zed -basic-memory

This MCP server extension wires Basic Memory into Zed Editor as a context provider for the Zed Assistant. Basic Memory stores and organizes notes in Markdown files, enabling persistent, question-driven knowledge retrieval and note creation. With this server active, you can ask the Zed Assistant to create notes, search existing notes, or summarize information from your markdown-backed knowledge base. The extension supports multiple projects, so you can keep separate knowledge bases for different codebases or subjects by specifying a project name. When you opt into a specific project, Basic Memory uses that project’s storage; otherwise it defaults to its built-in project location.

To use, configure the context_servers setting in Zed as shown in the installation guide. Once configured, you can issue prompts such as: “Create a note about software architecture patterns,” “What do I know about functional programming?” or “Search my notes for information about React hooks.” The Zed Assistant will route these requests to the Basic Memory MCP server, which will read or write your Markdown notes accordingly and respond with synthesized results or actions that reflect your notes' content.

Prerequisites:

• Python 3.12+ installed
• uv (Python-based MCP runner) installed via pip: pip install uv

Installation steps:

1. Install uv and Basic Memory tool:

pip install uv
uv tool install basic-memory

2. Install the MCP extension in Zed:

• Open Zed, go to Extensions, and install this extension (or load via the dev extension workflow).

3. Configure the extension in Zed:

• Open Zed settings and add the MCP server configuration:

{
  "context_servers": {
    "mcp-server-basic-memory": {
      "settings": {
        "project": "optional-project-name"
      }
    }
  }
}

The optional project name selects which Basic Memory project to use; omit to use the default.

4. Run the MCP server (via the extension workflow):

• The extension relies on the uv-based command to start the Basic Memory MCP server. In this configuration, the server can be started via:

uv run basic-memory

(If you configure the environment variable BASIC_MEMORY_PROJECT, ensure it points to the desired project path.)

Notes and tips:

• The Basic Memory MCP server is a separate product; ensure you follow its AGPL-3.0 license terms when using it via this extension.
• If you specify a project name, Basic Memory will segregate notes accordingly. Without a project, it uses a default project path (often ~/basic-memory/config.json).
• Ensure you have network access between Zed and the MCP server if running on separate processes or containers.
• The environment variable BASIC_MEMORY_PROJECT can customize the project location; set it if you want to override the default project path.
• This extension currently relies on Zed’s MCP tool support in a future update; functionality may depend on Zed releases that add MCP tooling support.