Ithi - VS Code Extension

Overview

Code comments often contain the most critical contextual information for learning, collaboration, and long-term maintainability, yet they remain locked in a single language.

In enterprise settings, where large engineering teams are distributed across regions, the inability to make technical documentation and comments multilingual slows onboarding, increases miscommunication, and can even create compliance risks.

Ithi (Zulu for 'It Says') is an AI-powered VS Code IDE extension designed to translate comments into a target language while preserving code integrity.

Read more about the launch of Ithi on Medium

Prerequisites

The minimum version of the VS Code API that the Ithi extension depends on is v1.98.0. The setting to check your VS Code version is located in the VS Code menu Code > About Visual Studio Code

Installation

1. Open VS Code
2. Go to the Extensions view (command+shift+x)
3. Search for "Ithi"
4. Click Install

Extension Settings

Go to >Preferences: Open User Settings under Extensions > Ithi and enter the following:

1. Target Language (Required) - choose the language you want the comments translated to
2. OpenAI API Key (Required) - You can find your existing key or create a new one in the API Keys section on OpenAI's website.
3. Translation Engine (Optional) - By default, Ithi uses the free Bing Translation engine. For a more thorough and context-informed translation, you can elect to use the paid Google Cloud Translation engine by entering your gCloud:
   • PRIVATE_KEY
   • CLIENT_EMAIL
   • PROJECT_ID

Instructions for Google Cloud Credentials Setup

1. Enable the Cloud Translation API

• Log into Google Cloud Console
• Create a new project (or select an existing one).
• In the left sidebar, navigate to APIs & Services > Library.
• Search for Cloud Translation API.
• Click Enable.

2. Create Service Credentials

• In the left sidebar, go to APIs & Services > Credentials.
• Click + Create Credentials > Service Account.
• Create a service account
  • Give your service account a name.
• After creating, click the service account link, navigate to Keys > Add Key > Create new key
• Select JSON. The downloaded the key file contains the necessary gCloud credentials to run Ithi!

Usage

NOTE: the Ithi extension will not run unless an active text editor is open

1. Open a (javascript or typescipt) file in VS Code
2. Run Ithi in the Command Palette >Ithi Translate

1. A notification will communicate that the translation is in progress

1. The Ithi webview panel will populate in the second VS Code column once translation is complete

Features

• Source Language Auto-Detection: detect the language of the comments in the source file.

• Target Language Selection: Allow the user to choose a language (163 options) to translate the comments to.

• Programming Language Support: Ithi supports JavaScript/TypeScript - the most used programming language globally.

• Identifier & Placeholder Shielding: Ithi utilizes OpenAI to mask code identifiers for a code-safe translation.

• AI Powered Translation: translate comments from the source language to the target language

• Webview Panel UI: Displays data in a modularized webview panel

• File Association: Each Ithi panel displays with the name of the associated source file

• Adaptive Theme Integration: The extension seamlessly integrates with the user's preferred VS Code color theme

• 

Technologies Used

Core Technologies

• VS Code Extension API - For extension development and VS Code integration
• React 19 - Frontend framework for the webview interface
• TailWind CSS - CSS framework used to apply utility class styling directly in the components
• TypeScript/JavaScript - Primary development languages
• Visual Studio Code Extension Manager - Module bundling for both extension and webview

Development Tools

• YeoMan - Project Scaffolding
• Babel - JavaScript/TypeScript compilation and React preprocessing
• ESLint - Code quality and style checking
• Open AI - Comment Masking
• Google Cloud API - Comment translation
• Bing Translate API - Comment Translation
• Mocha - Testing framework

Development Team

Releases

To view a chronologically ordered list of notable changes to Ithi, take a look at the Changelog.

Issues

For a list of identified and documented issues or to open a new issue you've encountered, visit the Issues tab.

Contributing

For information about contributing to the Ithi project, check out Contributing.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license.

See LICENSE for more information.