SelectBeam

Highlight code, press one shortcut, send it to terminal AI or browser AI — same tab every time. No copy-paste.

SelectBeam hands your selected code to an AI, with file name and line numbers attached:

```python
// MergeSort.py (lines 12-25)
def merge(arr, low, mid, high):
    ...
```

You review it and press Enter yourself. SelectBeam never submits for you.

Repo: https://github.com/NoahMenezes/SelectBeam

Install (VS Code, VSCodium, Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity…)

Same code, same .vsix — SelectBeam uses only stable VS Code APIs, so one build runs on every VS Code-compatible editor.

Maintainer notes (publishing both galleries):

vsce publish   # VS Code Marketplace (covers VS Code + Cursor/Windsurf gallery sync)
ovsx publish   # Open VSX (covers VSCodium, Theia, Gitpod, Antigravity-via-OpenVSX)

First Open VSX release needs a one-time namespace claim (ovsx create-namespace NoahMenezes) plus OVSX_PAT from open-vsx.org. After that, pushing a v* tag runs .github/workflows/publish.yml, which publishes to both galleries and attaches the .vsix to the GitHub Release for manual installs. Not supported: Zed, Sublime, Neovim — different extension systems, not VSIX.

Status

• VS Code extension: v0.0.6, VS Code 1.85+. Terminal AI, browser AI, clipboard — all working.
• Edge Add-ons: SelectBeam Bridge 0.0.4 submitted, link to follow after approval.
• Firefox AMO: SelectBeam Bridge 0.0.4 submitted, link to follow after approval.
• Brave: working via unpacked selectbeam-bridge-brave-0.0.4.zip (Brave-gated auto-paste fix included).
• Chrome Web Store: listing prepped (browser/CWS-LISTING.md), on hold — one listing will cover Brave + Chrome + Opera + Vivaldi + Arc.
• Next up: Safari (needs Xcode + Mac), Opera Add-ons.

What you need

1. VS Code 1.85 or newer.
2. One of these:
   • Terminal way: OpenCode, Claude Code, Codex CLI, Copilot CLI, aider, Gemini CLI, Qwen Code, Cursor agent, Amp, Anti-Gravity, Crush, or Goose. Different binary name? Map it in selectbeam.agentCommands, e.g. { "copilot": "gh copilot" }.
   • Browser way: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, or Copilot — SelectBeam opens it for you.
   • Browser way with tab reuse (recommended): the free browser/ companion (below). Repeat sends refill the SAME chat tab.

No account, no API key. Install and use.

How to use

1. Highlight code in any file.
2. Send it: Ctrl+Alt+A (Cmd+Alt+A on Mac), or palette (Ctrl+Shift+P, type SelectBeam), or right-click.
3. Answer one question if asked (pick terminal AI / browser AI / clipboard; SelectBeam asks before using an unknown terminal).
4. Check and submit yourself. Terminal: code waits in the AI prompt. Browser without companion: one Ctrl+V. Browser with companion: auto-fills in ~2s.

First send to a new AI picks the browser app (Firefox, Edge, Chrome, Brave…), opens its chat, auto-fills on load. Later sends offer Existing tab or New tab. Set selectbeam.systemBrowser: last to skip the app picker.

Mac keys

If the shortcut does nothing, rebind it under File → Preferences → Keyboard Shortcuts (macOS sometimes reserves Cmd+Alt combos).

Commands

Settings

Search SelectBeam in Settings (Ctrl+,). Defaults work for most people.

Browser companion

Vanilla MV3, no build, no npm install. Works with all 6 AIs the same way. No token, no pairing — chat tabs link themselves on load.

Chromium unpacked loads use browser/manifest.chrome.json as browser/manifest.json (background key differs); Firefox uses manifest.firefox.json. Brave: Shields down for the chat site if fills miss; log in first (logged-out landings reject fill). Safari: later — needs an Xcode wrapper + Mac.

Bridge: http://127.0.0.1:51337 only, extension-origin check, no password. One VS Code window owns it; a second falls back to copy+open.

Privacy — what SelectBeam stores (Open VSX Data Information)

SelectBeam works fully offline apart from opening AI chat sites you choose. No account, no API key, no analytics, no telemetry, no remote servers.

What is handled, all on your own machine:

• Your selected code + file reference (e.g. MergeSort.py (lines 12-25)): always copied to your clipboard first so nothing is lost, and held in an in-memory queue (max 20 items, max ~500KB each) so the browser companion can fill the chat box. Purpose: tab reuse. Retention: memory only, cleared on window close or via SelectBeam: Choose Send Target → Auto. Shared with: nobody — localhost only.
• Linked chat tabs (provider id, page URL up to 500 chars, page title up to 200 chars, timestamp): reported by the optional browser companion over http://127.0.0.1. Purpose: refill the same tab instead of opening new tabs. Retention: expires after selectbeam.liveTabTTLMinutes (default 60 min, hard reuse window 90s); cleared via Choose Target → Auto. Shared with: nobody.
• Your picks (remembered terminal name, terminal→agent map, last browser AI, last browser app): stored in VS Code workspaceState/globalState on your machine. Purpose: ask once, then automatic. Retention: until you reset via Choose Target → Auto. Shared with: nobody.
• Bridge port (51337 by default, changeable via selectbeam.bridgePort): stored in VS Code settings and in the companion's local storage. Purpose: localhost connection only.

The localhost bridge binds 127.0.0.1 only, accepts only companion extension origins (moz-extension://, chrome-extension://) or no-origin local callers, and rejects any http(s) page origin — websites can never read your queue. Only the open health check GET /status (version + counts, no code) skips the origin check.

The browser companion (separate store listing, not bundled in this VSIX) reads the open chat page's title/URL and fills its visible chat box. It never auto-submits, never contacts any server other than your localhost bridge.

If this policy changes, it will be updated here before any new publish. Questions: https://github.com/NoahMenezes/SelectBeam/issues

If something goes wrong

• Shortcut does nothing: highlight code first; else rebind in Keyboard Shortcuts.
• New tab every time: no tab linked — companion unloaded (re-load Firefox temporary add-on; Chromium unpacked persists) or chat closed. Check Bridge Status.
• Badge “bridge off?”: VS Code closed, bridgeEnabled off, or wrong port. Click badge to retry.
• Chat box empty: wait ~30s (Brave ~60s) for editor load; code is also in clipboard (Ctrl+V). Persistent failure = site redesign → SELECTORS table in browser/content.js.
• Terminal shows bquote>: code landed in a plain shell — Ctrl+C, then run your AI tool there first.

Building from source

Offline-safe, node_modules vendored:

bun run check-types  # type-check
bun run compile      # one-off build
bun run watch        # rebuild on save (used by F5)
bun run package      # minified production build

Press F5 for the Extension Development Host. VS Code side is src/ (see docs/CODE-NOTES.md for the module map — source files are comment-free by design). Browser side is browser/.

Support

Bug reports and feature requests: https://github.com/NoahMenezes/SelectBeam/issues

Trademarks

All third-party AI and browser names (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, Copilot, Firefox, Edge, Chrome, Brave, etc.) and their sites are property of their respective owners. SelectBeam is an independent project with no affiliation with or endorsement by any of them.