# The AI-native knowledge base for Zed Keep project decisions in Hjarni and ask your agent in Zed to use them. Start with Claude Agent, connected through the Agent Client Protocol (ACP). 25 notes free, forever. No credit card required. These steps target current Zed releases. External-agent setup and MCP support can vary by agent and version. ## Connect Zed in about two minutes 1. Use a current Zed release, open a project folder, and create a Hjarni account if you do not already have one. MCP connections activate in an open project. 2. Open the command palette and run 'agent: open settings'. Under MCP Servers, choose Add Server, then Add Remote Server. Name it hjarni and enter https://hjarni.com/mcp. Alternatively, merge the context_servers entry below into your settings file, keeping existing entries. 3. Click Authenticate beside hjarni in Zed's MCP settings and complete the Hjarni sign-in in your browser. Return to Zed and check for a green connection indicator. 4. Open the Agent Panel's new-thread menu, choose Add More Agents, and install Claude Agent from the ACP Registry. Start a Claude Agent thread. This is the ACP connection. 5. Sign in to Claude when prompted, or use /login in its thread. Claude authentication and billing are separate from your Hjarni connection and Zed's native model settings. 6. Ask: 'Use Hjarni to read my brain instructions, then search for a note I name and read it back with its title and ID.' Check the tool results to confirm the agent actually accessed Hjarni. 7. For a write test, ask: 'Create a new Hjarni note titled ACP connection test with the body Connection checked from Zed. Return its ID.' Then ask the agent to append a short sentence to that same note, and inspect it in Hjarni. 8. Start a fresh Claude Agent thread and ask it to find and read ACP connection test from Hjarni. Seeing the updated text confirms that the note is available across conversations. ``` { "context_servers": { "hjarni": { "url": "https://hjarni.com/mcp" } } } ``` The Hjarni MCP endpoint is `https://hjarni.com/mcp`. The connection uses OAuth, so you sign in with your Hjarni account when prompted. No API key files to manage. ## Workflows that actually use your context 1. Give the assistant context the repo cannot answer "Why did we move off gRPC for billing?" Zed's assistant searches Hjarni for the ADR, reads it, and answers from your actual decision instead of inventing one. 2. Edit threads that start with your conventions loaded Ask your agent to read the project's Hjarni notes and folder instructions before suggesting changes. Review its proposal against your documented conventions. 3. Capture the lesson without leaving the editor After a tricky refactor in Zed, tell the assistant to save a Hjarni note describing the new pattern, tag it for the team, and link it from the related ADR. Next week's session reads it back. 4. One knowledge base across every editor you use Zed today, Cursor for a side project tomorrow. The notes do not move with the editor: they live in Hjarni and every MCP-aware editor reads the same set. 5. Pair-program without re-pasting the architecture Stop dropping the same 'how the services fit together' paragraph into every prompt. Write it once as a Hjarni note. The assistant reads it on demand instead of guessing. ## Why a Zed MCP knowledge base sits outside the editor Zed is excellent at reading the open file and threading edits across it. It is not designed to read the design doc in someone's Notion, the runbook a teammate keeps in Apple Notes, or the decision buried in a Linear comment. Hjarni is one place all of that can land, with MCP search built in. The assistant's planning step is the highest-leverage moment to inject context. If it starts with the wrong assumptions, the diff is wrong. Folder-level AI instructions in Hjarni let you steer the assistant per project: 'in the Payments folder, never propose schema changes without an ADR'. Zed is one editor. Engineers use more than one. Hjarni stays put while editors change underneath it, so the notes you write today are still useful when you switch editors next year or when a new teammate joins. ACP connects Zed to the external agent. MCP gives that agent access to Hjarni. Zed can forward its configured MCP servers to external agents; the agent may also load its own MCP configuration. A connection working in Zed's native agent does not by itself verify the external-agent setup. If Hjarni tools are missing, check the MCP server status, the selected external agent, and its native MCP configuration. Use 'dev: open acp logs' in Zed's command palette to inspect the connection. Check the logs for credentials or private note content before sharing them. Setup references: [Zed external agents](https://zed.dev/docs/ai/external-agents) and [MCP connections in Zed](https://zed.dev/docs/ai/mcp). Common questions ## Questions before you connect Zed **Where does the Zed MCP config live?** In settings.json. Open the command palette and run "zed: open settings", then add a context_servers block. The same file holds your editor settings, so you can version it alongside your dotfiles. **Does Zed support remote (HTTP) MCP servers directly?** Yes. The setup above uses Zed's remote MCP connection with https://hjarni.com/mcp. It was tested with Zed 1.21.0 and Claude Agent 0.84.0. Update older Zed releases if Add Remote Server is unavailable, and open a project folder to activate the connection. **What does Hjarni give Zed that the assistant cannot read from the workspace?** Zed reads the open file and the workspace. It does not read decisions stored in Linear, runbooks in Notion, or the customer interview you wrote in Apple Notes. Hjarni gives the assistant one MCP-backed source for that material. **Can I share a Hjarni knowledge base with my team on Zed?** Yes. Hjarni's team plan gives each engineer their own Zed connection to the same shared folders. Assistant sessions on each machine then read from the same set of notes. **Does Zed need an API token to use Hjarni?** No API token needs to be pasted into this configuration. Click Authenticate beside hjarni in Zed's MCP settings and sign in with your Hjarni account in the browser. Claude Agent uses its own separate authentication.