Training Data Why IDEs Won't Die in the Age of AI Coding: Zed Founder Nathan Sobo
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Dec 2, 2025 
Nathan Sobo, founder of Zed and former lead at GitHub's Atom, dives into the world of integrated development environments (IDEs) and AI coding collaboration. He argues that despite the rise of terminal-based tools, IDEs are invaluable for human readability of code. Nathan shares insights on the Agent Client Protocol, allowing diverse AI tools to work with Zed seamlessly. He also discusses the future of coding conversations linked to fine-grained edits, envisioning a more interactive way for developers to collaborate and innovate.
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Code Is A Human Language
- Source code is a language meant for humans to read, not just machines to execute.
- Nathan Sobo argues human interaction with code will persist until AGI arrives.
From Atom To Electron To Hitting A Ceiling
- Nathan built Atom on web technology and helped create Electron to enable extensible desktop apps.
- He later hit a performance ceiling and decided the web was not a suitable foundation for his IDE goals.
Rethinking Collaboration Beyond Git
- Zed was designed to enable synchronous, presence-based collaboration in code like Figma for designers.
- Nathan sees Git's snapshot model as insufficient for many real-time collaborative interactions.