Zed Editor + Local LLMs: Full Setup Guide with Ollama and LM Studio

[00:00] One of the editors I use is Zed editor,

[00:02] and most of the time I use it together

[00:04] with local models. So today I want to

[00:06] show you how I connect it to local

[00:08] LLM's, both models running on the same

[00:10] computer as the editor, and models

[00:12] running on another computer in the local

[00:14] network that can be very convenient when

[00:16] you want to run models on a more

[00:17] powerful machine with a stronger GPU.

[00:20] And since I usually use Ollama and LM

[00:21] Studio to run models, I'll use those as

[00:23] examples today. But before that, I want

[00:26] to congratulate the Zed editor team on

[00:28] the release of version 1.0. I've been

[00:30] using this editor since the closed beta

[00:31] days, and the progress over the last few

[00:33] years has been truly impressive. So

[00:35] let's start with Ollama. First, I'll

[00:37] check in the console that Ollama is

[00:39] working properly, so if anything goes

[00:41] wrong later, I know the issue is not

[00:42] there. First, let's look at the list of

[00:44] models available on this computer. I

[00:46] already have several downloaded. Let me

[00:48] choose Gemma 4. Now I'll launch it and

[00:50] ask it to answer something, just to make

[00:51] sure it works correctly. Yes, the model

[00:54] loaded into memory successfully, thought

[00:55] for a moment, and then gave me a

[00:57] response. So everything looks good. Now

[00:59] I know that both Ollama and the selected

[01:01] model are working. Now let's go to Zed

[01:03] editor and open the agent panel. In the

[01:05] settings for this panel, there is a

[01:06] section for LLM providers. That's

[01:09] exactly what we need. There we can find

[01:11] an option called Ollama. By default, the

[01:13] local URL with the correct port is

[01:15] already filled in here. That is the

[01:17] default Ollama address, and if you

[01:19] didn't change anything when setting up

[01:20] Ollama, then you don't need to change

[01:22] anything here either. I will only

[01:23] increase the context window size because

[01:25] when the model uses tools, 8,000 tokens

[01:28] may be too little. I'll increase it to

[01:30] 60,000 for now. That should be enough to

[01:32] start with. Now we press the connect

[01:33] button so Zed editor can verify that

[01:35] Ollama is available at that URL and load

[01:38] the list of available models. As you can

[01:40] see, a green check mark appeared along

[01:42] with the word connected, which means Zed

[01:44] successfully connected to Ollama, and

[01:46] everything is working properly. All

[01:47] right, now let's close the settings

[01:49] window and look at the list of available

[01:51] models. We can see a new section called

[01:53] Ollama, and inside it are the models

[01:55] available to us. As you can see, they

[01:57] are the same models that were shown in

[01:58] the console earlier when we launched

[02:00] Ollama. Let me also choose the same

[02:02] model here that I used in the console,

[02:04] Gemma 4. And again, just to verify that

[02:06] everything is definitely working, I'll

[02:08] type something to it. It doesn't really

[02:09] matter what. The important thing is to

[02:11] confirm that I can interact with my

[02:13] local model directly from the editor.

[02:15] Okay, the model thought for a moment and

[02:17] then replied. Great, that means

[02:19] everything is configured and working

[02:20] exactly as it should. Let me also show

[02:22] you a couple of important things you

[02:24] should pay attention to. The first one

[02:25] is the agent profile. To simplify it a

[02:27] lot, this determines what the agent is

[02:29] allowed to do. There are three built-in

[02:31] profiles, and if you want the model to

[02:33] be able to edit and create files inside

[02:35] your project, choose the right profile.

[02:37] The second thing I want to point out is

[02:39] the thinking mode switch. If the LLM you

[02:42] selected supports reasoning before

[02:43] answering, you can enable or disable it

[02:45] here. It can be useful to experiment

[02:47] with turning it on or off, especially if

[02:49] the model responds very slowly and you

[02:51] want to speed things up a bit. All

[02:53] right, now that we've covered Ollama,

[02:55] let's do the same thing with LM Studio.

