Build with agentsAgent Harnesses

Zed

View as MarkdownOpen in Claude

Give Zed’s AI assistant real-time web search, content extraction, and citation-backed research through the You.com MCP Server.

Quick setup

1

Open Zed settings

Press ⌘ , (macOS) or Ctrl , (Linux) to open settings.json. Add the You.com server under context_servers:

1{
2  "context_servers": {
3    "you-com": {
4      "source": "custom",
5      "url": "https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free"
6    }
7  }
8}

Zed gotcha: Zed calls MCP servers context servers in its settings schema. The key is context_servers, not mcpServers or mcp.servers. Also: no "type": "http" field — Zed infers transport from the presence of url vs command.

This uses our free tier: 100 web searches per day, no signup.

2

Reload Zed

Zed picks up MCP config changes on save, but a restart (⌘ Q then reopen) is more reliable.

3

Verify the tools are available

Open the assistant panel (⌘ ?) and check the tools menu. you-com should appear with you-search available.

Higher rate limits + full toolset

For unlimited queries plus you-contents and you-research:

1{
2  "context_servers": {
3    "you-com": {
4      "source": "custom",
5      "url": "https://api.you.com/mcp",
6      "headers": {
7        "Authorization": "Bearer YDC-YOUR-API-KEY"
8      }
9    }
10  }
11}

Get a key at you.com/platform.

Local install (stdio)

For offline development:

1{
2  "context_servers": {
3    "you-com": {
4      "source": "custom",
5      "command": {
6        "path": "npx",
7        "args": ["-y", "@youdotcom-oss/mcp"],
8        "env": {
9          "YDC_API_KEY": "YDC-YOUR-API-KEY"
10        }
11      }
12    }
13  }
14}

Zed gotcha: for stdio servers, command is an object with path, args, and env fields — not a string. This is different from Claude Desktop’s format.

Omit YDC_API_KEY for free-tier behavior.

Quick demo

Search for the latest Zed editor release notes and tell me what's new.
Research which Rust-based code editors support MCP in 2026, with citations.

Troubleshooting

  • Server not appearing in assistant — confirm the key is context_servers and you didn’t add a "type" field. Zed’s schema is stricter than most clients.
  • “Failed to spawn command” (local install only) — Zed’s command is an object with path / args / env, not a string. Common copy-paste mistake from other clients’ configs.
  • Tools never get called — Zed’s AI assistant requires you to enable tools explicitly in the panel UI. Click the tools dropdown and tick You.com’s tools.
  • 401 with API key — verify Authorization header is exactly Bearer YDC-... with one space.