With AppSignal's MCP Server and Zed AI, it's easier than ever to ship code with confidence, while cutting out time-consuming context switching. In this article, we'll show you how to master your coding workflow with the help of AppSignal's MCP Server and Zed's AI editor.

What Is an MCP Server?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard developed by Anthropic that enables AI assistants to securely connect with external data sources and tools. Think of it as a universal adapter that lets AI models interact with your development tools, databases, and services through a standardized interface.

AppSignal's MCP server leverages this protocol to act as a bridge between your application monitoring data and your AI-powered development environment. Instead of manually searching through dashboards or copying error traces, the MCP server allows AI assistants to directly query your application's AppSignal performance metrics, error logs, and deployment data.

Eliminate Context Switching with In-Editor Monitoring

Traditional debugging workflows involve constantly context switching. Swapping from your editor to your browser and back to gather context as you debug, breaking your flow, your focus, and slowing you down.

With AppSignal's MCP server, you don't need to have an AppSignal tab open in your browser; instead, you can embed core monitoring insights directly into your code editor.

You can replace switching between several editors and browser tabs with asking your AI assistant, "What errors happened in the checkout flow this morning?", and receive AppSignal monitoring insight, in real-time, helping you ship fixes faster without leaving your editor.

What Data Can You Access?

The AppSignal MCP server provides access to your app's core monitoring data:

This means you can ask your AI assistant questions like "Show me all errors from the payment service in the last hour" or "What's the average response time for the user dashboard endpoint today?" and get immediate, contextual answers without opening a browser.

Why Zed Is Ideal for AI-Powered Development

While VSCode has dominated the IDE market, the race to build the best AI-enabled code editor has produced tools like Cursor, JetBrains Junie, Copilot, and Cline. Zed is a unique addition to this family, created by Nathan Sobo, Antonio Scandurra, and Max Brunsfeld, who know exactly where VS Code hits its ceiling.

If you don't recognize Zed's founders by name, you may unknowingly be familiar with one of their previous innovations: the Atom code editor, which they built during their time at GitHub and enjoyed broad adoption. Despite its popularity, the project was sunset in 2022.

Atom's creators, however, were not deterred in their mission to build a modern editor that ditched decades-old web technology and could bring coding into the future. They created Zed: a fast, modern, Rust-based editor. Zed's core design makes it ideal for MCP-powered workflows, with a growing list of extensions and handy features like vim mode, VSCode setting import, and team collaboration mode.

Getting Started with AppSignal MCP in Zed

Setting up AppSignal's MCP Server with Zed takes just a few minutes. Here's the quick overview:

Before You Begin: What You Need

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Docker installed: The AppSignal MCP server runs in a Docker container. Get Docker here if you don't have it yet.
• An AppSignal account: Sign up for free if you haven't already
• Zed editor: Download Zed for your platform

Get AppSignal MCP Running in Zed

1. Install AppSignal in Your Application

Follow the AppSignal installation guide for your framework. For Node.js applications, this typically involves:

npm install @appsignal/nodejs

2. Configure Zed's MCP Connection

You can add AppSignal as a context server directly through Zed's interface in two simple steps:

1. Click the menu icon (⋯) in the top-right corner of Zed and select Add Custom Server...

2. In the dialog that appears, paste the following configuration:

{
  "context_servers": {
    "appsignal": {
      "enabled": true,
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "APPSIGNAL_API_KEY", "appsignal/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "APPSIGNAL_API_KEY": "your_mcp_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using Zed's AI Assistant with AppSignal

Zed's built-in AI assistant becomes significantly more powerful when connected to AppSignal.

Combining Zed's AI-superpowers with AppSignal's APM insights gives you a powerful debugging tool that helps you focus on faster shipping instead of faster context switching.

To open the AI assistant, use the shortcut cmd + a (or ctrl + a on Linux/Windows). You can start utilizing AppSignal right away by asking questions like:

Check AppSignal for any errors in the checkout flow

Zed will:

1. Query AppSignal via the MCP connection
2. Analyze the returned error data
3. Provide a summary with relevant file references
4. Suggest potential fixes or areas to investigate

When the AI references specific code, you can click directly on those references to jump straight to the relevant line of code.

Since our newly created example project doesn't have any errors yet, our output would look like:

Once your app is up and running with AppSignal installed, you can get deep AppSignal MCP insights on:

• Errors: Show me all errors from the payment service in the last hour

• Performance metrics: What's the average response time for the user dashboard endpoint today?

• Anomaly detection: Are there any performance anomalies in the checkout flow?

• Health check-ins: What's the current health status of all services?

• Uptime monitoring: Show me uptime metrics for the API gateway

• Application logging: Search logs for authentication failures in the last hour

For more useful responses, be sure to get specific with details like time ranges and naming. You can also reference specific incident numbers directly: if you receive an email notification like "[Incidents] 1 error incident for API [#11]", you can simply ask Zed:

Let's debug Error Incident #11

And Zed will fetch the relevant details from AppSignal and help you ship a fix.

Configure Zed for Your Workflow

If you're switching to Zed from another editor, you can configure handy settings like toggling on Vim keybindings, and you can import your VSCode settings to help you adapt to your new editor smoothly.

{
  "vim_mode": true,
  "vim": {
    "use_system_clipboard": "always"
  }
}

Zed also includes built-in Git support with inline blame and offers a full suite of Slack-like collaboration features that make it easier than ever to pair-program and ship code with your team.

Real-World Use Cases

Here are some common scenarios where the AppSignal MCP server and Zed integration can significantly improve your workflow:

• Debugging production errors: Ask "Show me the most recent errors from the payment service" and get stack traces with clickable file references, all without leaving your editor.
• Investigating performance regressions: Query "Compare the average response time for the user dashboard endpoint today versus yesterday" to quickly identify if your recent changes caused the issue.
• Monitoring new deployments: Check deployment health by asking, "Are there any new errors or performance issues since the deployment?" and get a comprehensive view of your app's status.
• Daily health checks: Start your day with "Give me a summary of application health from the last 24 hours" to prioritize your work based on real monitoring data.

These workflows demonstrate how the AppSignal MCP server transforms monitoring from a separate task into an integrated part of your development process, reducing context switching and keeping you focused on writing code.

Start Shipping Smarter Code with AppSignal and Zed

The widespread adoption of the MCP protocol presents a huge shift in how developers interact with their toolkit. By bringing vital data into your code editor, you can easily cut down on the context switching that slows down development.

With AppSignal's MCP Server and Zed, you can:

Additional Resources

• AppSignal MCP Server Tour: Learn more about MCP server capabilities
• AppSignal MCP Server Documentation: Our complete setup guide and API reference
• Zed Documentation: Explore Zed's features and configuration options
• Model Context Protocol: Learn about the MCP standard and other integrations

As the MCP ecosystem continues to grow and Zed's extension library expands, we can expect even more powerful integrations that further streamline the development process. With AppSignal's MCP Server, you can bring production insights directly into your editor. Less context switching, more shipping.

Got questions or suggestions? We're always listening! Reach out to us in our Discord community or email us at support@appsignal.com.