Agent Settings

Learn about all the settings you can customize in Zed's Agent Panel.

If you're using Zed's hosted LLM service, it sets claude-sonnet-4 as the default model for agentic work (agent panel, inline assistant) and gpt-5-nano as the default "fast" model (thread summarization, git commit messages). If you're not subscribed or want to change these defaults, you can manually edit the default_model object in your settings:

{
  "agent": {
    "default_model": {
      "provider": "openai",
      "model": "gpt-4o"
    }
  }
}

Feature-specific Models

You can assign distinct and specific models for the following AI-powered features:

Thread summary model: Used for generating thread summaries
Inline assistant model: Used for the inline assistant feature
Commit message model: Used for generating Git commit messages

{
  "agent": {
    "default_model": {
      "provider": "zed.dev",
      "model": "claude-sonnet-4"
    },
    "inline_assistant_model": {
      "provider": "anthropic",
      "model": "claude-3-5-sonnet"
    },
    "commit_message_model": {
      "provider": "openai",
      "model": "gpt-4o-mini"
    },
    "thread_summary_model": {
      "provider": "google",
      "model": "gemini-2.0-flash"
    }
  }
}

If a custom model isn't set for one of these features, they automatically fall back to using the default model.

Alternative Models for Inline Assists

The Inline Assist feature in particular has the capacity to perform multiple generations in parallel using different models. That is possible by assigning more than one model to it, taking the configuration shown above one step further.

When configured, the inline assist UI will surface controls to cycle between the outputs generated by each model.

The models you specify here are always used in addition to your default model.

For example, the following configuration will generate two outputs for every assist. One with Claude Sonnet 4 (the default model), and one with GPT-5-mini.

{
  "agent": {
    "default_model": {
      "provider": "zed.dev",
      "model": "claude-sonnet-4"
    },
    "inline_alternatives": [
      {
        "provider": "zed.dev",
        "model": "gpt-4-mini"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Model Temperature

Specify a custom temperature for a provider and/or model:

"model_parameters": [
  // To set parameters for all requests to OpenAI models:
  {
    "provider": "openai",
    "temperature": 0.5
  },
  // To set parameters for all requests in general:
  {
    "temperature": 0
  },
  // To set parameters for a specific provider and model:
  {
    "provider": "zed.dev",
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4",
    "temperature": 1.0
  }
],

Agent Panel Settings

Note that some of these settings are also surfaced in the Agent Panel's settings UI, which you can access either via the agent: open settings action or by the dropdown menu on the top-right corner of the panel.

Default View

Use the default_view setting to change the default view of the Agent Panel. You can choose between thread (the default) and text_thread:

{
  "agent": {
    "default_view": "text_thread"
  }
}

Auto-run Commands

Control whether to allow the agent to run commands without asking you for permission. The default value is false.

{
  "agent": {
    "always_allow_tool_actions": true
  }
}

Single-file Review

Control whether to display review actions (accept & reject) in single buffers after the agent is done performing edits. The default value is false.

{
  "agent": {
    "single_file_review": true
  }
}

When set to false, these controls are only available in the multibuffer review tab.

Sound Notification

Control whether to hear a notification sound when the agent is done generating changes or needs your input. The default value is false.

{
  "agent": {
    "play_sound_when_agent_done": true
  }
}

Message Editor Size

Use the message_editor_min_lines setting to control minimum number of lines of height the agent message editor should have. It is set to 4 by default, and the max number of lines is always double of the minimum.

{
  "agent": {
    "message_editor_min_lines": 4
  }
}

Modifier to Send

Make a modifier (cmd on macOS, ctrl on Linux) required to send messages. This is encouraged for more thoughtful prompt crafting. The default value is false.

{
  "agent": {
    "use_modifier_to_send": true
  }
}

Edit Card

Use the expand_edit_card setting to control whether edit cards show the full diff in the Agent Panel. It is set to true by default, but if set to false, the card's height is capped to a certain number of lines, requiring a click to be expanded.

{
  "agent": {
    "expand_edit_card": false
  }
}

Terminal Card

Use the expand_terminal_card setting to control whether terminal cards show the command output in the Agent Panel. It is set to true by default, but if set to false, the card will be fully collapsed even while the command is running, requiring a click to be expanded.

{
  "agent": {
    "expand_terminal_card": false
  }
}

Feedback Controls

Control whether to display the thumbs up/down buttons at the bottom of each agent response, allowing to give Zed feedback about the agent's performance. The default value is true.

{
  "agent": {
    "enable_feedback": false
  }
}