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13 Oct 2026 / editor telemetry / checkpoint restore

A restore button leaves two trails.

One trail rewinds the files. The other records that somebody pulled the lever. Zed's latest release is a useful reminder to inspect both.

Action is not contentRead the eventTest the off switch

The small release note is the interesting one.

Zed 1.23.3 added telemetry for use of the Agent Panel checkpoint feature. Its release note says this telemetry is opt in and has no effect when telemetry is disabled.[1] The feature itself puts a Restore Checkpoint button above a user message after the model edits files. Zed says the button can appear after an interrupted edit too.[2]

The restore and the metric answer different questions. The restore asks whether the working tree returned to an earlier state. The metric asks whether the restore action was used. A privacy review should not collapse those into one vague label called agent data.

Do not ask whether telemetry is on. Ask which event can leave, when it leaves, and what a reviewer can read before it goes.

The patch names the event.

The merged change emits an event called Agent Checkpoint Restored. The patch passes an agent telemetry identifier and a session identifier with that event, then calls the checkpoint restore function.[3] The patch shown in the pull request does not add file contents, prompt text, or the restored diff to this event.

That source observation is narrower than a claim about every packet the application can send. Zed's telemetry documentation lists other client metrics, diagnostics, and hosted-service metadata. A code review of one event cannot prove that no other event fires during the same session.

The switch has more than two positions.

Zed separates client diagnostics from client metrics. The documented settings expose telemetry.diagnostics and telemetry.metrics. Zed says client events are sent every five minutes or when 50 events accumulate. It names Sentry, Snowflake, Hex, and Amplitude in the documented route.[4]

The same page separates server-side metadata used by hosted AI and collaboration services. Those service records are required for the hosted feature to work. Turning off client metrics does not mean the hosted service has no operational records. That distinction belongs in the interface and the review card.

An audit needs a local witness.

Zed documents a local telemetry log. Open the command palette and run zed: open telemetry log, or use Help and View Telemetry Log.[4] This gives a user a practical inspection point before reaching for a packet capture or source build.

A useful check has four passes. Record the version and settings. Restore a disposable checkpoint. Read the local telemetry log. Repeat with metrics disabled and compare the result. If hosted AI is in scope, record that path separately instead of claiming that the client switch silences every service record.

Checkpoint quality still needs its own test.

Telemetry inspection does not prove that restore works. Test the state before the edit, the files changed by the agent, the state after restore, and any residue outside the tracked working tree. Include interrupted edits because the documented UI offers a checkpoint at that boundary.

Keep the two receipts apart. One receipt covers file rollback. The other covers event behavior. If either result is missing, the honest status is test structure ready, not privacy verified or restore verified.

Interactive makeover / telemetry witness rack

Trace the event route.

A privacy toggle hides too much. This rack joins the selected posture to the client event, local witness, hosted-service boundary, and a copyable test card. It does not inspect your editor.

Set postureRestore fixtureRead local logCompare route

Telemetry posture

Choose one documented client posture. Hosted-service records remain a separate route.

Test-card sections

These switches add requests to the card. They do not record a test result.

Client metrics off

Run the disposable restore, then inspect the local log. The selected posture is a test condition, not a verified result.

Route: client metrics off0 sections selected
Test frame open.

No test section is selected. No checkpoint or telemetry behavior has been observed.

Sources read / 13 Oct 2026

Source log

Open the evidence boundary
  1. Zed stable release 1.23.3, published October 12 and read October 13, 2026. This is the source for the release note that checkpoint usage telemetry was added and that it has no effect when telemetry is disabled.
  2. Zed documentation, "Agent Panel: Checkpoints", read October 13, 2026. This defines when the Restore Checkpoint control appears, including after an interrupted edit.
  3. Zed pull request 65331, merged October 8 and read October 13, 2026. The public patch names the event and shows the agent and session fields added before the restore call. The pull request is a stable-branch cherry-pick of pull request 65326.
  4. Zed documentation, "Telemetry in Zed", read October 13, 2026. This defines client diagnostics, client metrics, server-side metadata, the two client settings, the documented batching schedule, named data services, and the local telemetry log.

Evidence boundary: this dispatch read Zed's release note, current Agent Panel and telemetry documentation, and the public checkpoint telemetry patch. We did not install Zed 1.23.3, restore a checkpoint, inspect a local telemetry log, capture network traffic, or audit the complete telemetry code. The witness rack creates a test-card structure only. Every result remains required or marked not run.