---
title: Developing Extensions
description: "Create Zed extensions: languages, themes, debuggers, slash commands, and more."
---

# Developing Extensions {#developing-extensions}

Zed extensions are Git repositories containing an `extension.toml` manifest. They can provide languages, themes, debuggers, slash commands, and MCP servers.

## Extension Features {#extension-features}

Extensions can provide:

- [Languages](./languages.md)
- [Debuggers](./debugger-extensions.md)
- [Themes](./themes.md)
- [Icon Themes](./icon-themes.md)
- [Slash Commands](./slash-commands.md)
- [MCP Servers](./mcp-extensions.md)

## Developing an Extension Locally

Before starting to develop an extension for Zed, be sure to [install Rust via rustup](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install).

> Rust must be installed via rustup. If you have Rust installed via homebrew or otherwise, installing dev extensions will not work.

When developing an extension, you can use it in Zed without needing to publish it by installing it as a _dev extension_.

From the extensions page, click the `Install Dev Extension` button (or the {#action zed::InstallDevExtension} action) and select the directory containing your extension.

If you need to troubleshoot, check Zed.log ({#action zed::OpenLog}) for additional output. For debug output, close and relaunch Zed from the command line with `zed --foreground`, which shows more verbose INFO-level logs.

If you already have the published version of the extension installed, the published version will be uninstalled prior to the installation of the dev extension. After successful installation, the `Extensions` page will indicate that the upstream extension is "Overridden by dev extension".

## Directory Structure of a Zed Extension

A Zed extension is a Git repository that contains an `extension.toml`. This file must contain some
basic information about the extension:

```toml
id = "my-extension"
name = "My extension"
version = "0.0.1"
schema_version = 1
authors = ["Your Name <you@example.com>"]
description = "Example extension"
repository = "https://github.com/your-name/my-zed-extension"
```

> **Note:** If you are working on a theme extension with the intent to publish it later, suffix your theme extension ID with `-theme`. Otherwise, this may be raised during [extension publishing](#publishing-your-extension).

In addition to this, there are several other optional files and directories that can be used to add functionality to a Zed extension. An example directory structure of an extension that provides all capabilities is as follows:

```
my-extension/
  extension.toml
  Cargo.toml
  src/
    lib.rs
  languages/
    my-language/
      config.toml
      highlights.scm
  themes/
    my-theme.json
```

## WebAssembly

Procedural parts of extensions are written in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly. To develop an extension that includes custom code, include a `Cargo.toml` like this:

```toml
[package]
name = "my-extension"
version = "0.0.1"
edition = "2021"

[lib]
crate-type = ["cdylib"]

[dependencies]
zed_extension_api = "0.1.0"
```

Use the latest version of the [`zed_extension_api`](https://crates.io/crates/zed_extension_api) available on crates.io. Make sure it's still [compatible with Zed versions](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/crates/extension_api#compatible-zed-versions) you want to support.

In the `src/lib.rs` file in your Rust crate you will need to define a struct for your extension and implement the `Extension` trait, as well as use the `register_extension!` macro to register your extension:

```rs
use zed_extension_api as zed;

struct MyExtension {
    // ... state
}

impl zed::Extension for MyExtension {
    // ...
}

zed::register_extension!(MyExtension);
```

> `stdout`/`stderr` is forwarded directly to the Zed process. In order to see `println!`/`dbg!` output from your extension, you can start Zed in your terminal with a `--foreground` flag.

## Forking and cloning the repo

1. Fork the repo

> **Note:** It is very helpful if you fork the `zed-industries/extensions` repo to a personal GitHub account instead of a GitHub organization, as this allows Zed staff to push any needed changes to your PR to expedite the publishing process.

2. Clone the repo to your local machine

```sh
# Substitute the url of your fork here:
# git clone https://github.com/zed-industries/extensions
cd extensions
git submodule init
git submodule update
```

## Extension License Requirements

As of October 1st, 2025, extension repositories must include a license.
The following licenses are accepted:

- [Apache 2.0](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
- [BSD 2-Clause](https://opensource.org/license/bsd-2-clause)
- [BSD 3-Clause](https://opensource.org/license/bsd-3-clause)
- [GNU GPLv3](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html)
- [GNU LGPLv3](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.en.html)
- [MIT](https://opensource.org/license/mit)
- [zlib](https://opensource.org/license/zlib)

This allows us to distribute the resulting binary produced from your extension code to our users.
Without a valid license, the pull request to add or update your extension in the following steps will fail CI.

Your license file should be at the root of your extension repository. Any filename that has `LICENCE` or `LICENSE` as a prefix (case insensitive) will be inspected to ensure it matches one of the accepted licenses. See the [license validation source code](https://github.com/zed-industries/extensions/blob/main/src/lib/license.js).

> This license requirement applies only to your extension code itself (the code that gets compiled into the extension binary).
> It does not apply to any tools your extension may download or interact with, such as language servers or other external dependencies.
> If your repository contains both extension code and other projects (like a language server), you are not required to relicense those other projects—only the extension code needs to be one of the aforementioned accepted licenses.

## Publishing your extension

To publish an extension, open a PR to [the `zed-industries/extensions` repo](https://github.com/zed-industries/extensions).

In your PR, do the following:

1. Add your extension as a Git submodule within the `extensions/` directory

```sh
git submodule add https://github.com/your-username/foobar-zed.git extensions/foobar
git add extensions/foobar
```

> All extension submodules must use HTTPS URLs and not SSH URLS (`git@github.com`).

2. Add a new entry to the top-level `extensions.toml` file containing your extension:

```toml
[my-extension]
submodule = "extensions/my-extension"
version = "0.0.1"
```

> If your extension is in a subdirectory within the submodule you can use the `path` field to point to where the extension resides.

3. Run `pnpm sort-extensions` to ensure `extensions.toml` and `.gitmodules` are sorted

Once your PR is merged, the extension will be packaged and published to the Zed extension registry.

> Extension IDs and names should not contain `zed` or `Zed`, since they are all Zed extensions.

## Updating an extension

To update an extension, open a PR to [the `zed-industries/extensions` repo](https://github.com/zed-industries/extensions).

In your PR do the following:

1. Update the extension's submodule to the commit of the new version. For this, you can run

```sh
# From the root of the repository:
git submodule update --remote extensions/your-extension-name
```

to update your extension to the latest commit available in your remote repository.

2. Update the `version` field for the extension in `extensions.toml`
   - Make sure the `version` matches the one set in `extension.toml` at the particular commit.

If you'd like to automate this process, there is a [community GitHub Action](https://github.com/huacnlee/zed-extension-action) you can use.

> **Note:** If your extension repository has a different license, you'll need to update it to be one of the [accepted extension licenses](#extension-license-requirements) before publishing your update.