HCW PRG1 Course Assistant

VS Code extension for the HCW PRG1 course. It supports GitHub Classroom onboarding and provides an invigilation-oriented exam mode for supervised assessments.

Features

Course Actions sidebar

The extension adds a PRG1 Assistant icon to the Activity Bar with a Course Actions view.

Available actions:

• Clone Classroom Repo
• Check Workspace Setup
• Open Autograding Page

GitHub Classroom onboarding

Command: PRG1: Clone GitHub Classroom Repository

What it does:

• Accepts a GitHub Classroom invitation link such as https://classroom.github.com/a/...
• Also accepts a direct GitHub repository URL
• Checks whether git is installed and available in VS Code
• Opens Classroom invitation links in the browser so the student can accept the assignment
• Prompts for the accepted repository URL
• Clones the repository into a selected target folder
• Checks the cloned workspace for Java and a Gradle wrapper
• Offers to open the cloned project in VS Code

Workspace setup check

Command: PRG1: Check Current Workspace Setup

Checks:

• Git availability
• Java availability
• Gradle wrapper presence
• Gradle wrapper execution

GitHub Actions / autograding shortcut

Command: PRG1: Open GitHub Actions / Autograding

This opens the current repository's GitHub Actions page in the browser so students can inspect autograding results and points.

Exam mode

Exam functionality is available through:

• PRG1: Start Exam Mode
• PRG1: Stop Exam Mode
• PRG1: Open Exam Mode Dashboard

The extension also contributes an Exam Mode sidebar view inside PRG1 Assistant, but it is hidden by default and can be enabled from the view container menu when needed.

When exam mode is active:

• The status bar shows a prominent Exam Mode indicator
• OFF is shown with warning styling
• ON with problems is shown with error styling
• ON with all checks passing shows a visible green success indicator in the label
• A dashboard panel provides a larger view for lecturers
• Checks are refreshed automatically in the background

Current checks:

• Internet access must be unavailable
• AI-related VS Code extensions must not be enabled

Configuration

The extension contributes these settings:

• courseAssistant.examMode.checkIntervalMs
• courseAssistant.examMode.networkProbeUrls
• courseAssistant.examMode.aiExtensionPatterns