ASON MCP Server for Zed

Model Context Protocol (MCP) extension for Zed that provides ASON compression/decompression tools in the AI assistant. Reduce token usage by 20-60% for LLM interactions while maintaining 100% lossless round-trip fidelity.

✨ Features

• 🤖 AI Assistant Integration: Use ASON tools directly in Zed's AI Assistant
• 📦 Zero Configuration: Works out of the box, auto-installs dependencies
• 🔄 Auto-Update: Automatically installs and uses latest MCP server from npm
• ⚡ Fast: Native Rust extension compiled to WebAssembly

Available Tools

• compress_json - Compress JSON to ASON format (20-60% token reduction)
• decompress_ason - Decompress ASON back to JSON (lossless)
• get_compression_stats - Analyze compression metrics
• configure_compressor - Customize compression settings

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

• Zed Editor (latest version)
• Node.js v18+ (runtime requirement)
• Rust (only for local development)

Option 1: From Zed Extensions (Recommended)

Coming soon - pending submission to Zed extensions repository

1. Open Zed
2. Press Cmd+Shift+X (Extensions)
3. Search for "ASON MCP Server"
4. Click Install

Option 2: Local Development Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ason-format/zed-extension
cd zed-extension

# Install Rust dependencies and build
cargo build --release

# Install as dev extension in Zed
# In Zed: Cmd+Shift+P → "zed: install dev extension" → Select this folder

🚀 Usage

Once installed, the ASON MCP server is available in Zed's AI assistant:

Compress JSON

Ask the assistant: "Compress this JSON using ASON"
{
  "users": [
    {"id": 1, "name": "Alice", "age": 25},
    {"id": 2, "name": "Bob", "age": 30}
  ]
}

The assistant will use the compress_json tool and return:

users:[2]{id,name,age}
1|Alice|25
2|Bob|30

Decompress ASON

Ask the assistant: "Decompress this ASON to JSON"
users:[2]{id,name,age}
1|Alice|25
2|Bob|30

Returns the original JSON structure.

Get Compression Stats

Ask the assistant: "Show me compression stats for this JSON"
{"data": [...]}

Returns detailed metrics:

• Original vs compressed tokens
• Byte size comparison
• Reduction percentage

🔧 Configuration

Enable the Context Server

After installing the extension, enable it in your Zed settings.json:

{
  "context_servers": {
    "ason-mcp/ason": {
      "source": "extension",
      "enabled": true,
      "settings": {}
    }
  }
}

The extension will automatically:

1. Install @ason-format/mcp-server@latest from npm
2. Start the MCP server using Node.js
3. Make ASON tools available in the AI Assistant

No additional configuration needed!

📊 How It Works

This extension provides a thin Rust wrapper around the @ason-format/mcp-server npm package:

1. Extension loads → Rust code initializes in Zed
2. MCP server installs → Uses npm_install_package API to get latest version
3. Server starts → Executes Node.js with installed package path
4. Tools available → AI assistant can use ASON compression tools
5. Auto-updates → Checks and installs latest version on each launch

🏗️ Architecture

Zed AI Assistant
    ↓ loads
Rust Extension (WebAssembly)
    ↓ installs
@ason-format/mcp-server (npm)
    ↓ executes
Node.js + MCP Server
    ↓ provides
MCP Tools (compress/decompress/stats/configure)
    ↓ uses
@ason-format/ason (core library)

🛠️ Development

Requirements

• Rust (via rustup)
• Node.js v18+

Build

# Build the extension
cargo build --release

# Test locally in Zed
# Cmd+Shift+P → "zed: install dev extension"

Project Structure

zed-extension/
├── Cargo.toml          # Rust dependencies (zed_extension_api, serde, schemars)
├── extension.toml      # Zed extension manifest
├── src/
│   └── lib.rs         # Extension implementation (context_server_command)
├── scripts/
│   └── release.sh     # Release automation
├── CHANGELOG.md        # Version history
└── README.md           # This file

🎯 Use Cases

1. Reduce LLM Token Costs

"Compress this API response before sending to GPT"
{large JSON object}

Save 20-60% on token costs.

2. Analyze Data Efficiency

"Show me how much this JSON could be compressed"
{your data}

Get metrics before committing to ASON.

3. Store Compressed Data

"Convert this to ASON format for storage"
{data to store}

Reduce database storage size.

📚 What is ASON?

ASON (Aliased Serialization Object Notation) is a token-optimized JSON compression format designed for LLMs.

Key Features:

• 20-60% token reduction
• 100% lossless fidelity
• Human-readable
• Multiple compression techniques

Compression Techniques:

1. Sections: @section - Organize related objects
2. Tabular Arrays: key:[N]{fields} - CSV-like format for uniform arrays
3. Semantic References: $var - Deduplicate repeated values
4. Pipe Delimiter: | - More token-efficient than commas
5. Dot Notation: user.profile.name:Alice - Flatten nested objects

Learn More:

• ASON Core
• Interactive Demo
• MCP Server

🚀 Publishing

To release a new version:

./scripts/release.sh

# 1. Select version bump (patch/minor/major)
# 2. Update CHANGELOG.md when prompted
# 3. Confirm push

# Then submit to Zed Extensions:
# https://github.com/zed-industries/extensions

📝 License

MIT © ASON Project Contributors

🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please open an issue or pull request.

🔗 Links

• Extension: https://github.com/ason-format/zed-extension
• MCP Server: https://github.com/ason-format/mcp-server
• ASON Core: https://github.com/ason-format/ason
• Zed Extensions: https://github.com/zed-industries/extensions
• Issues: https://github.com/ason-format/zed-extension/issues