AddisLabs for VS Code

AddisLabs for VS Code brings your AddisLabs projects into the editor and adds a coding assistant that works on any folder on your machine.

The extension operates in two distinct modes, determined by the folder you have open. Which mode applies is stated in the AddisLabs view at all times.

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code 1.85 or later.
• An AddisLabs account, for working on AddisLabs projects.
• For the direct assistant, an API key from any supported provider. Keys are stored in the editor's secret storage and are never transmitted to AddisLabs.

Getting started

The quickest route is Open in VS Code, available from the ⋯ menu on any project in your AddisLabs dashboard. It installs nothing further, prompts for a destination folder, and downloads the project.

To connect manually:

1. Run AddisLabs: Sign In from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or ⌘+⇧+P). Your browser opens on AddisLabs; sign in there if you are not already, check that the page shows the same code as the editor, and press Allow. The editor gets a sign-in of its own, listed under Settings → Signed-in apps, where it can be signed out without touching anything else. On a machine with no browser, AddisLabs: Sign In with an Access Token takes a token instead.
2. Run AddisLabs: Open Project… and choose a project and a destination.
3. Edit the files as you would any other project, then run AddisLabs: Push Project, or use the status bar.

A downloaded project is an ordinary static site — pages, styles/, scripts/, a README.md and a package.json. npm run dev in that folder serves it.

Working on an AddisLabs project

Pushes create versions, never overwrites. Every push is stored as a new version with a label, reachable from AddisLabs: Show Version History… here and from the project's history in the browser.

Changes can be read before they are sent. The push dialog offers a diff against what is stored at that moment, rather than against the copy you originally downloaded — the two differ precisely when a collaborator has been working, which is when it matters.

The assistant proposes; you accept. AddisLabs: Open Assistant reads the project first, including which files are shared between pages, then proposes an edit. Nothing is stored until you accept it, at which point it lands as a single labelled version through the same path as your own pushes.

Conversations are shared with the browser. The thread lives on the server, so it is the same conversation in the editor and in the web app. Closing the panel mid-response does not interrupt it.

Guardrails are enforced by the server. The rules governing what may be stored do not live in this extension, so a defect here cannot damage a project.

Working on any other folder

In a folder that is not an AddisLabs project, the assistant becomes a direct coding agent. The differences are material and worth stating plainly.

• Requests go straight to the model provider. The AddisLabs server is not in the request path, and nothing you send reaches it.

• There is no staging step. Files are created and modified directly on disk. What the assistant may do without asking depends on the mode, chosen in the panel:

  • Plan reads and plans. It is not offered the tools that change anything.
  • Manual, the default, asks before every change and every command.
  • Auto works on its own and asks only before a command that reaches the network, deletes in bulk, installs software, runs as another user, publishes, discards uncommitted work, or changes the system outside the folder.

  Writing outside the open folder asks in every mode.

• There are no imposed limits — no round cap, token ceiling, or command timeout. Your provider's limits and your own balance apply.

• Every action is visible, and Stop is immediate. Each tool call appears as it happens, the running cost of the session is shown in the header, and Stop aborts the request, ends the loop, and terminates any running command.

• Conversations are retained per folder, stored locally under the extension's own storage. AddisLabs: New Chat starts a fresh thread and AddisLabs: Chat History… lists previous ones.

• AddisLabs credits are available as an alternative to your own keys. When you are signed in, the model picker offers them alongside your providers. The distinction is shown where the choice is made: your own key goes directly to the provider and AddisLabs never sees the conversation, whereas a credits request is routed through AddisLabs' server.

Supported models

Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT, DeepSeek, and Moonshot Kimi are supported directly. Google Gemini, xAI Grok, Mistral, Meta Llama and Qwen are available through a single OpenRouter key. Each model is listed with its provider's published rate, and the session cost meter uses those rates.

Tool servers (MCP)

The assistant can use tools from MCP servers you name in kiln.mcpServers. Each one is a process started on this machine, and nothing connects unless you add it. Tool names are prefixed with the name you give the server, so blender offers blender__get_scene_info and similar.

// settings.json
"kiln.mcpServers": {
  "blender": {
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": ["blender-mcp"],
    "env": { "DISABLE_TELEMETRY": "true" }
  }
}

• Tools are offered only while a folder is open.
• Manual asks before each server tool and shows the arguments in full — for Blender, the Python it is about to run. Auto runs them without asking. Plan offers only the tools the server marks as read-only.
• Results are text. A picture a tool returns is not passed to the model, and the model is told so. Answers over 24,000 characters are trimmed, with a note saying so.
• If a server advertises tools that control data collection, the AddisLabs output panel says so when it connects.

A step-by-step Blender walkthrough is in docs/BLENDER-GUIDE.md in the AddisLabs repository.

Commands

All commands are available from the Command Palette under the AddisLabs category.

The status bar displays the current project, its version, and the number of modified files.

Configuration

Leave kiln.api unset. It exists for developing against a local AddisLabs:

// settings.json
"kiln.api": "http://localhost:5000/api/v2"

Data handling

API keys are held in the editor's secret storage. They are never written to disk in plain text, never recorded in logs, and never sent to AddisLabs.

In direct mode, conversations and file contents are sent only to the model provider whose key you supplied. They are stored locally and are not transmitted to AddisLabs.

In AddisLabs project mode, project contents and conversations are held by your AddisLabs account, as they are when using the web application.

Safeguards

• Pushes create versions; the history is preserved and reachable.
• Restoring an earlier version discards nothing — later versions remain.
• Pulling over unsaved work stops and reports how many files are affected. The option that preserves your work is always the default.
• Every refusal offers the route through it, and the overriding choice is never the default.
• A compiled React tree cannot be pushed, as its pages are generated from the static source and storing them back would overwrite the originals.

Support

Use AddisLabs: Report a Problem…, which assembles the relevant versions and logs and shows you the report before anything is sent.

Licence

Released under the MIT Licence.