[02:57] Just like with Ollama, I'll first check

[02:58] in the console that LM Studio starts

[03:00] without any problems. I'll also launch a

[03:02] model to make sure everything is working

[03:04] properly there as well. Since I

[03:05] currently have only one model loaded in

[03:07] LM Studio, that's the one I'll use. Yes,

[03:10] everything works here too. The model

[03:11] responds to my requests. Okay, now let's

[03:14] go back to Zed editor and once again

[03:16] open the agent panel settings section

[03:18] with LLM providers. This time we look

[03:20] for the option called LM Studio. Here

[03:22] again, just like with Ollama, the

[03:24] correct default URL is already entered,

[03:26] so there is nothing to change. We simply

[03:28] click connect, and Zed editor checks

[03:30] that everything is working, connects to

[03:31] LM Studio, and retrieves the list of

[03:33] available models. As you can see,

[03:35] everything went successfully. The editor

[03:37] connected to LM Studio. Now let me open

[03:39] a new chat and then choose a new model

[03:41] for that chat provided by LM Studio. As

[03:44] you can see, a new section dedicated to

[03:45] LM Studio has appeared, and since I only

[03:48] have one model loaded in LM Studio,

[03:49] there is not much to choose from. So we

[03:51] simply select that one. Okay, this time

[03:53] I'll ask the model to do something

[03:55] useful, and as you can see, it

[03:56] successfully processed my request and

[03:58] wrote "Hello world" in several

[04:00] languages. Excellent. The combination of

[04:02] Zed editor and LM Studio works as well.

[04:05] So, as you can see, connecting local

[04:07] models to Zed editor is quite simple. It

[04:09] only takes a few clicks, and by the way,

[04:12] you can switch between them at any time.

[04:14] Now let me show you a slightly more

[04:15] advanced case, when the LLM's are

[04:17] running on another computer inside your

[04:19] local network. To do that, we go into

[04:21] the model settings. The simplest way

[04:23] would be to just change the URL for the

[04:25] existing Ollama and LM Studio entries.

[04:28] If you only plan to use models running

[04:30] on another computer, then that is

[04:31] exactly what you should do. But I want

[04:33] to be able to switch dynamically between

[04:35] smaller models running on my laptop and

[04:37] larger models running on my desktop

[04:39] machine. So I'll use a different

[04:40] approach. In the header of the LLM

[04:42] providers section, there is a button for

[04:44] adding a new provider. We click it and

[04:46] choose the option OpenAI compatible.

[04:49] Then we enter a name. In my case, I'll

[04:51] call it Ollama desktop, so I always know

[04:53] what these models are. And then I enter

[04:55] the address of the other computer where

[04:57] Ollama is running.

[04:58] In the API key field, you can enter any

[05:01] text. By default, Ollama does not

[05:03] require a key. After that, we save it.

[05:05] Oh, wait, it won't let me save without

[05:07] specifying the default model name. All

[05:09] right, let me enter one of the models I

[05:11] already have loaded on my desktop. Okay,

[05:13] now that everything is filled in and

[05:14] saved, we can finally test it. I'll type

[05:17] a test message in the chat.

[05:19] Oops, it doesn't work. Looks like I made

[05:21] a mistake somewhere. But that's fine,

[05:23] we'll figure it out. Let's close the

[05:25] agent panel for a moment and open the

[05:26] settings file so it's easier to see

[05:28] where I went wrong. By the way, this is

[05:30] a very convenient feature in Zed editor.

[05:32] Every change you make through the UI is

[05:34] reflected directly in the config files.

[05:37] All right, here is the section for the

[05:38] provider I just added. So what's wrong

[05:40] here? Ah, I see it. In the API URL

[05:43] field, when adding your own LLM

[05:45] provider, you need to specify the full

[05:47] path including the port number and the

[05:49] protocol version. All right, I'll save

[05:51] the settings and try again. Success. Now

[05:54] it works. I was able to access an LLM

[05:56] running on my desktop from the editor

[05:58] running on my laptop. Excellent. I'm not

[06:00] going to demonstrate connecting to LM

[06:02] Studio on the desktop because the

[06:04] process is identical to Ollama, only the

[06:06] URL is slightly different. So as you can

[06:08] see, using local models in Zed editor is

[06:11] very simple. And on top of that, you can

[06:13] configure everything in whatever way

[06:15] works best for you. That's exactly why I

[06:17] like Zed so much. That's all for today.

[06:19] If you enjoyed this video, give it a

[06:21] like and subscribe so you don't miss the

[06:23] next episodes. See you soon. Take care.