Artesian for Zed

Memory control for AI agents inside Zed. This extension registers Artesian's MCP server as a Zed context server, so Zed's agent gains durable, qualify-gated memory over your own store: recall the high-signal slice, store durable learnings, resume across compaction, and run loop-memory and orchestration kits.

Requirements

The artesian-mcp binary must be on your PATH. Install via Homebrew (macOS/Linux):

brew install aquifer-labs/tap/artesian
# artesian-mcp is a symlink to the multi-call artesian binary

Or download a pre-built release binary from github.com/aquifer-labs/artesian/releases and place it on your PATH.

Configuration

artesian-mcp picks up its config from (in order of precedence):

1. --config <path> flag — pass an explicit artesian.toml
2. ARTESIAN_MEMORY_ROOT env var — override the .artesian/ data directory
3. Default: creates .artesian/ in the current working directory

For Qdrant or sqlite-vec backends, set the relevant env vars (QDRANT_URL, QDRANT_API_KEY, etc.) before Zed launches. A wrapper script that sources your shell rc is one way to ensure env vars reach the server:

# ~/artesian/run-artesian-mcp.sh
#!/usr/bin/env sh
set -eu
[ -f "$HOME/.zshrc" ] && . "$HOME/.zshrc"
exec artesian-mcp --config "$HOME/artesian.toml"

Then set ARTESIAN_MCP_CMD or point the extension at the script (see extension settings).

Install

Until it lands in the Zed extension registry, install as a dev extension: open the command palette → zed: install dev extension → select this folder.

What you get

The context server exposes Artesian v0.5.x's full MCP tool surface to Zed's agent:

Tool	Purpose
memory.find	Hybrid retrieval — recall the high-signal slice for the current task
memory.store	Store a durable, reusable learning
memory.context	Compact index + targeted find hits in one call
memory.answer	Synthesize an answer from stored memory
memory.anchor.get / memory.anchor.set	Read/write named resume anchors
memory.session.checkpoint	Write a resume packet before compaction or handoff
memory.session.resume	Restore agent state from a prior checkpoint
memory.session.resume_by_task	Resume session anchored to a specific task ID
memory.savings	Retrieve cost/token savings report for this session
memory.learn	Explicitly promote an observation to long-term memory
memory.skills	List or look up stored procedural skills
team.create	Create a named multi-agent team
team.spawn	Spawn a worker agent into a team
team.task.create / team.task.assign / team.task.status	Create, assign, and track team tasks
team.message	Send a message to a team or member
team.status	Get overall team status
team.cleanup / team.gc	Tear down a team or garbage-collect stale state
team.presence	Report or query agent presence
team.lane.*	Manage named work lanes within a team
orchestrate.bind	Bind an orchestrator to a loop context
orchestrate.delegate	Delegate a subtask to another agent
orchestrate.handoff	Perform a structured handoff to another agent
orchestrate.status	Query orchestrator state
orchestrate.loop	Autonomous loop orchestration
memory.dream	Background OCF memory consolidation

Bring your own backend (files / sqlite-vec / Qdrant). See Composability and Loop Engineering.

Troubleshooting

Tools didn't refresh after upgrading Artesian

When you run brew upgrade artesian, the brew formula updates the binary on disk. However, Zed's Claude agent may still have a running artesian-mcp process from the old binary — a long-running MCP server keeps its file handle open on the old executable until restarted.

Symptoms: claude mcp list shows ✓ Connected but memory.* tools behave as before the upgrade (e.g., new tools are missing, or old bugs persist).

Why claude mcp list is misleading: The health-check reflects a fresh connection handshake, not the agent's live in-session tool registration. The agent loads tool definitions when the session starts — a stale process keeps the old tool list.

Fix:

1. Close the current Claude chat in Zed and open a new one (this spawns a fresh artesian-mcp from the updated binary).
2. Or manually kill stale processes: pkill -f artesian-mcp then restart the agent.
3. Future: artesian update --restart-stale will automate this (not yet released).

Note: Because Artesian uses a single multi-call binary (artesian-mcp is the same binary as artesian invoked as the MCP subcommand), brew upgrade always updates the MCP — you just need to restart any live sessions.

License

Apache-2.0.