MEDIC

Runtime error monitoring for VS Code — automatically dispatches errors to GitHub Copilot for diagnosis and fixing.

MEDIC watches your running application's log files and terminal output for runtime errors, displays them in a real-time dashboard, and sends them straight to GitHub Copilot Chat with full context — so the AI agent can diagnose and fix issues as they happen.

Error detected in MEDIC dashboard	Copilot diagnosing and fixing the error

What is MEDIC?

When you're running a full-stack app, errors can appear anywhere — buried in log files, scrolling past in terminals, or hidden across multiple services. Manually copying errors into Copilot Chat is tedious and slow.

MEDIC automates the entire loop:

1. Detect — File and terminal watchers catch errors the moment they appear
2. Triage — Errors show up in a live dashboard with duplicate grouping and severity tracking
3. Dispatch — One click (or auto-trigger) sends errors to Copilot with full context
4. Resolve — Copilot fixes the code; MEDIC marks the error as resolved

Features

Error Watchers

• Log file monitoring — Watch any log file for error patterns (supports .log, .txt, structured logs)
• Terminal monitoring — Capture errors from any VS Code terminal by name pattern
• Built-in presets — Ready-made patterns for .NET, Python, Node.js, Rust, Go, and more
• Custom regex — Write your own patterns with named capture groups (message, file, line)
• UTF-16LE & ANSI support — Handles Windows-style log files and strips color codes automatically

Live Dashboard

• Two-column layout — Error feed on the left, watchers sidebar on the right (responsive single-column on narrow panels)
• Error cards — Collapsible cards with source, timestamp, severity icon, and full stack trace
• Duplicate grouping — Identical errors are grouped with occurrence counters and smooth re-occurrence animations
• Status tracking — Each error flows through pending → sent → resolved lifecycle
• Source filtering — Click any watcher name to filter errors from that source
• Watcher status dots — Green/red/gray indicators show which watchers are active

Copilot Integration

• Chat mode selector — Choose between Agent (autonomous fixes), Ask (Q&A), or Plan (plan before fixing)
• Model selector — Pick any available language model from the dropdown
• Session mode — Send to a new chat session or continue in the active one
• Agent participant — Route to @workspace, @terminal, @vscode, or default Copilot
• Approval mode — Auto-approve agent actions or require confirmation
• Compose box — Add a guiding note to customize how Copilot should approach the fix
• Auto-trigger — Optionally send errors to Copilot automatically on detection (configurable debounce)

Prompt Engineering

• Customizable templates — Full control over the prompt sent to Copilot via template variables
• Resolve instructions — Prompts include the errorPilot.resolveError command so Copilot can mark errors as fixed
• Multi-error batching — Select multiple errors and send them in a single prompt
• User notes — Append guidance ("focus on the database layer", "don't modify tests") to any dispatch

Quick Start

1. Install the extension from the VS Code Marketplace (or build from source)
2. Open the MEDIC panel from the Activity Bar (eye + cross icon)
3. MEDIC auto-creates watchers for common log paths — or click + to add your own:
   • Log file: Point to your app's log file (relative or absolute path, supports glob patterns)
   • Terminal: Match terminals by name (e.g., * for all, dotnet* for .NET terminals)
4. Errors appear in the dashboard as they're detected
5. Click the send button on any error, or use the compose box to add context before sending
6. Copilot opens with the error and full context, ready to fix

Tip: For the best experience, right-click the MEDIC icon in the Activity Bar and select "Move to Secondary Side Bar" to place it alongside Copilot Chat on the right.

Configuration

All settings are under errorPilot.* in VS Code Settings, or configurable directly from the MEDIC dashboard pickers.

Custom Error Patterns

Error patterns use JavaScript regex with optional named capture groups:

(?:ERROR|FATAL):\s*(?<message>.+)
at .+ in (?<file>.+):line (?<line>\d+)

Supported named groups: message, file, line.

Commands

All commands are available from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) under the MEDIC category:

Requirements

• VS Code 1.93.0 or later
• GitHub Copilot extension (for chat integration)

Development

git clone https://github.com/bitinglip/vscode-medic.git
cd vscode-medic
npm install
npm run build

Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host.

Building a VSIX

npm install -g @vscode/vsce
vsce package --no-dependencies

Project Structure

src/
├── extension.ts              # Extension entry point, command registration
├── ErrorQueue.ts             # In-memory error store with lifecycle tracking
├── WatcherManager.ts         # File and terminal watcher management
├── CopilotBridge.ts          # Prompt building and Copilot Chat integration
├── ErrorPilotViewProvider.ts # Webview dashboard provider
└── types.ts                  # Shared types and default watcher presets
media/
├── main.js                   # Webview client-side logic
└── main.css                  # Webview styling
resources/
├── icon.svg                  # Activity bar icon (monochrome)
└── icon.png                  # Marketplace icon (256×256)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add my feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/my-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

MIT — see LICENSE.