GrillMyCode Companion

The companion to GrillMyCode in VS Code. See the questions GrillMyCode wrote about your code, right beside the code they ask about.

GrillMyCode is a GitHub Action your instructor adds to an assignment. Each time you push, it reads what you changed and posts a set of comprehension questions as an issue in your repository. GrillMyCode Companion brings those questions into the editor.

What it does

• Lists your questions in the GrillMyCode view, grouped by file.
• Jumps to the code. Select a question to open the file and highlight the lines it asks about.
• Shows the whole question under the list, with the code as it was when the question was written.
• Warns you when the code has moved. If you have changed a file since the questions were written, the highlighted lines may no longer be the right ones, and the view says so.

Getting started

1. Open the folder of an assignment that uses GrillMyCode.
2. Select the GrillMyCode icon in the Activity Bar.
3. Choose Sign in to GitHub and approve the request.

Your questions appear once you have pushed and the GrillMyCode workflow has finished. Use Refresh Questions after a later push.

VS Code opens a walkthrough of these steps when the extension is installed. To see it again, run Welcome: Open Walkthrough... from the Command Palette and choose Get Started with GrillMyCode Companion.

If the repository has questions for more than one branch or submission, use Choose Which Questions to Show.

What it needs

The extension reads the questions issue in your repository through your GitHub account. GitHub offers one permission for reading a private repository this way, which is full access to your repositories, so that is what the sign-in asks for. The extension uses it only to read the questions issue. It changes nothing on GitHub and sends nothing anywhere else.

Not yet

GrillMyCode Companion does not generate questions and does not show answers. The questions come from the GrillMyCode action your instructor set up.