Zed Editor — Shortcuts and Settings

Published on June 18, 2026

Zed is a fast, GPU-rendered editor written in Rust. This post covers the shortcuts you’ll use daily and a few settings worth changing early on.

Installation

Download from zed.dev. On Linux:

curl -f https://zed.dev/install.sh | sh

Opening the settings file

Almost everything in Zed is configured via a JSON settings file. Open it with:

Ctrl+, (Linux/Windows) / Cmd+, (Mac)

Or via the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) → type open settings.

Essential shortcuts

All shortcuts use Ctrl on Linux/Windows and Cmd on Mac.

Action	Linux/Windows	Mac
Toggle project file tree	`Ctrl+B`	`Cmd+B`
Quick open file	`Ctrl+P`	`Cmd+P`
Command palette	`Ctrl+Shift+P`	`Cmd+Shift+P`
Go to line	`Ctrl+G`	`Ctrl+G`
Go to definition	`F12`	`F12`
Find all references	`Shift+F12`	`Shift+F12`
Go to symbol in file	`Ctrl+Shift+O`	`Cmd+Shift+O`
Go to symbol in project	`Ctrl+T`	`Cmd+T`
Switch between recent files	`Ctrl+Tab`	`Ctrl+Tab`

Editing

Action	Linux/Windows	Mac
Select next occurrence	`Ctrl+D`	`Cmd+D`
Select all occurrences	`Ctrl+Shift+L`	`Cmd+Shift+L`
Move line up / down	`Alt+Up` / `Alt+Down`	`Alt+Up` / `Alt+Down`
Duplicate line	`Ctrl+Shift+D`	`Cmd+Shift+D`
Delete line	`Ctrl+Shift+K`	`Cmd+Shift+K`
Toggle line comment	`Ctrl+/`	`Cmd+/`
Indent / outdent	`Tab` / `Shift+Tab`	`Tab` / `Shift+Tab`
Format document	`Ctrl+Shift+I`	`Cmd+Shift+I`

Search

Action	Linux/Windows	Mac
Find in file	`Ctrl+F`	`Cmd+F`
Find in project	`Ctrl+Shift+F`	`Cmd+Shift+F`
Replace in file	`Ctrl+H`	`Cmd+H`

Panes and panels

Action	Linux/Windows	Mac
Split editor right	`Ctrl+\`	`Cmd+\`
Close active tab	`Ctrl+W`	`Cmd+W`
Toggle terminal	`Ctrl+\` `\|` Ctrl+``
Toggle git panel	`Ctrl+Shift+G`	`Cmd+Shift+G`

Disabling auto-completion

Auto-completion is useful day-to-day but distracting during coding interviews — it gives hints you shouldn’t rely on when you’re being evaluated.

Open settings (Ctrl+,) and add:

{
  "show_completions_on_input": false
}

This stops completions from appearing as you type. You can still trigger them manually on demand with Ctrl+Space when you actually want a suggestion.

To turn it back on after the interview, either remove the setting or set it to true.

A cleaner approach if you switch modes often — keep two settings profiles or just toggle via the command palette:

Ctrl+Shift+P → "toggle auto complete"

Other settings worth changing early

Open settings (Ctrl+,) and paste these in. Each line is independent — add only what you want.

{
  "show_completions_on_input": false,

  "ui_font_size": 16,
  "buffer_font_size": 14,
  "buffer_font_family": "JetBrains Mono",

  "tab_size": 4,
  "hard_tabs": false,

  "autosave": "on_focus_change",

  "format_on_save": "on",

  "vim_mode": false,

  "theme": "One Dark"
}

autosave: on_focus_change — saves the file whenever you switch away from it. Eliminates the need to ever press Ctrl+S.

format_on_save — runs the formatter (Prettier, rustfmt, etc.) automatically on every save. Keeps code clean without thinking about it.

The command palette

Ctrl+Shift+P opens the command palette — a searchable list of every action in Zed. If you can’t remember a shortcut, open the palette and type what you want. It also shows the keyboard shortcut next to each action so you learn them over time.

Some useful ones to search for:

toggle inlay hints — shows inferred types inline (useful for Rust/TypeScript)
revert file — discard all unsaved changes in the current file
copy relative path — copies the file path relative to the project root
sort lines — sorts selected lines alphabetically

Quick reference card

Ctrl+B          Toggle file tree
Ctrl+P          Open file
Ctrl+Shift+P    Command palette
Ctrl+,          Settings
Ctrl+Shift+F    Search in project
Ctrl+D          Select next match
Ctrl+/          Comment line
Ctrl+\          Split pane
Ctrl+`          Terminal
F12             Go to definition

Interview prep: set "show_completions_on_input": false in settings before you start. Toggle back with Ctrl+Space when you want a hint.

Tags: zed, editor, productivity