### 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>
Prior we only logged the crate in `log_err`, which is not too helpful.
We now assemble the module path from the file system path.
Release Notes:
- N/A *or* Added/Fixed/Improved ...
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 is the core change:
https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/pull/26758/files#diff-044302c0d57147af17e68a0009fee3e8dcdfb4f32c27a915e70cfa80e987f765R1052
TODO:
- [x] Use AsyncFn instead of Fn() -> Future in GPUI spawn methods
- [x] Implement it in the whole app
- [x] Implement it in the debugger
- [x] Glance at the RPC crate, and see if those box future methods can
be switched over. Answer: It can't directly, as you can't make an
AsyncFn* into a trait object. There's ways around that, but they're all
more complex than just keeping the code as is.
- [ ] Fix platform specific code
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>
Artur ShirokovandConrad Irwin
Lukas Wirth
Finn EversandDanilo Leal
Mikayla Maki
Federico DionisiandMarshall Bowers