PromptTide — The Prompt Engineering IDE

Write, test, version, and deploy AI prompts with the tools you already know.

PromptTide transforms VS Code into a full prompt engineering IDE with syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, quality scoring, and one-click execution.

Features

.prompt File Format

A dedicated file format for AI prompts with YAML frontmatter for configuration:

---
model: gpt-4o
temperature: 0.7
tags: [marketing, email]
variables:
  brand: { type: string, required: true }
---

You are a copywriter for {{brand}}.
Write a welcome email...

Syntax Highlighting

• Template variables {{variable}} highlighted with neon glow
• YAML frontmatter with key/value coloring
• Role markers (SYSTEM:, USER:, ASSISTANT:)
• Markdown-like formatting in prompt body

IntelliSense & Completions

• Autocomplete for model names, frontmatter keys, variables
• Variable suggestions when typing {{
• Role marker completions
• Snippets for common patterns (prompt, cot, fewshot, constraints)

CodeLens Actions

Click inline buttons above your prompt:

• ▶ Run — Execute with default model (Cmd+Enter)
• ▶ Run with... — Pick a model (Cmd+Shift+Enter)
• 🔥 Forge — AI-powered improvement
• 🌿 Branch — Create variant
• ☁️ Push — Sync to PromptTide cloud

Real-Time Diagnostics

• Undeclared variables (used but not in frontmatter)
• Unused variables (declared but never referenced)
• Token count warnings
• Invalid model names
• Temperature out of range

Status Bar

• Connection indicator (logged in/out)
• Model selector (click to switch)
• Quality score
• Credits remaining

Cloud Sync

• Push local .prompt files to PromptTide cloud
• Pull cloud prompts as local .prompt files
• Works with the PromptTide CLI for CI/CD integration

Keyboard Shortcuts

Getting Started

1. Install the extension
2. Create a .prompt file (or use Cmd+Alt+N)
3. Write your prompt with frontmatter
4. Press Cmd+Enter to execute
5. Login to sync with PromptTide cloud

File Association

The extension automatically associates these file extensions:

• .prompt — Primary prompt files
• .prompt.md — Prompt files with markdown preview support
• .ptide — Short alias

Configuration

Requirements

• VS Code 1.85+
• PromptTide account (free tier available)
• Internet connection for execution & cloud sync

Links

• PromptTide Web
• Documentation
• CLI Tool
• Report Issues