Install DataForSEO MCP in Zed

What you need first

• Zed, installed.
• Node.js, which gives the npx command the server starts with.
• Your own values for YOUR_DATAFORSEO_USERNAME,YOUR_DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD.

Steps

1. Open Zed's settings file, ~/.config/zed/settings.json (on Windows %APPDATA%\Zed\settings.json), or .zed/settings.json for one project.
2. Add this block. If the file already has context_servers, add only the entry inside it.

{
  "context_servers": {
    "dataforseo-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@scalably-io/[email protected]"],
      "env": { "DATAFORSEO_USERNAME": "YOUR_DATAFORSEO_USERNAME", "DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD": "YOUR_DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD" }
    }
  }
}

3. Replace YOUR_DATAFORSEO_USERNAME,YOUR_DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD with your own values.
4. Save the file. Zed starts the server, and Settings › AI › MCP Servers lists it.

Check it worked

Ask Zed: List the tools of dataforseo-mcp.

If it does not start

spawn npx ENOENT

Node.js is not on the PATH that Zed sees. Install it, or write the full path of npx in the config.

The server starts, but its tools fail

A YOUR_… placeholder is still in the config, or its value is wrong.

Nothing changes after a restart

The file is not valid JSON any more. Look for a missing comma where the block was added.