### What this solves
This PR adds support for HTTP and SSE (Server-Sent Events) transports to
Zed's context server implementation, enabling communication with remote
MCP servers. Currently, Zed only supports local MCP servers via stdio
transport. This limitation prevents users from:
- Connecting to cloud-hosted MCP servers
- Using MCP servers running in containers or on remote machines
- Leveraging MCP servers that are designed to work over HTTP/SSE
### Why it's important
The MCP (Model Context Protocol) specification includes HTTP/SSE as
standard transport options, and many MCP server implementations are
being built with these transports in mind. Without this support, Zed
users are limited to a subset of the MCP ecosystem. This is particularly
important for:
- Enterprise users who need to connect to centralized MCP services
- Developers working with MCP servers that require network isolation
- Users wanting to leverage cloud-based context providers (e.g.,
knowledge bases, API integrations)
### Implementation approach
The implementation follows Zed's existing architectural patterns:
- **Transports**: Added `HttpTransport` and `SseTransport` to the
`context_server` crate, built on top of the existing `http_client` crate
- **Async handling**: Uses `gpui::spawn` for network operations instead
of introducing a new Tokio runtime
- **Settings**: Extended `ContextServerSettings` enum with a `Remote`
variant to support URL-based configuration
- **UI**: Updated the agent configuration UI with an "Add Remote Server"
option and dedicated modal for remote server management
### Changes included
- [x] HTTP transport implementation with request/response handling
- [x] SSE transport for server-sent events streaming
- [x] `build_transport` function to construct appropriate transport
based on URL scheme
- [x] Settings system updates to support remote server configuration
- [x] UI updates for adding/editing remote servers
- [x] Unit tests using `FakeHttpClient` for both transports
- [x] Integration tests (WIP)
- [x] Documentation updates (WIP)
### Testing
- Unit tests for both `HttpTransport` and `SseTransport` using mocked
HTTP client
- Manual testing with example MCP servers over HTTP/SSE
- Settings validation and UI interaction testing
### Screenshots/Recordings
[TODO: Add screenshots of the new "Add Remote Server" UI and
configuration modal]
### Example configuration
Users can now configure remote MCP servers in their `settings.json`:
```json
{
"context_servers": {
"my-remote-server": {
"enabled": true,
"url": "http://localhost:3000/mcp"
}
}
}
```
### AI assistance disclosure
I used AI to help with:
- Understanding the MCP protocol specification and how HTTP/SSE
transports should work
- Reviewing Zed's existing patterns for async operations and suggesting
consistent approaches
- Generating boilerplate for test cases
- Debugging SSE streaming issues
All code has been manually reviewed, tested, and adapted to fit Zed's
architecture. The core logic, architectural decisions, and integration
with Zed's systems were done with human understanding of the codebase.
AI was primarily used as a reference tool and for getting unstuck on
specific technical issues.
Release notes:
* You can now configure MCP Servers that connect over HTTP in your
settings file. These are not yet available in the extensions API.
```
{
"context_servers": {
"my-remote-server": {
"enabled": true,
"url": "http://localhost:3000/mcp"
}
}
}
```
---------
Co-authored-by: Conrad Irwin <conrad.irwin@gmail.com>
Co-Authored-By: Ben K <ben@zed.dev>
Co-Authored-By: Anthony <anthony@zed.dev>
Co-Authored-By: Mikayla <mikayla@zed.dev>
Release Notes:
- settings: Major internal changes to settings. The primary user-facing
effect is that some settings which did not make sense in project
settings files are no-longer read from there. (For example the inline
blame settings)
---------
Co-authored-by: Ben Kunkle <ben@zed.dev>
Co-authored-by: Mikayla Maki <mikayla.c.maki@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Anthony <anthony@zed.dev>
Closes: #32668
- Add
[tool_call_timeout_millis](https://github.com/cline/cline/pull/1904)
field to ContextServerCommand, like in Cline
- Update ModelContextServerBinary to include timeout configuration
- Modify Client to store and use configurable request timeout
- Replace hardcoded REQUEST_TIMEOUT with self.request_timeout
- Rename REQUEST_TIMEOUT to DEFAULT_REQUEST_TIMEOUT for clarity
- Maintain backward compatibility with 60-second default
Release Notes:
- context_server: Add support for configurable timeout for MCP tool
calls
---------
Co-authored-by: Ben Brandt <benjamin.j.brandt@gmail.com>
This fixes an issue where we were not setting the context server working
directory at all.
Release Notes:
- Context servers will now be spawned in the currently active project
root.
---------
Co-authored-by: Danilo Leal <danilo@zed.dev>
This changes the context server crate so that the input/output for a
request are encoded at the type level, similar to how it is done for LSP
requests.
