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Comparison · DevOps

Zed vs Rivet

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Zed and Rivet — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Shared themes:ai agents

Zed vs Rivet: at a glance

FeatureZedRivet
SectorDevOpsDevOps
Velocity score5.07.5
Sparks · 30d03
Top themescode editor, ai agents, git, agent client protocolactors, ai agents, sqlite, forking
Last editorial update1d ago2d ago
WebsiteVisit →—

What is Zed?

Zed 1.28 fetches Git in the background and keeps up with the Agent Client Protocol.

Zed ships a weekly minor plus patches. 1.28.1 adds optional automatic Git fetching, a resizable Refs column in the Git Graph, dragging Git Panel files into terminals and editors, and mouse-wheel zoom in diffs and terminals. On the AI side it updates Agent Client Protocol support, truncates very long lines in the agent's read_file output and adds a toggle for the edit prediction button.

Read the full Zed trajectory →

What is Rivet?

Rivet Actors can now fork in 20 ms, SQLite database included, without copying data.

Rivet builds infrastructure for long-lived actors and AI agents: BYOC, OpenTelemetry tracing, actor-scoped JWTs and agentOS Hosted VMs. The 3.0 Preview made Rivet a single stateless binary on S3, and the Rust SDK reached general availability on 6 November. On 11 November Rivet added actor forking: a fork starts in 20 ms with the original actor's state and SQLite database and costs nothing until it writes.

Read the full Rivet trajectory →

Zed vs Rivet: editorial side-by-side

Z
Zed
DEVOPS
5.0

Zed 1.28 fetches Git in the background and keeps up with the Agent Client Protocol.

◆ Current state

Zed ships a weekly minor plus patches. 1.28.1 adds optional automatic Git fetching, a resizable Refs column in the Git Graph, dragging Git Panel files into terminals and editors, and mouse-wheel zoom in diffs and terminals. On the AI side it updates Agent Client Protocol support, truncates very long lines in the agent's read_file output and adds a toggle for the edit prediction button.

◆ Where it's heading

Zed's weeks alternate between Git tooling and agent plumbing, and 1.28 does both. The ACP work keeps outside agents usable inside Zed as the protocol changes, while the Git features chip away at reasons to leave the editor for a separate client.

◆ Prediction

Expect 1.29 next week with more Git Graph and Git Panel work and further ACP compatibility fixes.

R
Rivet
DEVOPS
7.5

Rivet Actors can now fork in 20 ms, SQLite database included, without copying data.

◆ Current state

Rivet builds infrastructure for long-lived actors and AI agents: BYOC, OpenTelemetry tracing, actor-scoped JWTs and agentOS Hosted VMs. The 3.0 Preview made Rivet a single stateless binary on S3, and the Rust SDK reached general availability on 6 November. On 11 November Rivet added actor forking: a fork starts in 20 ms with the original actor's state and SQLite database and costs nothing until it writes.

◆ Where it's heading

Rivet keeps turning its S3-backed storage engine into features for agent workloads. Copy-on-write forking follows from the 3.0 storage design and gives agents a cheap way to branch a session, try something and discard it. The SDK and auth work of the past two months points to Rivet positioning actors as the runtime for agent backends.

◆ Prediction

Forking is likely to show up next in agentOS and the Pi integrations as a way to branch agent runs; the entries do not say when 3.0 leaves preview.

Alternatives to Zed and Rivet

Other DevOps products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Zed or Rivet.

See all Zed alternatives → · See all Rivet alternatives →

Recent activity from Zed and Rivet

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 2d agoRivetIntroducing OpenOrange: Run Cloudflare Workers Anywhere ⚡
  2. 2d agoZedZed 1.28: background Git fetch, Git Graph refs, ACP updates
  3. 3d agoRivetIntroducing Actor Forking for SQLite ⚡
  4. 8d agoRivetRust SDK for Rivet Actors Is Now Generally Available
  5. 9d agoZedZed 1.27: repo-style AI commit messages, lighter Agent Panel
  6. 16d agoZedZed 1.26.2: Pyrefly, WebAssembly debugging, debugger variable trees
  7. 19d agoRivetIntroducing Rivet 3.0 Preview ⚡
  8. 21d agoZedZed 1.25.3 patches vulnerable dependencies
  9. 23d agoZedZed 1.25.2: smaller binaries, ACP context compaction, Bedrock models
  10. 25d agoZedZed 1.24.4 fixes OpenCode models failing to load
  11. 1mo agoRivetIntroducing agentOS 0.4 & Hosted VMs
  12. 1mo agoRivetIntroducing Pi Durable for Rivet

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Zed and Rivet?

Both compete on the same themes — ai agents — within DevOps. Rivet is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 5.0), with 3 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Zed better than Rivet?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Rivet is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 5.0), with 3 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other DevOps products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Zed?

Top Zed alternatives in DevOps are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Zed alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/zed for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to Rivet?

Top Rivet alternatives in DevOps are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Rivet alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rivet for the full list with editorial commentary on each.