UsageX for VS Code

Cost-aware Claude and Codex coding, right inside VS Code. UsageX routes each task to the model that fits it, keeps your Claude and Codex usage in view, and returns the answer in a panel that lives beside your editor.

Requires the UsageX desktop app. This extension is a thin client: it talks to the UsageX service that the desktop app runs on your machine, and reuses the account you signed in there. Without UsageX installed and running, the panel shows "UsageX not running" and cannot send prompts. Get UsageX at usagexai.com.

What it does

• One panel, both providers. See your Claude and Codex connection state and usage — 5-hour and weekly windows — without leaving the editor.
• Cost-aware routing. Every prompt is routed by UsageX to the model that fits the task. Pick the priority with the mode control: Efficiency, Intelligence, or Design.
• Workspace-aware. The active file, its language and any selected code are sent along with your prompt. Attach extra files with the + button.
• Ask about a selection. Select code, right-click → Ask UsageX.
• Readable answers. Markdown, code blocks with copy and apply, and a collapsible "Worked for…" view of the run's steps.
• Session chats. Switch between this session's chats from the history menu.
• Light and dark. Follows your VS Code theme, or pin light/dark from the settings menu — always in the UsageX look.

Getting started

1. Install and open the UsageX desktop app and sign in.
2. Add your project as a workspace in UsageX (or pick it with its folder picker).
3. Open the UsageX view — it opens in the Secondary Side Bar on the right (Ctrl+Alt+B toggles that side bar).
4. Connect Claude and/or Codex from the panel if they are not connected yet.
5. Open the same folder in VS Code and start prompting.

Claude and Codex connect automatically when you are signed in to them; UsageX ships both runtimes, so there is nothing extra to install.

Plans

UsageX Pro routes across both Claude and Codex, so both must be connected. Every other plan runs on Codex. The panel shows which providers your plan needs.

Commands

• UsageX: Open UsageX
• UsageX: New Chat
• UsageX: Ask About Selection
• UsageX: Refresh Account Status
• Ask UsageX — editor right-click menu, when code is selected

Applying suggestions

Every code block in a UsageX answer has its own Copy and Apply. Apply opens a real VS Code diff of the proposed change first, then asks for confirmation before writing — it replaces the current selection, or the whole file when nothing is selected.

Privacy

The extension never handles your Claude, Codex or UsageX credentials. Sign-in stays in the UsageX desktop app; the extension reuses that session locally over 127.0.0.1 and stores only its session token in VS Code Secret Storage.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.106 or newer.
• The UsageX desktop app — installed, running and signed in.

Notes and limits

• A folder must be approved in the UsageX desktop app before runs can use it; otherwise the panel explains why.
• Only the first workspace folder is used as the working directory.
• Chat history is per VS Code session; desktop chat history is not merged.

Internal Custom GPT bridge proof

Open the UsageX sidebar and expand ChatGPT bridge (internal). This proof does not require the desktop app. Start for this workspace launches the current production UsageX bridge/harness bundle shipped in the VSIX and confines it to the active trusted VS Code workspace. The section shows the bundled orchestrator version and bridge contract, local port, temporary tunnel URL, Action telemetry and the latest submitted (never automatically applied) patch. The VSIX build regenerates this bundle directly from usagex-orchestrator; it is not a second extension-specific harness.

The composer has a UsageX / ChatGPT switch beside the Efficiency/Intelligence/Design control. Choosing ChatGPT starts the bridge for the current workspace and opens the configured private Custom GPT. When a prompt is submitted from the extension in ChatGPT mode, it is copied to the clipboard for the user to paste into ChatGPT; the extension never automates or scrapes the ChatGPT UI. Change the private GPT link from the UsageX settings menu.