Zed fails to open new window for current directory if Zed is already running

[davidhooey]

Summary

Zed fails to start a new window when launching from a terminal if Zed is already running.

Steps to trigger the problem:

1. Start Zed.
2. In a terminal navigate to a directory to open in zed and issue the following command zed ./.

Actual Behavior:

$ zed ./
zed is already running

Expected Behavior:

Expectation is to launch a new window opening up the current directory. Similar to the way code . works for Visual Studio Code.

Zed Version and System Specs

$ zed --system-specs
Zed System Specs (from CLI):
Zed: v0.180.2 (Zed)
OS: macOS 15.3.2
Memory: 32 GiB
Architecture: x86_64

[unsecretised]

You can try using zed -n path/to/file which should fix it (I believe thats what your trying to do?)

Also, what you seem to have specified is working completely fine for me, could you give a more accurate recreation?

[davidhooey]

Zed had been updated since this was posted:

$ zed --system-specs
Zed System Specs (from CLI):
Zed: v0.181.6 (Zed)
OS: macOS 15.4.0
Memory: 32 GiB
Architecture: x86_64

I'm trying to open the current directory into the editor the same way I can with code ., subl . atom .. There looks to be no -n parameter.

Current directory attempt:

$ zed -n ./
error: unexpected argument '-n' found

  tip: to pass '-n' as a value, use '-- -n'

Usage: zed [OPTIONS] [PATHS_OR_URLS]...

For more information, try '--help'.

Single file attempt:

$ ls -la
Permissions Size User   Date Modified Name
drwxr-xr-x     - davidh 21 Oct  2024   config
drwxr-xr-x     - davidh 16 Aug  2023   pkg
.rw-r--r--   361 davidh 30 Apr  2024   catalog-info.yaml
.rw-r--r--    55 davidh  2 Feb  2024   DEVELOPMENT.md
.rw-r--r--    24 davidh  2 Feb  2024  󰂺 README.md

$ zed -n ./README.md
error: unexpected argument '-n' found

  tip: to pass '-n' as a value, use '-- -n'

Usage: zed [OPTIONS] [PATHS_OR_URLS]...

For more information, try '--help'.

If Zed is not running this does work, however it hijacks the terminal and does not release the terminal back in the similar manner as Code or Sublime.

$ zed ./
[2025-04-11T17:24:13-04:00 ERROR Users] expected value at line 1 column 1

If Zed is already running and I would like to open a new directory into a new window, this does not work.

$ zed ./
zed is already running

[davidhooey]

The following bash function seems to work on macOS. It will open in a new Zed window if a window is already running, or launch Zed fresh if Zed is not running.

Add the following to ~/.bashrc and source it. Update the path to the zed binary if different.

zed() {
  if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then
    open -a /usr/local/bin/zed .
  else
    for arg in "$@"; do
      open -a /usr/local/bin/zed "$arg"
    done
  fi
}

[mtalexan]

Maybe it was a one-off bug in that specific release, but as of 0.182.11:

The Zed CLI binary.
This CLI is a separate binary that invokes Zed.

Examples:
    `zed`
          Simply opens Zed
    `zed --foreground`
          Runs in foreground (shows all logs)
    `zed path-to-your-project`
          Open your project in Zed
    `zed -n path-to-file `
          Open file/folder in a new window


Usage: zeditor [OPTIONS] [PATHS_WITH_POSITION]...

Arguments:
  [PATHS_WITH_POSITION]...
          The paths to open in Zed (space-separated).
          
          Use `path:line:column` syntax to open a file at the given line and column.

Options:
  -w, --wait
          Wait for all of the given paths to be opened/closed before exiting

  -a, --add
          Add files to the currently open workspace

  -n, --new
          Create a new workspace

      --user-data-dir <DIR>
          Sets a custom directory for all user data (e.g., database, extensions, logs). This overrides the
          default platform-specific data directory location. On macOS, the default is
          `~/Library/Application Support/Zed`. On Linux/FreeBSD, the default is `$XDG_DATA_HOME/zed`. On
          Windows, the default is `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Zed`

  -v, --version
          Print Zed's version and the app path

      --foreground
          Run zed in the foreground (useful for debugging)

      --zed <ZED>
          Custom path to Zed.app or the zed binary

      --dev-server-token <DEV_SERVER_TOKEN>
          Run zed in dev-server mode

      --system-specs
          Not supported in Zed CLI, only supported on Zed binary Will attempt to give the correct command
          to run

  -h, --help
          Print help (see a summary with '-h')

To read from stdin, append '-', e.g. 'ps axf | zed -'

And using zed -n . opens a new window, even if there are other Zed editors open to the same or different projects.

[probably-neb]

The -n flag is what you're looking for @davidhooey, it's just not present in the Zed binary, only for the CLI, hence the confusion

[notpeter]

The issue is that you are confusing the two zed entrypoints:

/Applications/Zed.app/Contents/MacOS/cli
/Applications/Zed.app/Contents/MacOS/zed

You should be exclusively using the former from the terminal. If there is a running Zed instance, it will reuse that, if not, it will spawn one and use that.

It's a little confusing because we recommend folks alias/symlink cli into their path as zed. This is what the cli: install action does from the welcome screen.

You can check your current config with: command -v zed and if it's a symlink use readlink $(which zed) to see where the symlink points.

On Linux it's:

~/.local/zed.app/libexec/zed-editor
~/.local/zed.app/libexec/zed