GAI Choy VSCode Extension

GAI Choy stands for Generative AI empowered, Code Helper On Your side. Yet another Copilot for coding, with built-in integration capability with Azure OpenAI models or, local LLM such as CodeShell.

Gai Choy, also known as Chinese mustard greens, is a type of leafy vegetable having a distinct, pungent flavor that is often described as spicy, slightly bitter, or peppery. Its strong flavor makes it a popular choice for adding depth and complexity to a variety of dishes. Despite its toughness, it becomes tender and more palatable when cooked, making it a versatile ingredient in the kitchen.

This project is forked from codeshell-vscode, with additional support for Azure OpenAI (AOAI) service integration and a couple of other enhancements. See Changelog or NOTICE for more details.

The GAI Choy project is an open-source plugin developed based on the CodeShell LLM and Azure OpenAI service that supports Visual Studio Code. It serves as an intelligent coding assistant, offering support for various programming languages such as Python, Java, C/C++, JavaScript, Go, and more. This plugin provides features like code completion, code interpretation, code optimization, comment generation, and conversational Q&A to help developers enhance their coding efficiency in an intelligent manner.

Why another extension for AOAI?

Here's an exhuastive list of extensions I tried:

openai-vscode
- No code-completion feature
- Does not seem to support clustered AOAI setup behind Azure Application Gateway
- Not open sourced
Code GPT
- Similar to the above. Although it provides audo-code-completion feature, the supported model is limited without plus-subscription.

How to Install the Extension

Option 1 - Install from Extensions Marketplace

Search "GAI Choy" in your Extensions tab in VSCode and install the plugin from there. VS Code Extension - Gai Choy

Option 2 - Offline Installation

Download the latest .vsix file from the Releases
Navigate to Extensions tab in your VSCode
Click the "..." button to the top-right
Click "Install from VSIX..." and choose the downloaded .vsix file to install the extension.

Requirements to Build from Source

node version v18 and above
Visual Studio Code version 1.68.1 and above
Optional: The CodeShell service is running (not required for AOAI integration)

Compile the Plugin

If you want to run the package from source code, you need to execute the following command:

git clone https://github.com/carusyte/GAI-Choy.git
cd GAI-Choy
npm install
npm exec vsce package

and it will create a visx package file like: gai-choy-${VERSION_NAME}.vsix。

Model Service

Azure OpenAI (AOAI) service

The AOAI service setup varies depending on how your cloud infrastructure is designed and implemented. Here's how-to article to get you started. For more production-grade setup you may consult cloud architect, engineer or SRE.

CodeShell model

Note that this step is not required for AOAI integration. Please refer to source repo's README.md for details.

Configure the Plugin

Set the address for the CodeShell / AOAI service
Configure whether to enable automatic code completion suggestions
Set the time delay for triggering automatic code completion suggestions
Specify the maximum number of tokens for code completion
Specify the maximum number of tokens for Q&A
Configure the model runtime environment

Note: Different model runtime environments can be configured within the plugin. For the CodeShell-7B-Chat-int4 model, you can choose the CPU with llama.cpp"option in the Code Shell: Run Env For LLMs menu. However, for the CodeShell-7B and CodeShell-7B-Chat models, you should select the GPU with TGI toolkit option.

To use Azure OpenAI service as the LLM model, there're additional parameters that need to be configured:

Chat model deployed in Azure
Completion model deployed in Azure
API Key
API version

settings

Features

1. Code Completion

Automatic Code Suggestions
Keyboard Shortcut for Code Suggestions

During the coding process, code completion suggestions can automatically trigger when you pause input (configurable with the Auto Completion Delay option, set to 1-3 seconds). Alternatively, you can manually trigger code completion suggestions using the shortcut key Alt+\ (for Windows) or Option+\ (for Mac).

When the plugin provides code suggestions, the suggested content appears in gray at the editor's cursor position. You can press the Tab key to accept the suggestion or continue typing to ignore it.

code completions

2. Code Assistance

Explain/Optimize/Cleanse a Code Segment
Generate Comments/Unit Tests for Code
Check Code for Performance/Security Issues

In the VSCode sidebar, open the plugin's Q&A interface. Select a portion of code in the editor, right-click to access the CodeShell menu, and choose the corresponding function. The plugin will provide relevant responses in the Q&A interface.

code assistance

3. Code Q&A

Support for Multi-turn Conversations
Maintain Conversation History
Engage in Multi-turn Dialogues Based on Previous Conversations
Edit Questions and Rephrase Inquiries
Request Fresh Responses for Any Question
Interrupt During the Answering Process

technical chat

Within the Q&A interface's code block, you can click the copy button to copy the code block or use the insert button to insert the code block's content at the editor's cursor location.

License

Apache 2.0

GAI Choy

carusyte