Palabre for VS Code

Run Palabre debates from VS Code and watch local AI agents challenge each other in a chat-style side panel.

Status: functional alpha. Palabre for VS Code is a graphical client for the local palabre CLI; it does not bundle or reimplement the Palabre engine.

What can I use it for?

Palabre is useful when you want more than one AI opinion before changing code. Instead of asking a single assistant, you can put two local agents in conversation and keep the resulting debate as a Markdown file in your workspace.

Good use cases:

ask Codex and Claude to review a refactor plan before implementation;
compare two architecture options and surface trade-offs;
have one agent propose fixes while another critiques risks and regressions;
ask a local Ollama model to act as critic or scout alongside a remote CLI agent;
summarize disagreements after a long technical discussion.

Example subjects:

Analyze this extension and list the highest-priority UX fixes before release.
Compare these two approaches for handling agent crashes and partial exports.
Review my workspace context and propose safe improvements without broad refactors.

Features

Activity bar view with a debate composer.
Commands Palabre: Show Status, Palabre: Run Doctor, and Palabre: New Debate.
Streaming debate UI powered by palabre run --renderer ndjson.
Agent 1 / Agent 2 selectors derived from palabre presets --json, with unavailable pairs hidden from CLI-provided availability and a swap button for reversed pairs.
Workspace context picker powered by palabre context scan --json, then passed back to the CLI via --context.
Actionable error card with buttons to open the Palabre Output channel or run palabre doctor.
UI language follows VS Code: French when VS Code is in French, English otherwise. The same language is passed to Palabre CLI with --language.
Webview settings button for the current CLI path, default preset, summary agent, language, turn count, agent synchronization, and the Ollama model when Ollama is available.
Stop button that cancels the Palabre process and its child agents.
Markdown export button at the end of a debate.

Supported agents

The extension uses the agents configured in Palabre CLI. Current Palabre presets support:

Codex CLI
Claude Code
Gemini CLI
Antigravity CLI
OpenCode
Ollama local models

The extension does not authenticate these tools for you. Install and sign in to the CLIs you want to use, then run palabre init or palabre config --sync-agents.

Requirements

VS Code 1.86 or newer.
Node.js 20 or newer for the local Palabre CLI.
Palabre CLI installed on your machine:

npm install -g palabre

Palabre CLI 0.7.0 or newer is recommended for the latest agent synchronization, Ollama model selection, and cancellation behavior; 0.6.0 remains the minimum protocol version. The extension uses the CLI as the source of truth for presets, local availability, Ollama models, NDJSON streaming, context scanning, structured errors, and exports.

You also need at least two Palabre-compatible agents configured, such as Codex CLI, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Antigravity CLI, OpenCode, or Ollama.

Usage

Open the Palabre view from the activity bar.
Enter a concrete debate subject.
Choose Agent 1 / Agent 2 and the number of turns.
Optionally add workspace files or folders as context.
Start the debate and follow the streamed answers.
Open the exported .debate.md file when the debate is done.

Use Palabre: Show Status if the extension cannot find the CLI, or Palabre: Run Doctor to run palabre doctor from VS Code.

On Windows, the extension resolves common npm/pnpm shims and enriches the spawned CLI environment with standard user locations such as npm, pnpm, WindowsApps, Antigravity, and Node.js folders. This keeps palabre presets --json aligned with the same agents that work from a normal terminal, including Claude Code and Antigravity when they are installed locally.

Settings

palabre.binaryPath: custom path to the palabre binary. Empty means auto-detect from the VS Code process PATH and common global package manager folders.
palabre.defaultTurns: preselected number of debate turns.
palabre.defaultPreset: favorite preset shown first when it exists in palabre presets --json. Empty means no favorite is inferred by the extension.
palabre.summaryAgent: optional final summary agent passed as --summary-agent. Empty means the CLI uses defaults.summaryAgent or its fallback.
palabre.language: auto, fr, or en. auto follows VS Code's display language.

The settings button in the Palabre view shows only actions that are useful in the current local state. It can relaunch detection, synchronize detected agents, choose a default preset, choose the summary agent, adjust the language and turn count, and choose the configured Ollama model when Ollama is reachable and has installed models.

Architecture

The extension is intentionally thin:

VS Code extension: UI, commands, webview lifecycle, CLI spawn, NDJSON display.
Palabre CLI: orchestration, agents, presets, context scanning, limits, exports.

If behavior should be identical outside VS Code, it belongs in the CLI.

Known Limitations

A full VS Code window reload does not resume a running Palabre process.
Full debate execution depends on the external agent CLIs and their quotas.
Rich history/replay is not implemented yet; the extension can open recent .debate.md exports from the current workspace.

License

MIT.

Palabre

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