BlogBuddy

A Markdown editor for VS Code where your agent works in the margin. Leave a sentence beside a paragraph. Keep writing. Read the answer when you're ready.

中文 README · Full guide · Changelog

The premise

You're writing. You want a fact checked, a second opinion, a paragraph tightened. A chat pane makes the conversation the main thing and your document an attachment: copy the text over, explain the context, wait, carry the useful part back.

BlogBuddy turns that around. The document stays the main thing, and conversations hang off the blocks they are about. Press Cmd+B Cmd+B, type a sentence, press Enter — the caret is back where you were. The answer arrives quietly under that block, and you read it when you reach a stopping point.

There is no API key to configure. BlogBuddy borrows the agent you already use: Claude Code or Codex, run in the background.

Margin notes

A margin note is a sentence you leave beside some blocks, plus what the agent says back. Notes are never written into your Markdown file.

Asking

• Cmd+B Cmd+B / Ctrl+B Ctrl+B in BB Editor (or click the faint ※ to the left of a block). A one-line box opens: type, press ↵.
• The block is the unit. What you ask about depends on where the caret is:

The box shows what you are about to ask about in Markdown's own signs: ¶ a paragraph, ## Title a section, - a list, ``` code, > a quote, ¶×3 three blocks, “…” the selected words.

While you keep writing

• A one-line summary appears under the block, with a rail to its left. Marching dashes mean the agent is working; the line shows what it is doing in signs — ⌕ query searching, ↗ host reading a page, a file name, ✎ writing.
• When the answer lands, only that line changes: the rail turns solid and the line shows the first words of the answer. Nothing pops up, and the caret is never moved.
• A small counter at the top-right shows unread notes; click it to jump to the next one.

Reading and following up

• Click the line to expand the thread in place. The last row starts with ※: type there to follow up; the agent keeps the note's earlier turns.
• ∎ dismisses a note once you are done with it; ⌃ just folds it back to one line.

Changes are proposals

When you ask for changes ("tighten this", "fix typos", "reorganise this section"), the agent never touches the file. It hands back a rewrite, and BB Editor shows the difference block by block while the note is open:

• Accept or reject each changed block with ✓ / × on its right. The note counts what is left in the same signs (~2 +1 −1 ⤷1) and has its own ✓ / × for all of it.
• Accepting is an ordinary edit — Cmd+Z undoes it. Until you accept, the file on disk is unchanged and auto-save is unaffected.
• You can keep editing around a proposal. If you edit a block the proposal wanted to change, that one change is dropped rather than applied over your edit.

What the agent can do

• It runs read-only: it can read files in your workspace and search the web, and it cannot write or run commands that change anything.
• Each question starts one background run of your agent and uses that agent's own account and quota.
• Notes are kept in VS Code's extension storage, per document — nothing is added to your repository.

BB Editor — a WYSIWYG that respects Markdown

A rich-text editor for .md files, powered by Milkdown. Open it with Cmd+Shift+B / Ctrl+Shift+B — on a .md file in the Explorer, or with a .md already open in VS Code's text editor to swap it for BB Editor in place. The same chord switches back to the Markdown source.

• WYSIWYG with full GFM — tables, strikethrough, task lists, autolinks, blockquotes, fenced code
• Slash menu (/) — block types
• Frontmatter head — the file's own --- fences, with title · date · tags · categories · author · slug · draft · description edited in place; raw YAML one click away
• Source line numbers — each block shows its line in the underlying .md
• Prism syntax highlighting — 20+ languages; palette tracks VS Code light / dark / high-contrast themes
• IME-safe — CJK composition never leaks into auto-save
• Arrow ligatures — -> → →, => → ⇒ outside code and IME
• Quiet saves — blocks you did not edit keep their original bytes, so Git diffs stay small
• External-change banner — if the file changes on disk while you have unsaved edits, choose Reload or Keep
• Paste-to-disk assets — images and files dropped into the canvas are written next to the document (or under blogbuddy.assetDir) and inserted as relative paths
• Zen / Editor mode — the small Z / E button at the top-right. Zen is a centered, distraction-free column whose chrome fades while you type; Editor is full width with line numbers and the frontmatter head
• Auto-save, with Cmd+S to flush

Quick start

1. Install BlogBuddy from the VS Code Marketplace.
2. Make sure Claude Code (claude) or Codex (codex) is installed and signed in. BlogBuddy uses whichever it finds, Claude Code first.
3. Open a .md file and press Cmd+Shift+B to open it in BB Editor.
4. Put the caret in a paragraph, press Cmd+B Cmd+B, ask something, and keep writing.

Reference

Keybindings

Settings

Commands

Status bar

Word count for Markdown files and BB Editor — Chinese characters and English words counted separately and summed, with selection, characters and lines in the tooltip.

Notes

Development status. BlogBuddy is in active development. Features may move, break, or change between versions.

Coming from an earlier version? The <bb-*> tags, the AI Reader View, and the API key / model settings are gone. Everything AI now happens through margin notes in BB Editor, using your own agent CLI.

Made for

Bloggers and technical writers who live in Markdown, already work with an agent, and would rather not leave the page to talk to it.

Feedback

Bug or feature request → open an issue.