Blueprint Assist (Preview)

The Blueprint Assist is an extension for VScode IDE. Some of its features are:

• static code suggestion
• code completion from LLM
• linting
• chat

Prerequisites

• See Microsoft Visual Studio Code prerequisites.
• Microsoft Visual Studio Code.
• An internet connection for communication with Dell Identity, the Linter service, the Code Completion service, and the Chat service.
• A Dell SSO account for use with Dell Identity.

Configuration

You can configure the Blueprint Assist Visual Studio Code extension, by accessing its settings.

Accessing Settings

Open the settings by finding Blueprint Assist in the extensions library and clicking on the gear icon.

Note: "Manage" will appear when your mouse hovers over the gear icon.

Click the "settings" menu option. This opens the Blueprint Assist settings in the editor window.

Available Settings

Linting

• blueprintAssist.linting.log.verbose: Log level for troubleshooting linting service issues.
• blueprintAssist.linting.contextFileRecursion: See developing complex blueprints section.

Completions

• blueprintAssist.completions.maxTokens: The max number of tokens that will be requested in the model's response. Less tokens is less code returned. More tokens is more code. Code accuracy decreases with increased token count.
• blueprintAssist.completions.log.verbose: Log level for troubleshooting code completion service issues.

General

• blueprintAssist.general.trace.server: This is a Visual Studio code feature to view LSP connection logs.
• blueprintAssist.general.log.level: The log level for general Visual Code extension logs.
• blueprintAssist.general.projectsPath: The local directory where each plugin has its own directory where a "plugin.yaml" exists.
• blueprintAssist.general.blueprintTemplate: The stub that will be used when you click the "Create Blueprint" button.

Experimental

• blueprintAssist.experimental.toggle: Turn on experimental features like chat.
• blueprintAssist.experimental.chat.log.verbose: Developer setting, turn on chat logs in the Visual Studio Code.
• blueprintAssist.experimental.chat.maxContextMessages: The maximum number of previous messages in the chat context. Increased history makes answers take longer.

Getting Started

To start with, click the Blueprint Assist (Preview) extension icon in the extension tray menu on the left.

Click the "Sign In" button.

Approve the dialogs that ensure you are aware you are signing in with a third party authentication service. If you are not already signed into Dell, you will be prompted in your browser. After you have been approved, return to Visual Studio Code.

Approve the final dialog agreeing to use your Dell Identity session with the Blueprint Assist extension.

You will now see the button to "Start Using a Blueprint Template".

Click that button and a new blueprint will be opened in the Visual Studio Code editor.

In the bottom margin of Visual Studio Code you should see that there is a check mark next to the word "Blueprint".

Hover over that icon and you should see the services connection status.

Configuring the Context for Complex Blueprints

Some blueprints span several files. Blueprint files can import other blueprint files. This means that resources referenced in the file in the current editor may be defined in a different file.

This adds complexity for linting in particular. In order to tell blueprint assist where to look for relevant definitions, each blueprint project needs to contain a context file.

This tutorial will explain how this is done.

Make sure that you have saved your current blueprint, which will be called the "main" blueprint.

Now create a new text file named ".dell.ba.context.yaml" in the same directory as your main blueprint. From now on this is called the "context file".

You will need to define the main blueprint file's location in that context file.

This tells the linter that in the current workspace "blueprint.yaml" is the main blueprint. Add the "definitions.yaml" file to have the main "blueprint_filename" set to "blueprint.yaml".

# .dell.ba.context.yaml
blueprint.yaml:
  blueprint_filename: blueprint.yaml
definitions.yaml:
  blueprint_filename: blueprint.yaml

NOTE: Know that the more files you import, the more code sent to the linter, the slower the service will respond.

Troubleshooting

"I clicked the sign in button, but nothing happened."

The symptom here is that you are clicking on the "Sign In" button, but nothing happens. This is often because an earlier sign in attempt failed, because the MFA or the SSO was interrupted.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

• Logout of Blueprint Assist
• Reload Visual Studio Code
• Attempt to sign in again.
• To log out of visual studio code, run "control-shift-P". This opens up the command palette. Then, search for "Logout from Blueprint Assist".
• Open the command palette again by running "control-shift-P" again. This time, search for "Developer: Reload Window".
• Now attempt to sign in again.

"I clicked "Open Blueprint Assist", but nothing happened."

The symptom here is that you are clicking on the "Open Blueprint Assist" button, but nothing happens. This is often because you do not have the Visual Studio Code extension for Github Copilot Chat, which is required.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

• Open the Extensions Marketplace Panel.
• Search for Github Copilot Chat
• Click Install
• Login to Github Copilot
• To open the Visual Studio Code extensions marketplace panel, click on the Visual Studio Code extension button in the left-hand margin. It looks like 3 squares and a fourth on one of its corners.
• Search for "Github Copilot". You need to ensure that you have both "Github Copilot" and "Github Copilot Chat" installed.
• To login to Github Copilot, find the Github Copilot logo in the top margin of Visual Studio Code.
• Click on the logo and select "Manage Copilot".
• This should take you to Github where it will authorize you if you are not already authorized.
• Now return to the Blueprint Assist extension and select "Open Blueprint Assist".
• You should see the Chat Participant opened and receive a default welcome message.

"I wrote a message to @blueprint-assist chat participant and I received Language Model Unavailable error."

Sometimes you might get the error "Language Model Unavailable". There are a few potential causes for this. Follow these trouble shooting instructions.

• Ensure that you have enabled "blueprintAssist.experimental.toggle" setting.
• Ensure that you are logged into "Github Copilot Chat".
• Ensure that you are logged into Blueprint Assist Visual Studio Code extension. See the relevant articles for each of those items.