Glass

Glass is a browser, code editor, and terminal in one app. Instead of switching between separate applications, everything lives in the same environment. Anyone can use the browser — developers also get an editor and terminal alongside it.

Glass is a fork of Zed. We actively sync with upstream every week. Glass would not be possible without the incredible work the Zed team continues to do.

Glass is in active development. The focus right now is macOS, with Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android planned.

---

What is Glass?

• Browser — A full browser. Browse, stream, work — you never have to touch the editor if you don't want to.
• Code editor — Inherited from Zed, with significant UI changes and native macOS components.
• Terminal — Built into the same environment.

For developers, everything is connected. Deep integration between coding, execution, and service management is the long-term vision.

GPUI

Zed's UI framework, GPUI, lives in the same repository as Zed. We separated it into its own standalone repository at Glass-HQ/gpui and extended it with native iOS and macOS components, making it a framework that multiple apps can build on. We are also bringing iOS support to GPUI so that apps built with it can run everywhere.

Local GPUI Development

Production builds, CI, and releases use the pinned Glass-HQ/gpui revision from Cargo.toml. They do not depend on a sibling checkout.

If you are changing Glass and GPUI together, use script/cargo-gpui-local to opt into a local override:

script/cargo-gpui-local build -p zed
script/cargo-gpui-local test -p gpui_examples

The script uses GLASS_GPUI_PATH when it is set, and otherwise defaults to ../gpui.

To launch Glass itself against a local GPUI checkout, set GLASS_USE_LOCAL_GPUI=1 or GLASS_GPUI_PATH before running script/zed-local.

---

Building Glass

• Building for macOS

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for ways you can contribute to Glass.

Licensing

Glass is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. This is the same license used by Zed, the project Glass is forked from.

A small number of utility crates are licensed under Apache License 2.0. See individual crate Cargo.toml files for details.

Third-party dependency compliance

License information for third party dependencies must be correctly provided for CI to pass.

We use cargo-about to automatically comply with open source licenses. If CI is failing, check the following:

• Is it showing a no license specified error for a crate you've created? If so, add publish = false under [package] in your crate's Cargo.toml.
• Is the error failed to satisfy license requirements for a dependency? If so, first determine what license the project has and whether this system is sufficient to comply with this license's requirements. If you're unsure, ask a lawyer. Once you've verified that this system is acceptable add the license's SPDX identifier to the accepted array in script/licenses/zed-licenses.toml.
• Is cargo-about unable to find the license for a dependency? If so, add a clarification field at the end of script/licenses/zed-licenses.toml, as specified in the cargo-about book.

Acknowledgments

Glass is built on top of Zed, created by Zed Industries, Inc. — the team behind Atom and Tree-sitter. Their work on the editor, GPUI, and the broader ecosystem made Glass possible.