reference.md

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 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 for the list of permission-gated tools and details.

To add custom tools beyond these built-in ones, see MCP servers.

Read & Search Tools {#read-search-tools}

diagnostics {#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 {#fetch}

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

find_path {#find-path}

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

grep {#grep}

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

list_directory {#list-directory}

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

now {#now}

Returns the current date and time.

open {#open}

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

read_file {#read-file}

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

thinking {#thinking}

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

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

Edit Tools {#edit-tools}

copy_path {#copy-path}

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

create_directory {#create-directory}

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

delete_path {#delete-path}

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

edit_file {#edit-file}

Edits files by replacing specific text with new content.

move_path {#move-path}

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

restore_file_from_disk {#restore-file}

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 {#save-file}

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

terminal {#terminal}

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

Other Tools {#other-tools}

subagent {#subagent}

Spawns a subagent with its own context window to perform a delegated task. Useful for running parallel investigations, completing self-contained tasks, or performing research where only the outcome matters. Each subagent has access to the same tools as the parent agent.

See Also {#see-also}