You can now disable all AI features in Zed

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

AI control & philosophy

  • Strong approval for a single setting to disable all AI; many see this as “respecting the developer” and necessary for interviews, focus, or moral/privacy reasons.
  • Some prefer AI to remain decoupled (separate tools or terminals) rather than tightly embedded in the editor.
  • Others still want finer-grained control: enum-style modes, feature-by-feature toggles, or “disable_llm but keep classic autocomplete.”
  • A few note that Zed’s AI has always been optional via scattered settings; this new flag mainly centralizes control.
  • Naming disable_ai: false draws criticism as a confusing double negative; some argue for enable_ai: true, others say “disable” better conveys that everything is off.

AI feature quality & competition

  • Multiple users feel Zed’s AI is lagging Cursor and Copilot, especially in tab completion; Cursor’s context-aware completions are described as “mind-reading.”
  • Agent/chat mode in Zed is seen as decent but behind “background agents” workflows (e.g., offloading small maintenance tasks, upgrades, and fixes).
  • Some are happy with Zed’s agent and overall UX and are willing to accept weaker autocomplete to avoid VS Code–derived editors.

Core editor UX, performance & rendering

  • Zed’s speed and low input latency are widely praised, especially on macOS; several call it a spiritual successor to Sublime.
  • On Linux, experiences are mixed: some report worse latency and font rendering than VS Code; others say it’s fine but still early/“beta.”
  • GPU and battery usage can be high; turning off the minimap is a common workaround.
  • The multi-buffer/diff UI is polarizing: some call it Zed’s best innovation, others find it confusing and want single-file, full-context diffs. Tips: click line numbers, use Alt+Enter, enable double_click_in_multibuffer: "open".

Modal editing & configuration

  • Opinions on Vim mode diverge: some say it’s one of the best emulations they’ve used; others find it an “afterthought” vs Helix/Neovim.
  • No .vimrc import, but custom keybindings (e.g. mapping j k to Escape) are possible via JSON config.
  • Some users dislike the raw JSON settings with no GUI or commented skeleton.

Design, themes & ecosystem

  • Several users dislike Zed’s default themes and UI styling, calling them bland or low-contrast, especially autocomplete popovers.
  • Workarounds include porting VS Code themes, using community themes, or hand-rolling custom schemes.
  • Plugin/ecosystem gaps, Git log/diff limitations, weaker C# tooling, and less capable search/fuzzy navigation keep some on VS Code/JetBrains/Neovim.

Business model, trust & telemetry

  • Sustaining a free, open editor is a recurring concern. Users worry incentives will push toward “enshittification” via AI upsell or tracking.
  • Zed’s CLA and permissive-dependency policy are seen by some as positioning for future relicensing/enterprise builds.
  • Telemetry and the possibility of phoning home (even if disabled by a flag) make a few users uneasy; some suggest firewall rules in addition to config.