This also makes it easier to write tests that mock context servers, e.g.
you can write something like this now when using the `test-support`
feature of the `context-server` crate:
```rust
create_fake_transport("mcp-1", cx.background_executor())
.on_request::<context_server::types::request::PromptsList>(|_params| {
PromptsListResponse {
prompts: vec![/* some prompts */],
..
}
})
```
Release Notes:
- N/A
Because we instantiated `ContextServerManager` both in `agent` and
`assistant-context-editor`, and these two entities track the running MCP
servers separately, we were effectively running every MCP server twice.
This PR moves the `ContextServerManager` into the project crate (now
called `ContextServerStore`). The store can be accessed via a project
instance. This ensures that we only instantiate one `ContextServerStore`
per project.
Also, this PR adds a bunch of tests to ensure that the
`ContextServerStore` behaves correctly (Previously there were none).
Closes#28714Closes#29530
Release Notes:
- N/A
This PR abstracts the communication layer for context servers, laying
the groundwork for supporting multiple transport mechanisms and taking
one step towards enabling remote servers.
Key changes centre around creating a new `Transport` trait with methods
for sending and receiving messages. I've implemented this trait for the
existing stdio-based communication, which is now encapsulated in a
`StdioTransport` struct. The `Client` struct has been refactored to use
this new `Transport` trait instead of directly managing stdin and
stdout.
The next steps will involve implementing an SSE + HTTP transport and
defining alternative context server settings for remote servers.
Release Notes:
- N/A
---------
Co-authored-by: Marshall Bowers <git@maxdeviant.com>
There's still a bit more work to do on this, but this PR is compiling
(with warnings) after eliminating the key types. When the tasks below
are complete, this will be the new narrative for GPUI:
- `Entity<T>` - This replaces `View<T>`/`Model<T>`. It represents a unit
of state, and if `T` implements `Render`, then `Entity<T>` implements
`Element`.
- `&mut App` This replaces `AppContext` and represents the app.
- `&mut Context<T>` This replaces `ModelContext` and derefs to `App`. It
is provided by the framework when updating an entity.
- `&mut Window` Broken out of `&mut WindowContext` which no longer
exists. Every method that once took `&mut WindowContext` now takes `&mut
Window, &mut App` and every method that took `&mut ViewContext<T>` now
takes `&mut Window, &mut Context<T>`
Not pictured here are the two other failed attempts. It's been quite a
month!
Tasks:
- [x] Remove `View`, `ViewContext`, `WindowContext` and thread through
`Window`
- [x] [@cole-miller @mikayla-maki] Redraw window when entities change
- [x] [@cole-miller @mikayla-maki] Get examples and Zed running
- [x] [@cole-miller @mikayla-maki] Fix Zed rendering
- [x] [@mikayla-maki] Fix todo! macros and comments
- [x] Fix a bug where the editor would not be redrawn because of view
caching
- [x] remove publicness window.notify() and replace with
`AppContext::notify`
- [x] remove `observe_new_window_models`, replace with
`observe_new_models` with an optional window
- [x] Fix a bug where the project panel would not be redrawn because of
the wrong refresh() call being used
- [x] Fix the tests
- [x] Fix warnings by eliminating `Window` params or using `_`
- [x] Fix conflicts
- [x] Simplify generic code where possible
- [x] Rename types
- [ ] Update docs
### issues post merge
- [x] Issues switching between normal and insert mode
- [x] Assistant re-rendering failure
- [x] Vim test failures
- [x] Mac build issue
Release Notes:
- N/A
---------
Co-authored-by: Antonio Scandurra <me@as-cii.com>
Co-authored-by: Cole Miller <cole@zed.dev>
Co-authored-by: Mikayla <mikayla@zed.dev>
Co-authored-by: Joseph <joseph@zed.dev>
Co-authored-by: max <max@zed.dev>
Co-authored-by: Michael Sloan <michael@zed.dev>
Co-authored-by: Mikayla Maki <mikaylamaki@Mikaylas-MacBook-Pro.local>
Co-authored-by: Mikayla <mikayla.c.maki@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: joão <joao@zed.dev>
This PR factors the tool definitions out of the `assistant` crate so
that they can be shared between `assistant` and `assistant2`.
`ToolWorkingSet` now lives in `assistant_tool`. The tool definitions
themselves live in `assistant_tools`, with the exception of the
`ContextServerTool`, which has been moved to the `context_server` crate.
As part of this refactoring I needed to extract the
`ContextServerSettings` to a separate `context_server_settings` crate so
that the `extension_host`—which is referenced by the `remote_server`—can
name the `ContextServerSettings` type without pulling in some undesired
dependencies.
Release Notes:
- N/A
Artur ShirokovandConrad Irwin
Rafał KrzyważniaandBen Brandt
Finn EversandDanilo Leal
Bennet Bo Fenner
Peter Tripp
Piotr Osiewicz
Federico DionisiandMarshall Bowers
Marshall Bowers