The CodeChat Editor extension for Visual Studio Code

This extension provides the CodeChat Editor's capabilities within the Visual Studio Code IDE.

Installation

First, install Visual Studio Code. Next:

1. Install the CodeChat Editor extension.
2. (Recommended) switch to a light theme, since the CodeChat Editor only provides a light theme.

Running

1. Open a file that the CodeChat Editor supports (many source files, along with Markdown files).

2. Open the Visual Studio Code command palette by pressing Ctrl+Shift+P. Type CodeChat, select "Enable the CodeChat Editor", then press enter to run the extension. After a moment, the rendered file should load. If it doesn't:

   1. Open the Visual Studio Code settings for the CodeChat Editor by navigating to File > Preferences > Settings then typing CodeChat in the search box. Change the port from its default of 8080 to some other value.
   2. Run the extension again (close the existing window, type Ctrl+Shift+P then select Enable the CodeChat Editor).

Study capture

Participants who have registered in the capture portal receive a capture token by email. To use it, run Manage CodeChat Editor Capture or CodeChat Editor: Enter Capture Token from the command palette, paste the token, then turn on consent and recording. The capture status item shows whether the token is accepted, rejected, unavailable, or disabled by the portal.

For the student-facing walkthrough, see the CodeChat Capture Token Setup Guide.

The token is imported through the VS Code UI and persisted only in VS Code SecretStorage. It is never written to settings, workspace files, or a JSON configuration file. The participant identity used in capture events comes from CaptureWebService token status, not from the token text.

CodeChat sends capture events only to CaptureWebService and does not connect directly to the capture database. The old JSON database-secret configuration path is not used by the extension. Events are sanitized and written to a local FIFO spool under VS Code's global extension storage before upload, so extension upgrades do not remove queued events. Events recorded offline after the token has been accepted and capture-enabled upload automatically when the matching service is reachable again. If the service endpoint changes, update the user-level CodeChatEditor.Capture.ServiceBaseUrl setting. Workspace values are ignored for this token-bearing endpoint. Token-bearing service requests must use HTTPS, except for localhost development endpoints.

Developer builds must compile the bundled Rust server with minreq https-rustls-probe and proxy support. Capture HTTPS requests validate with the host platform certificate store and honor standard proxy environment variables. The AWS capture endpoint uses HTTPS, so a build without HTTPS support will show token validation and capture upload as unavailable.

Additional documentation

See the user manual.

License

The CodeChat Editor, a word processor for software developers.
Copyright (C) 2024-2026 Bryan A. Jones.

This file is part of the CodeChat Editor.

The CodeChat Editor is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

The CodeChat Editor is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with the CodeChat Editor. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.