Human-in-the-loop for Zed
Zed's Agent Panel runs coding agents right in the editor, and MCP is how it reaches beyond the buffer. Add Orako as a context server in settings.json and the agent can ask the teammate who owns a decision, then keep editing with a human reply instead of a guess.
Connect Orako to Zed
- 01
Add the context_servers entry below to your Zed settings.json and restart Zed.
- 02
Approve access in the browser on first use, then check the Agent Panel settings: the orako server shows a green "Server is active" indicator.
- 03
The agent calls
askfor human-only decisions and resumes when the reply lands.
{
"context_servers": {
"orako": {
"source": "custom",
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://app.orako.io/mcp"]
}
}
}Zed keys MCP servers under context_servers (not mcpServers), and "source": "custom" is required for manual entries. The mcp-remote proxy bridges Zed's stdio-only servers to Orako's remote endpoint, no token in the file. Restart Zed after saving; the Agent Panel shows a green dot when the server is active, and prompts you to authorize in the browser on first use.
New to MCP in Zed? See Zed Industries’s docs.
What Zed can ask
Zed's Agent Panel, connected to the humans who know.
Decisions without leaving the editor
Zed is built around staying in flow. When the agent needs the auth owner's call on token rotation, the question travels through Orako and the answer comes back without a single window switch.
Team conventions on first contact
First session in an unfamiliar repo: the agent asks the maintainer how errors are reported here, and team history preserves the answer for later sessions.
Tool permissions kept tight
Zed's per-tool permission model (mcp:orako:ask) means you decide whether asks fire automatically or after your confirmation.
Zed + Orako, answered
Does Zed support MCP natively?
Yes. Zed's Agent Panel connects to MCP servers declared under the context_servers key in settings.json. Orako uses the generic mcp-remote proxy to bridge Zed's stdio-only servers to its remote endpoint, so the manual entry is all it needs, no token.
Why doesn't my server show up after editing settings.json?
Restart Zed completely; the Agent Panel's settings view then shows an indicator dot per server. Green means active. Also check the key is context_servers with "source": "custom": Zed does not read a mcpServers key, which is the most common porting mistake.
Do my teammates need this agent installed to answer?
No. Only the developer running the agent connects Orako. The people answering receive each question in Slack, Discord, or the Orako dashboard and reply in the thread. They never touch an editor, a terminal, or an MCP config.
What happens to the answers?
Every resolved conversation becomes searchable team history with its authors, date, tags and full context. Agents call search_history before asking, so a question your team already answered can be reused instead of pinging anyone again.
Put a human in the loop for Zed
Give Zed the one thing it can’t generate: the answer only your team knows.