I Retired VS Code and Wrote Down Everything Zed Can't Do
Porting a VS Code setup to Zed took an afternoon. Listing what had no equivalent was the part that told me something.
I removed VS Code from my workstation config today, and the replacement is Zed. Neovim stays my main editor. Zed is the GUI one, and it was already installed for reading unfamiliar code.
I did not copy anything blindly. I pulled my settings from ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/settings.json, ran code --list-extensions, and wrote one decision per line.
VS Code Zed
workbench.sideBar.location: right -> "project_panel": { "dock": "right" }
GitLens -> "git": { "inline_blame": { "enabled": true } }
terminal fontLigatures -> "terminal": { "font_features": { "calt": true } }
Prettier, ESLint, Tailwind, YAML -> built in, no entry needed
Most rows were that easy. Prisma, Java, SQL, Rainbow CSV, Docker and Live Server all had Zed extensions.
The more useful part was the second table: what has no Zed equivalent. I checked each one against Zed 1.27.0's settings reference and extension registry before writing it down.
git.autofetch no setting -> run git fetch by hand
explorer.confirmDelete no setting -> none, Zed always asks
SQLTools + Postgres no query client -> psql
Kubernetes cluster view none -> none (kubectl and k9s aren't installed either)
A migration without this table is a guess. You find the missing autofetch weeks later, when a branch is behind and you don't know why. Writing the gap down turns a surprise into a decision I made on purpose.
One row is still open: Remote Containers. I did not check it against Zed's dev container support, so the table says "unchecked" instead of pretending.
I also kept Cobalt2, my old VS Code theme, installed but inactive. Everything else in my setup is pinned to Catppuccin Mocha, and I did not want Zed to be the one window that looked different.
VS Code is still in /Applications. The config no longer routes to it, and uninstalling it is the last step.
About the author
- I'm Sushanth, a high school senior in Hyderabad, India. This is where I write about the things I spend time on: learning from mistakes, building things in code, and the tools I actually work with day to day. I hold the Candidate Master title and a FIDE International Master norm, earned across roughly 140 rated tournaments in six countries. I stopped competing in 2025, but the habit competition taught me, sitting down after every loss and figuring out exactly where I went wrong, shapes how I approach everything else. On the technical side, I've gone deep on C/C++ through Duke University and University of London coursework. I'm also someone who likes a good terminal workflow and enjoys exploring (and abandoning) productivity tools. Expect posts on Neovim, tmux, what broke this week, and whatever I'm tinkering with.
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