CopyWorkCode

Review AI-generated code changes by typing them yourself.

When an AI assistant edits your code, the change doesn't just land silently. CopyWorkCode presents it and asks you to write it out, change by change. While you type, the file follows the code to the letter — a wrong key changes nothing — and if you disagree with what the AI wrote, one keystroke hands you the editor to write your own version instead. Skip any change with a click, and set rules to auto-skip files you don't care to review.

Everything runs locally: no account, no network calls, no data leaving the machine.

Why

1. Actual review. You can't skim code you have to type. Retyping forces you to read every line at the pace of understanding, not the pace of scrolling.
2. Learning by writing. Writing things down measurably improves retention. Keep building your understanding of your own codebase even when much of the code is AI-generated.
3. Proof of review. "I looked at it" is not measurable. "I typed it" is — the extension records which changes were written out versus skipped.

Getting started

1. Install the extension.
2. Open a project and run CopyWorkCode: Enable in this Workspace from the command palette. The extension does nothing in a workspace until you ask it to.
3. Choose where changes come from. Either turn on agent capture (below), or point the queue at a git revision with CopyWorkCode: Compare Against Git — which needs no setup and is also how you review changes that landed before capture was on.
4. Open the CopyWorkCode panel in the activity bar. Files with unreviewed changes are listed there, biggest change first. Click one to start reviewing it.

Turning on agent capture

Capture is off until you turn it on. CopyWorkCode: Turn On Agent Capture records edits made by Claude Code through its hooks — a snapshot of each file taken before the edit, plus a log of what changed.

It works by adding one entry to ~/.claude/settings.json. That file is the only thing outside your workspace the extension will ever touch, it is only touched if you turn capture on, and CopyWorkCode: Turn Off Agent Capture puts it back as it was.

Files whose contents should not be copied — credentials, keys, environment files — are refused before they reach any review surface.

Reviewing

Opening a file from the queue guides the retype in place. Text you haven't typed yet is dimmed, the section you're on is highlighted, and the diff against the baseline stays one keystroke away.

Matched keystrokes insert nothing — they lift the dimming — so typing a change out exactly leaves the file byte-identical.

Two states

While guidance is armed, the editor is read-only for the session. A key that doesn't match inserts nothing, and neither does a stray paste, a backspace, an undo, or another extension's edit. A mistyped character can't quietly rewrite the code you're reading.

Ctrl+E hands the editor over: write, erase, paste and reformat, with completions and auto-close back. Ctrl+E again arms guidance and puts the caret back where the section left off. Neither direction loses progress, and anything you changed by hand is recorded as yours rather than the AI's.

Keys

Every one of these is a normal keybinding and can be rebound in Keyboard Shortcuts.

Walking a change your own way

Sections aren't a queue — click into any of them and start typing. Finishing one still moves you to the next, so you can also just keep typing and be led through the file.

Opening another file pauses the review you were in rather than ending it. Come back to that file and it picks up exactly where you stopped, even if the file changed while it waited.

Lines the change removed are marked where they were, with the text on hover and a panel for the ones that don't fit. There is nothing to type on a deletion — Enter acknowledges it.

The change set page

CopyWorkCode: Open the Change Set Page puts every changed region of every waiting file into one document, read top to bottom and typed in place — for the sitting where you want to see what a whole session did rather than open twelve tabs.

Removed lines appear in full where they were. Context is three lines either side, expandable. The keys are the ones above. There are no language features on the page — no IntelliSense, no go-to-definition — so "open in editor" sits on every file, and Ctrl+E hands a file to a real editor review carrying whatever the page already covered.

Settings

Requirements

VS Code 1.90 or later. Agent capture needs Claude Code; every other way in — git comparison, the queue, the review itself — works without it.

Status

Early development. The review loop works end to end; intent capture and detection for agents beyond Claude Code are still ahead.

License

MIT