Use MCP servers in Zed with Toolport
Toolport is a free, open source local MCP gateway. Add your servers to Toolport once, flip the Zed toggle, and Zed gets all of them through a single gateway entry. Toolport picks a full tool list or search for each client, and you can change it in Clients.
Setup
- Download Toolport for Windows, macOS or Linux, and add your MCP servers to it (or import the ones your other AI agents already have; secrets go to your OS keychain).
- Open the Clients tab and toggle Zed on. Toolport writes its gateway entry into Zed's config, next to anything already there.
- Restart or reload Zed. Your full server set is available through Toolport, and any server you add later shows up without touching Zed again.
Where Zed keeps its MCP config
Zed MCP config
Windows %APPDATA%\Zed\settings.json macOS ~/.config/zed/settings.json Linux ~/.config/zed/settings.json
JSONC: a context_servers object inside Zed's main settings file.
Good to know
- settings.json holds your whole editor config, so Toolport reads it leniently (comments and trailing commas are fine), edits only the context_servers entry, and leaves the file untouched if it can't be parsed.
Why a gateway instead of Zed's own server list?
- One setup, every agent. The same servers work in Zed and every other AI agent on your machine; add a server once and they all get it.
- Secrets in the OS keychain. API keys are injected at runtime and never sit in Zed's config file.
- Watched by default. Rug-pull and tool-poisoning detection on every tool, plus per-tool governance and a destructive-tool kill switch. How the security works.
Free on this machine. Pro puts it on every machine. Team gives it to everyone.