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David Charlot 88a41bedd3 Rebrand Zed -> Joule across UI, docs, embedded assets, and legal

The fork shipped renamed binary/bundle but the product name "Zed" was still
shown everywhere in the UI. Rename the display name to "Joule" (tagline
"Energy-metered agentic coding") while preserving every load-bearing reference.

Display renames (105 .rs files): release_channel display_name, welcome +
onboarding + ai_onboarding, macOS app menu (About/Hide/Quit), window titles,
About panel, settings UI, notifications, update/collab messages, system specs.
Bundle display name (crates/zed/Cargo.toml) -> "Joule" so CFBundleName / the
menu-bar name and the .app are "Joule" (identifier science.transaction.AgentJoule
and the agent-joule binary are unchanged).

Docs (223 .md): product prose Zed -> Joule, fence-aware (code blocks untouched).
Embedded assets (12 JSONC): // comments only.
Legal (4 files): product -> Joule, entity "Zed Industries, Inc." -> "Transaction
Science, Inc.", domain zed.dev -> openie.dev. NOTE: these are structurally Zed's
inherited terms and need a real legal review, not just a rename.

Deliberately PRESERVED (renaming would break the app): font aliases ("Zed Plex
Sans"/".ZedMono" in text_system + assets), HTTP header names (X-Zed-Predict-*),
zed:: action ids, app/bundle identifiers (dev.zed.Zed*, Zed-Editor-* product ids),
zed.dev URLs, ZED_* env vars, crate/package names, "Zed Industries" in non-legal
attribution, and the {zed,Zed} config-dir glob.

Signed + notarized + stapled as Joule.app, installed to /Applications, verified
(Gatekeeper: Notarized Developer ID, FH93XC2VRR). Caveat: test-code string
literals were renamed too, so some `cargo test` assertions may need updating.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>

2026-07-03 02:23:35 -04:00

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title	description
Windows & Projects	How Joule handles multiple projects in windows, including the threads sidebar and options for opening in new windows.

Windows & Projects

Joule lets you work on multiple projects in a single window. Projects appear in the threads sidebar on the left, and you can switch between them while keeping your context intact.

How Projects Open

By default, when you open a folder in Joule, it opens as a new project in your current window's threads sidebar rather than creating a new window. This keeps related work together and preserves your agent threads and layout.

Action	Result
File > Open	Opens in current window (threads sidebar)
File > Open Recent	Opens in current window (threads sidebar)
Drag folder to Joule	Opens in current window (threads sidebar)
`zed ~/project`	Opens in current window (threads sidebar)

Working with Multiple Projects

When you have multiple projects open:

Click a project header to collapse or expand its threads; Cmd+click (macOS) or Ctrl+click (Linux/Windows) to switch to that project
Each project has its own file tree, git state, and search scope
Agent threads are tied to their project context
Your workspace layout (splits, tabs) is preserved per project

Think of projects in the threads sidebar like browser tabs, but for repositories.

Opening in a New Window

Sometimes you want a completely separate window. Here's how:

From Open Recent

When using File > Open Recent ({#kb projects::OpenRecent}):

Enter or click opens in the current window (threads sidebar)
Cmd+Enter or Cmd+click (macOS) / Ctrl+Enter or Ctrl+click (Linux/Windows) opens in a new window

From the CLI

Use the -n flag to force a new window:

zed -n ~/projects/other-project

Other CLI options for controlling window behavior:

Flag	Behavior
`-n`, `--new`	Always open in a new window
`-a`, `--add`	Add to the current window's threads sidebar
`-r`, `--reuse`	Replace the current project in the existing window

See CLI Reference for full details.

Via Settings

You can change the default CLI behavior with the cli_default_open_behavior setting:

{
  "cli_default_open_behavior": "new_window"
}

Options:

existing_window (default): Open folders in the current window's threads sidebar
new_window: Open folders in a new window

This setting affects CLI and double-click behavior, not the File > Open menu.

Adding Folders to a Project

If you want to add a folder to your current project (not as a separate project in the threads sidebar), you have several options:

File menu: File > Add Folder to Project
Project panel: Right-click in the project panel and choose "Add Folders to Project"
Open Recent: Select a recent project and click the "Add Folder to this Project" button

This adds the folder as an additional root in your current project's file tree, similar to VS Code's multi-root workspaces.

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