ZUS: An AI-native IDE. AI does the work, you own the project.

ZUS is a desktop IDE with an AI agent built-in, developed by the 8 Sync team. The editor, chat frame with the agent, terminal, Git, and design spaces are all in one window. You don’t have to open five or six applications just to get one thing done.

Why ZUS

Writing code with AI is most laborious outside of just typing prompts. You need to explain the project to the AI, monitor what it's modifying, review the changes, and fix things when it goes wrong. If each task is in a separate tool, you waste a lot of time just switching back and forth. ZUS consolidates those tasks in one place. As a result, you always see what the AI is doing, and you can stop or change its direction at any time.

What you can do in ZUS

• Assign tasks to the Agent directly within the IDE: understand the codebase, plan, modify code, run commands. The Agent only operates within the permissions you grant.
• Code Intelligence runs on your machine. The index and project context are stored locally, not uploaded to 8 Sync's server.
• Agent Sessions and Team Inspector allow you to review each work session: which tools the Agent or Subagent has called, what tasks are running, and what tasks have stopped.
• Review Changes and Git: read diffs before saving changes, perform familiar Git operations, and undo areas where the AI made mistakes.
• Sketch, Workflow Graph, and Live Preview: sketch the interface, diagram the workflow, and preview the interface being developed right next to the code.

Some ways to use ZUS

You just received an unfamiliar repo and need to fix a bug today. Ask the Agent to read the codebase and identify where the flow processing is faulty. The Agent suggests a fix, you review the diff in Review Changes, and then decide whether to keep it or not. If the Agent's fix affects unrelated files, you can undo only that portion and keep the rest.

You are a student working on a project and want to understand the code, not just have it run. You can ask the Agent why a function is written that way, and then fix it yourself. Agent Sessions keep a record of the entire exchange for you to review later.

Your team needs a new screen. You sketch the layout in Sketch, link the processing steps in Workflow Graph, and then let the Agent build the interface. Live Preview shows the results right next to the code so the whole team can see where it deviates from the mockup.

The Agent runs a long task and calls multiple Subagents. The Team Inspector lets you see which tools each Subagent has called, what tasks are running, and which ones are stuck, so you know where to stop or change direction.

Who should use ZUS

ZUS is suitable for solo developers, indie hackers, IT students, product creators, and startup teams. In general, anyone who wants to let AI handle the heavy lifting while still making final decisions about code and technology.

Getting Started

ZUS has versions for Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon), and Linux. Visit https://zus.8syncdev.com to see an introduction and how to sign up for a trial. Once you have access, open your project folder and connect your AI provider to get started. The list of providers depends on the version you have installed.

What ZUS cares about

With ZUS, the number of lines of code written by AI is not the main metric. What matters is whether the AI understands the project correctly and operates within the scope you allow. After each round, you also need to know exactly what has changed, what has been checked, and what still needs to be verified.

The three guiding principles for ZUS are Local-First, Human Agency, and Evidence-Grounded Development. Project data resides on your machine, the final decision is yours, and when AI reports that it’s done, it must be able to point to evidence.

AI does the work. You own the project.

ZUS is still under development. Some features may depend on the version of the application, the operating system, and the AI provider you connect with.</