Install Ricord in Zed

Prerequisites

• Zed 0.149 or later (MCP/context-server support is in current builds).
• Node.js ≥ 18 with npm on your PATH.
• A Ricord account — sign up if you don't have one.

Step 1 — Install the Ricord CLI

npm install -g ricord

Verify:

ricord --version
# → ricord vX.Y.Z

Step 2 — Set up Ricord

ricord setup

setup signs you in via the browser (the CLI stores your API key in the OS keychain — no env vars, no .env to commit), scans your history for preferences, then auto-detects installed AI clients and wires each one. For Zed, it edits:

• macOS / Linux: ~/.config/zed/settings.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Zed\settings.json

Zed uses a context_servers key (its name for MCP servers). The block added looks like:

{
  "context_servers": {
    "ricord": {
      "command": {
        "path": "ricord",
        "args": ["mcp"]
      }
    }
  }
}

Existing context_servers entries are preserved. If you prefer per-project scope, write the same block to .zed/settings.json at the project root and Zed merges it with the global settings.

Step 3 — Restart Zed

Cmd-Q + reopen, not close-window. Zed only registers context servers at process startup.

Confirm registration: Cmd-? → open the AI panel → the model selector should show available tools including the Ricord ones (ricord_save, ricord_recall, ricord_get_context, etc.).

Step 4 — Smoke test in the AI panel

Open the AI panel and type:

Remember that this project uses cargo-nextest for the test runner.

Zed calls ricord_save. You'll see the tool call inline.

Close the AI panel chat (new conversation), then ask:

How do I run tests in this project?

Zed calls ricord_recall and answers with cargo nextest. The install is good.

What to expect over the next week

• Day 1: Zed's AI panel saves and recalls when you ask explicitly. Memory survives between conversations.
• Day 3: Zed starts calling ricord_get_context proactively when you open a new conversation in a project — pulls in the architectural context from previous sessions.
• Day 7: Open the dashboard — wiki pages per repo with the cargo/clippy/test patterns you and Zed worked through.

Troubleshooting

AI panel shows no Ricord tools. Open ~/.config/zed/settings.json and verify thecontext_serversblock is well-formed JSON (trailing comma after the last key is the most common issue — Zed's parser is strict about it).

Context server is registered but tools fail with command not found.Zed launched from Finder doesn't inherit your terminal's PATH; the ricordbinary isn't visible. Either launch Zed from a terminal (open -a Zed) or change the path in settings.json to the absolute path returned by which ricord in your terminal.

Recall returns empty. Background indexing runs every ~10 minutes. If the dashboard also shows no memories after an hour of active use, run ricord usage to verify account health.

Optional: build a wiki for this repo

After a few sessions, run this from any repo root to generate a structured wiki from everything Ricord has learned:

ricord build

The result appears in the dashboard — one wiki page per entity your sessions have touched.

Same setup, other clients

ricord setup auto-detects Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex too. Same memory backend serves all of them — switch between Zed and Claude Desktop on the same project, both clients see the same wiki + recall the same facts.