[Feature] Adaption for zed IDE

[markuswondrak]

Is your feature request related to a problem?

The only problem would be that this is not available for zed IDE.

Describe the solution you'd like

This extension implemented for zed

Component

Which part of the project does this affect?

• Extension (VS Code / VSCodium / compatible editors)
• Documentation

[cesarandreslopez]

Thanks for raising this — I'd love to support Zed and have actually done a pretty thorough feasibility assessment already.

Why a direct port isn't practical right now

Zed's extension API is fundamentally different from VS Code's. Extensions compile to sandboxed WASM, and the surface area covers language servers, themes, slash commands, MCP servers, and debug adapters — but that's about it. No webviews, no tree views, no inline completions, no status bar, no notifications, no filesystem watchers, no command registration. About 90% of what Sidekick does depends on APIs that just don't exist in Zed yet, and the underlying architecture (GPUI → WASM bridge) makes it unclear when or if they will.

I'm watching the relevant Zed issues (#18490, #17325, #20831) but none have timelines.

What I'm doing instead

Rather than fighting the extension limitations, I'm building editor-agnostic tools that work everywhere.

Sidekick CLI (coming in v0.12.0) is a terminal tool sitting on top of a shared data layer with zero VS Code dependencies. It reads from the same ~/.config/sidekick/ files the extension writes and gives you access to everything Sidekick knows about your project — tasks, decisions, knowledge notes, session search, context briefings with fidelity tiers, usage stats. Works from any terminal, Zed's included.

It also supports multiple agents out of the box. The CLI auto-detects which one you're running:

• Claude Code — reads JSONL session files from ~/.claude/projects/
• OpenCode — reads from OpenCode's SQLite database at ~/.local/share/opencode/
• Codex — reads from Codex's database at ~/.codex/

So whether you're pairing Zed with Claude Code, OpenCode, or Codex, you get the same session intelligence — token usage, tool call analytics, cross-session search, knowledge notes, all of it.

MCP server is planned right after the CLI, sharing the same data layer and provider support. This is the piece that matters most for Zed honestly — Zed does support MCP server extensions natively, which means the Agent Panel would be able to call tools like get_knowledge_notes or search_sessions on its own without any special setup. Same multi-provider detection, so it works regardless of which agent you're using.

What about the visual stuff?

The dashboard, mind map, kanban board, and timeline are the features that hurt the most to lose — they're a big part of what makes Sidekick useful. Zed can't host them (no webview API), but since all the data lives on disk and the shared library can read it without VS Code, there are a few directions I'm considering:

• Standalone companion app (Tauri or Electron) that runs alongside Zed and connects to the same data. You'd get the full visual experience — charts, force-directed graphs, drag-and-drop kanban — just in a separate window instead of a sidebar panel.
• Local web dashboard served by the CLI or MCP server. Same idea, lighter packaging — open localhost:something in a browser and you've got your dashboard.

Neither is as seamless as having it embedded in the editor, but both would give Zed users access to the full visual feature set. The shared data layer makes this straightforward since the hard part (reading session files, normalizing across providers, aggregating stats) is already extracted and editor-independent.

No concrete timeline on the GUI side yet — I want to get the CLI and MCP server solid first since they unlock the data access story. But it's on my radar.

Rough timeline

When	What	How it helps Zed users
v0.12.0	CLI (Claude Code + OpenCode + Codex)	Query everything from Zed's terminal
After that	MCP server (same providers)	Zed Agent Panel gets native access
After that	Companion app or web dashboard	Full visual features outside the editor
Ongoing	Slash commands	/sidekick-* in Zed's AI panel

Keeping this open to track progress. Appreciate the nudge!

[cesarandreslopez]

@markuswondrak

Update: Sidekick CLI v0.12.2 is now available

This is the closest we'll get to resolving this via the CLI path. The full TUI dashboard is editor-independent and works from Zed's integrated terminal.

What you get:

• Live session monitoring — token usage, cost tracking, context gauge, burn rate sparklines
• Multi-provider auto-detection (Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex)
• Tasks, kanban board, decisions, knowledge notes — all cross-session
• Tool call analytics, file change tracking with git diffs, subagent monitoring
• Timeline, mind map visualization, AI-powered session summaries

Install:

  npm install -g sidekick-agent-hub

Requires Node.js >= 20. If you use nvm or volta, make sure your default node version is set.

Usage:

  # Auto-detects your project and agent provider
  sidekick dashboard

Or specify explicitly

  sidekick dashboard --project /path/to/your/project
  sidekick dashboard --provider claude-code

Run it in Zed's terminal panel alongside your agent session and you'll have the same session intelligence the VS Code extension provides — minus the inline completions
and embedded webviews, which require APIs Zed doesn't expose yet.

MCP server support is still planned as the next step, which will give Zed's Agent Panel native tool access to Sidekick's data layer.