non-language plugin model blamed. Some wish for a generalized plugin standard akin to LSP/DAP.
  • Several users find Zed’s Rust experience “first class,” though others note JetBrains’ RustRover still leads on deep AST-powered refactoring, while Zed and peers lean more on LSP + AI.

Platform support & performance

  • Mac is clearly the primary platform. Linux builds are official; Windows builds are currently community-provided, with an official port in progress.
  • Many Windows users report the unofficial builds work well; others cite poor WSL2/remote workflows as a blocker.
  • On Linux, blurry fonts on non-HiDPI (“LoDPI”) displays are a major complaint, with some users calling it unusable, others saying dark mode/heavier fonts make it acceptable. The team has acknowledged this issue.
  • A few users report Zed feeling slower or higher-latency than Emacs on their setups; others experience Zed as “instant” and faster than Emacs/VS Code, suggesting environment-specific rendering differences.

AI integration: enthusiasm vs fatigue

  • Supporters like Zed’s AI agents, edit predictions, and ability to plug in Claude, local models (Ollama/LM Studio), or custom APIs. Some say Zed is the first tool that made AI coding assistance feel natural and not centralizing the product around AI.
  • Critics are experiencing “AI fatigue,” objecting to AI being added to everything, to login buttons, and to any always-visible AI UI. Some refuse to adopt editors that ship with AI integrations at all, even if disabled.
  • Privacy/compliance is raised: uploading proprietary or client code to cloud LLMs is often forbidden in certain industries, making even optional cloud integrations suspect.
  • Others argue AI is now a core professional IDE feature, that Zed’s AI is off by default or easily disabled via config, and that local-only setups are possible.

Miscellaneous UX points

  • Requests and nitpicks include:
    • Better Windows/WSL2 remote SSH support.
    • Ctrl+scroll to zoom (important for presentations/pairing for some; a hated misfeature for others).
    • More reliable UI dialogs/toolbars.
    • Correct language detection for C vs C++.
  • The debugger blog’s “Under the hood” section is singled out as an excellent, educational description of DAP integration and thoughtful code commentary.