---
title: AI Agent Tools - Zed
description: Built-in tools for Zed's AI agent including file editing, code search, terminal commands, web search, and diagnostics.
---

# Tools

Zed's built-in agent has access to these tools for reading, searching, and editing your codebase. These tools are used in the [Agent Panel](./agent-panel.md) during conversations with AI agents.

You can configure permissions for tool actions, including situations where they are automatically approved, automatically denied, or require your confirmation on a case-by-case basis. See [Tool Permissions](./tool-permissions.md) for the list of permission-gated tools and details.

To add custom tools beyond these built-in ones, see [MCP servers](./mcp.md).

## Read & Search Tools

### `diagnostics`

Gets errors and warnings for either a specific file or the entire project, useful after making edits to determine if further changes are needed.
When a path is provided, shows all diagnostics for that specific file.
When no path is provided, shows a summary of error and warning counts for all files in the project.

### `fetch`

Fetches a URL and returns the content as Markdown. Useful for providing docs as context.

### `find_path`

Quickly finds files by matching glob patterns (like "\*_/_.js"), returning matching file paths alphabetically.

### `grep`

Searches file contents across the project using regular expressions, preferred for finding symbols in code without knowing exact file paths.

### `list_directory`

Lists files and directories in a given path, providing an overview of filesystem contents.

### `now`

Returns the current date and time.

### `open`

Opens a file or URL with the default application associated with it on the user's operating system.

### `read_file`

Reads the content of a specified file in the project, allowing access to file contents.

### `thinking`

Allows the Agent to work through problems, brainstorm ideas, or plan without executing actions, useful for complex problem-solving.

### `web_search`

Searches the web for information, providing results with snippets and links from relevant web pages, useful for accessing real-time information.

## Edit Tools

### `copy_path`

Copies a file or directory recursively in the project, more efficient than manually reading and writing files when duplicating content.

### `create_directory`

Creates a new directory at the specified path within the project, creating all necessary parent directories (similar to `mkdir -p`).

### `delete_path`

Deletes a file or directory (including contents recursively) at the specified path and confirms the deletion.

### `edit_file`

Edits files by replacing specific text with new content.

### `move_path`

Moves or renames a file or directory in the project, performing a rename if only the filename differs.

### `restore_file_from_disk`

Discards unsaved changes in open buffers by reloading file contents from disk. Useful for resetting files to their on-disk state before retrying an edit.

### `save_file`

Saves files that have unsaved changes. Used when files need to be saved before further edits can be made.

### `terminal`

Executes shell commands and returns the combined output, creating a new shell process for each invocation.

## Other Tools

### `spawn_agent`

Spawns a subagent with its own context window to perform a delegated task. Each subagent has access to the same tools as the parent agent.