title: Agent Profiles - Zed description: Configure Zed Agent profiles for model selection, built-in tool availability, and MCP tool availability.

Agent Profiles

Agent profiles control how the Zed Agent behaves in a thread. A profile can set a default model and choose which built-in tools and MCP tools are available.

Profiles do not decide whether a tool call is allowed automatically. Use Tool Permissions to control allow, deny, and confirm behavior.

Built-in Profiles {#built-in-profiles}

Zed includes three built-in profiles:

Write: enables tools for reading, editing, and running commands.
Ask: focuses on read-only codebase questions.
Minimal: uses no project tools.

Configure Profiles {#configure-profiles}

Open the profile selector in the Agent Panel, then click Configure.

You can also run {#action agent::ManageProfiles} from the command palette.

From the profile modal, you can:

create a custom profile
fork an existing profile
configure a profile default model
configure built-in tools
configure MCP tools
delete custom profiles

Profiles and Settings {#settings}

Profiles are stored under agent.profiles in your settings.

{
  "agent": {
    "profiles": {
      "ask": {
        "name": "Ask",
        "tools": {
          "read_file": true,
          "grep": true,
          "terminal": false,
          "edit_file": false
        },
        "enable_all_context_servers": false,
        "context_servers": {},
        "default_model": {
          "provider": "zed.dev",
          "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The exact model IDs and provider IDs depend on your configured LLM Providers.

Profiles vs. Tool Permissions {#profiles-vs-tool-permissions}

Setting	Controls	Example
Agent profile	Whether a tool is available in a profile	Disable `terminal` in a read-only profile
Tool permissions	Whether a permission-gated tool call is allowed, denied, or confirmed	Always confirm `terminal` commands

If a tool is not available in the active profile, the Zed Agent cannot use it. If the tool is available and permission-gated, Tool Permissions still controls whether the tool call requires approval.

Agent Path Boundaries {#agent-path-boundaries}

Agent profiles apply to the Zed Agent. External Agents and Terminal Threads do not use Zed Agent profiles unless their integration explicitly supports similar behavior.