Rust-powered Zed editor plans Vim mode improvements

Rust-powered Zed editor plans Vim mode improvements

Zed, an editor written from scratch in Rust, is getting enhanced Vim compatibility during 2025 with the hope of attracting users from Vim or NeoVim.

Although still in preview, Zed appeals to developers who prefer the performance of native code over other editors such as the larger and slower Visual Studio Code, which uses the Electron framework, based on HTML and JavaScript.

Many such developers currently use Vim or Neovim, which are command-line text editors and highly productive for those who have learned their commands. Zed by contrast is a GUI editor, but has a Vim mode that supports many of the same commands. According to the docs, Vim mode “does not replicate Vim one-to-one, but it meshes Vim’s modal design with Zed’s modern features to provide a more fluid experience.”

A modal design in this context is one that has a separate command mode and text edit mode, confusing to newcomers used to GUI editors with menus, but ideal for fast keyboard-driven work.

Enabling Vim mode in Zed

Zed software engineer Conrad Irwin has now posted a Vim 2025 roadmap, showing the importance of Vim mode to the newer editor. Three areas are set for improvement. The first is the Vim command mode, for which more complete Vim compatibility is planned, including filename completion in the command palette, command history, adding missing commands, and adding Vim-style keyboard shortcuts for more Zed features, including collaboration and AI features.

The second is better conformance with Vim so that it comes closer to working “exactly like Vim.”

Third, Irwin highlighted multi-cursor support as an area that needs work, including support for moving just one text selection.

Irwin noted that Zed gets “a lot of VS Code Vim extension refugees,” referencing the Vim extension that has more than 7 million downloads. Even if that plugin worked perfectly though, it would not replicate the performance of Vim or Zed.

Developer Siddhant Goel posted last week about trying Zed after a decade of using Vim or Neovim. He cited several reasons for using Zed. The first was ease of configuration, compared to Vim where this can be arduous. Second, he cited AI integration. His early impressions are good, including that “Zed is very fast” (high praise from a NeoVim user), configuration is easier, and Zed-specific features like the AI Assistant are useful.

It is still early days though for Zed, currently at version 0.170.2, and its rapid evolution can also mean bugs get introduced. Zed has under 500 extensions at the time of writing, versus upwards of 68,000 for VS Code.