TZBuild
Unofficial VS Code sidebar for your local grok CLI (grok agent stdio / ACP).
TZBuild is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by xAI. “Grok” and “Grok Build” are trademarks of their owners. This extension is a client UI only — agent work, models, billing, and quotas stay with the official CLI.
Site: https://tigerte.cn · Source: github.com/Hypocrite65/tzbuild-vscode
Three different icon files — do not reuse one for all surfaces:
| File |
Where it shows |
icon.png |
Marketplace / Extensions list (128×128 geometric TZ on a dark plate) |
marketplace-icon.png |
Same bitmap as icon.png (copy, not shared with the header) |
logo.svg |
Chat header |
icon.svg |
Activity bar (monochrome mask) |
What it does
- Sidebar chat in the TZBuild activity-bar view (same row as Explorer)
- Talks to a locally installed
grok over ACP stdio — the extension does not call the model API itself
- Composer: attachments (images / files / paste), model, reasoning effort, always-approve, context used/total, send
- Sandbox flag (
--sandbox) with an honest Windows note: kernel isolation is Linux/macOS
- Session home (latest chats, expand all), rename, history
- Sessions are created only after the first message
- Stop cancels the prompt and kills the grok process tree
- Thought text is hidden by default; 显示思考 only toggles display, it does not change
--reasoning-effort
- Slash commands are handled by the extension unless grok advertised them
- Tool cards keep the command/path and the output after status updates
- Live “LLM 工作中” bar (elapsed time; stale warning if nothing new arrives)
Requirements
This extension is only the sidebar. If grok already works in your terminal, install TZBuild and open a project folder — no extra script.
- VS Code 1.85+ (or Cursor)
- Official grok CLI on this machine (
grok in a terminal, or ~/.grok/bin/grok)
grok login (SuperGrok / Heavy) or XAI_API_KEY
If grok is missing, use the official installer (not this extension):
Windows: irm https://x.ai/cli/install.ps1 | iex then grok login
macOS / Linux: curl -fsSL https://x.ai/cli/install.sh | bash then grok login
Do not copy ~/.grok/auth.json between machines.
Usage
- Install this extension (Marketplace or
.vsix).
- Open a project folder.
- Click the TZBuild icon in the activity bar. If it sits in the
... overflow, drag it onto the main bar. Command: TZBuild: 打开侧边栏 (Ctrl+Alt+G / Cmd+Alt+G).
- Type a task. Enter sends,
Shift+Enter inserts a newline. + attaches images or files; screenshots paste as images.
- Approve or reject file writes and shell commands in the sidebar (unless 免确认 is on).
| Action |
Where |
| New session |
Header 新会话 or /new |
| History |
Header 历史会话 or /resume |
| Rename |
Header 重命名, or on a history card |
| Stop |
Header 停止 |
| Show/hide thought text |
Header 显示思考 / 隐藏思考 |
| Model / effort / sandbox |
Composer chips (relaunch grok with CLI flags) |
| Diagnostics |
/diag or TZBuild: 诊断 → ~/.grok/kit-diag.json and output TZBuild ACP |
The account line reads first_name / email from ~/.grok/auth.json. API-key-only setups show 未登录; the CLI can still run.
Usage limits stay on the grok.com (or API key) account. /usage in the sidebar.
Privacy
- No telemetry from this extension.
- It spawns local
grok and speaks ACP on stdio.
- It reads display name and email from
auth.json for the header only.
Disclaimer
Community client. Agent behavior, models, billing, and quotas are provided by the official Grok Build CLI and xAI.
