Code editor Zed launches SSH-enabled remote development for seamless project collaboration

Zed, a rapidly growing code editor, has introduced a new feature allowing users to open projects on any machine accessible via SSH. This remote development setup involves two computers: your local machine, which runs the Zed UI, and a remote server hosting a Zed headless server. Communication between these systems occurs over SSH, necessitating SSH access from your local machine to the remote server.

On the local machine, Zed manages its UI, interacts with language models, employs Tree-sitter for code parsing and syntax highlighting, and stores unsaved changes and recent projects. Meanwhile, the source code, language servers, tasks, and terminal operations are handled on the remote server, leveraging cloud hardware capabilities. The local UI offers 120 frames per second for optimal graphics performance.

For ease of use, users can initiate one-off projects with the command zed ssh://my-host/~/code/zed, and longer-term connections can be configured as needed. This setup ensures seamless collaboration, making it indistinguishable to colleagues whether a project resides on your laptop or a remote SSH-accessible machine.