Sona: AI-Native Programming with Cognitive Accessibility
Visual Studio Code support for the Sona programming language.
What's New in 0.15.3
Sona 0.15.3 focuses on reliability fixes, diagnostic consistency, and the
Native Core preview while preserving the existing extension feature surface.
- Stable CLI flow remains available:
sona --version, sona --help, sona run file.sona, and sona file.sona.
sona check file.sona reports Cognitive Diagnostics for common mistakes.sona check file.sona --json returns structured diagnostics for tools.- The AI Console remains backend-routed through Sona governance rather than
calling providers directly.
- Existing Run Sona File command remains available from the Command Palette and editor context menu.
.sona and .smod syntax highlighting remains activation-safe.
How to Use Sona in VS Code
Install Python 3.11 or newer and the Sona CLI:
pip install sona-lang
Open a folder and create hello.sona:
print("Hello, Sona!");
Open the Command Palette and run Sona: Run Sona File.
Use .sona files for Sona programs and .smod files for Sona modules.
Quick Start
Install Python 3.11 or newer.
Install the Sona CLI:
pip install sona-lang
Check the CLI:
sona --version
sona --help
sona check hello.sona
sona check hello.sona --json
4. Create `hello.sona`:
```sona
print("Hello from Sona!");
Run it:
sona run hello.sona
See the full quickstart in docs/QUICKSTART.md.
Features
- Syntax highlighting for
.sona and .smod.
- Run, check, format, profile, benchmark, and transpile commands.
- REPL integration for interactive exploration.
- Optional AI-assisted explain and suggestion commands.
- Preview Sona AI Console for developer-intelligence tasks, with selectable agent modes and governed backend routing.
- Cognitive accessibility workflows including Focus Mode, Working Memory, and user profiles.
Useful Commands
| Command |
Description |
| Sona: Welcome & Setup |
Opens extension onboarding. |
| Sona: Run Sona File |
Runs the active Sona file. |
| Sona: Check Syntax |
Checks syntax for the active Sona file. |
| Sona: Format Code |
Formats Sona code. |
| Sona: Start REPL |
Starts an interactive Sona shell. |
| Sona: Open AI Console |
Opens the preview developer-intelligence task surface. |
| Sona: Show System Info |
Shows runtime and extension environment details. |
Configuration
{
"sona.cli.pythonPath": "python",
"sona.cli.timeout": 30000,
"sona.userProfile": "neurotypical",
"sona.ai.autoSetup": true,
"sona.ai.defaultAgent": "sona",
"sona.ai.qwen.enabled": false,
"sona.ai.qwen.model": "qwen2.5-coder:7b",
"sona.ai.ollama.url": "http://127.0.0.1:11434",
"sona.ai.claude.enabled": false,
"sona.ai.codex.enabled": false,
"sona.onboarding.showWelcome": true
}
Sona AI Console is a preview developer-tooling feature, not a general chatbot.
Its unchanged UI submits schema-1 requests through a replaceable transport
adapter to sona ai task; it does not call Ollama or any remote provider
directly. Non-developer prompts are rejected. Claude and Codex remain structured
unavailable placeholders, and the extension does not control external AI
extensions.
Release Notes
License
MIT License. See LICENSE.
