Graph Indexer for Zed

Graph Indexer for Zed is a local MCP server, registered as a Zed context server, that gives Zed’s agent exact references, call graphs and change impact for your project. Run npx graph-indexer init and it writes a graph-indexer entry under context_servers in .zed/settings.json.

How do I add Graph Indexer to Zed?

From the repository root, with Node.js 22.5 or later:

npx graph-indexer init

init configures Zed when it finds a .zed folder. If your project has none, force it with npx graph-indexer init --agents zed, or configure every supported agent at once with --all.

What does npx graph-indexer init change for Zed?

For Zed, init touches these files:

Use --dry-run to preview and --no-instructions to skip the AGENTS.md block.

What does the manual Zed configuration look like?

The entry init writes to .zed/settings.json is:

{
  "context_servers": {
    "graph-indexer": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "graph-indexer@3", "serve"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Zed starts project context servers in the project root, so the entry has no --repo argument and Graph Indexer indexes the git repository it starts in. With init --local, the command points at your checkout’s bin/graph-indexer.mjs instead of npx.

What does Zed gain from Graph Indexer?

Zed’s agent gets eight read-only tools. Instead of reading whole files and grepping, it asks find_references for every real use of a symbol, call_graph for callers and callees, change_impact for dependents and the tests to run, and check_changes to verify uncommitted edits without a build. Replies are plain text, capped, best result first, typically 400 to 1,500 tokens.

Against the TypeScript compiler on 400 nestjs symbols, find_references reached 99.7% precision and 96.2% recall; grep reached 12.8% precision (benchmarks). The index re-syncs with the files on disk before every answer, so it stays current while Zed’s agent edits. Graph Indexer is not a type checker: generics, reflection and any are only partly visible.

Graph Indexer itself makes no network calls and sends no telemetry; Zed still sends what it reads to its model provider. See the tools reference, how it works and the other agents.