Z-Code-Guard

Your smart code-review companion for VS Code. Understand your changes, catch new errors, and protect your important files before you commit.

📌 Table of Contents

• What is Z-Code-Guard?
• Why Do You Need It?
• What Benefits Do You Get?
• How Does It Work?
• Quick Start & Installation
• Features & Walkthrough
• Optional Configuration
• All Commands
• Privacy & Safety
• Author & Developer
• License

🛡️ What is Z-Code-Guard?

Z-Code-Guard is a free, VS Code extension that lives in your sidebar like a smart code reviewer.

Whenever you or an AI coding assistant (like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, or Claude) edit files in your project, Z-Code-Guard immediately inspects what changed. Instead of just showing a long list of filenames, it clearly tells you:

• Exactly which functions and classes were modified.
• If any new compiler or linter errors were introduced.
• Which other files in your project might be affected.
• If changes touched sensitive code (like authentication, payments, or database operations).

Everything runs 100% locally on your computer with zero setup required.

❓ Why Do You Need It?

When you make changes or accept code from AI tools, regular Git only tells you something basic like:

3 files changed, 45 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

That leaves you with important unanswered questions:

1. Did I break any existing functions or interfaces?
2. Did this change introduce new errors that weren't there before?
3. What other files depend on the code I just modified?
4. Did I accidentally touch sensitive configuration or security boundaries?

Z-Code-Guard answers all these questions directly in your sidebar before you commit or push your code.

🌟 What Benefits Do You Get?

⚙️ How Does It Work?

graph LR
    A["You Edit Code"] --> B["Git Change Detection"]
    B --> C["Symbol & Error Analysis"]
    C --> D["Sidebar Report (Review Tab)"]

1. Detects Changes: When you save a file, it asks your local Git for changed files using safe, read-only commands (git status, git diff).
2. Parses Code: It scans modified lines to see exactly which functions, methods, or components overlap with the changes.
3. Checks Errors: It compares current VS Code diagnostics against your baseline to highlight new vs. existing errors.
4. Organizes the View: It displays clean sections in your sidebar: Protected Changes, Other Changes, Risk Findings, and Validation Checks.

🚀 Quick Start & Installation

Option 1: Install from VS Code Marketplace

1. Open VS Code.
2. Go to the Extensions tab (Ctrl+Shift+X on Windows/Linux, Cmd+Shift+X on Mac).
3. Search for Z-Code-Guard.
4. Click Install.

Option 2: Install from .vsix Package

If you have the z-code-guard-0.2.0.vsix file:

code --install-extension z-code-guard-0.2.0.vsix

Or open the Extensions tab in VS Code, click the ... menu in the top right, and select Install from VSIX....

🔍 Features & Walkthrough

1. Clean Change Explorer

• Clearly groups files into PROTECTED CHANGES and OTHER CHANGES.
• Displays exact line changes (+5 -2) and Git status (unstaged, staged, untracked).
• Hover over any file to click the Diff Icon (View Diff) or the Checkmark Icon (Mark as Reviewed).
• Click any file to open it directly in the editor.

2. Function & Symbol Detection

• Expanding a file reveals the exact functions, classes, components, and interfaces that changed.
• Clicking any symbol jumps straight to its line in your code.
• Symbols are clearly marked with color-coded icons (functions, classes, interfaces).

3. Diagnostics & Error Comparison

• Takes a snapshot of your project's current errors using Record Diagnostics Baseline.
• As you continue coding, new compiler errors are labeled as NEW in red, while old ones are labeled as existing.
• Helps you ensure you never introduce new bugs while fixing existing code.

4. Impacted Files Finder

• Shows you which other files in your project import or test the modified code.
• Categorizes links as [verified] (actual import statements) or [test] (test suites).

5. Smart Risk Findings

Warns you when changes touch potentially risky patterns:

• Protected Boundaries: Changes made inside sensitive directories.
• Authentication: Changes affecting tokens, passwords, sessions, or logins.
• Permissions: Changes modifying role checks or access-control logic.
• Payment Operations: Changes mentioning payment gateways or transactions.
• Secret Values: Warns if API keys or environment variables are touched (secret values are automatically masked for privacy).
• Destructive Commands: Warnings for commands like DROP TABLE, rmSync, or eval.

6. One-Click Project Checks

• Automatically finds scripts from your package.json (such as npm run lint, npm run test, npm run build).
• Click any check to run it on-demand with a confirmation popup.

⚙️ Optional Configuration

[!NOTE] Configuration is 100% optional. Z-Code-Guard works right out of the box in any Git project without any config file.

If you want to customize which folders are protected, create a .z-code-guard.json file in your project root, or run Z-Code-Guard: Configure Workspace from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P).

Example .z-code-guard.json:

{
  "version": 1,
  "protectedPaths": [
    "src/auth/**",
    "src/payments/**",
    "src/core/**"
  ],
  "excludePaths": [
    "node_modules/**",
    "dist/**",
    "coverage/**"
  ]
}

• protectedPaths: Any changes in these folders trigger a red alert in the PROTECTED CHANGES section.
• excludePaths: Folders you want Z-Code-Guard to ignore completely.

⌨️ All Commands

Press Ctrl+Shift+P (or Cmd+Shift+P on Mac) and type Z-Code-Guard:

🔒 Privacy & Safety Promises

• 100% Local Execution: Everything runs directly on your computer.
• Zero Network Calls: No external requests, no cloud servers, no analytics, no telemetry.
• Safe & Non-Destructive: Uses read-only Git commands. It will never commit, stage, delete, or alter your source code automatically.
• Credential Protection: If environment secrets are touched, their values are automatically redacted so they are never exposed in the UI.

👤 Author & Developer

Zeesu Royalist

• Website: zeesu-royalist.vercel.app
• GitHub: @zeesu-royalist

📄 License

This project is open-source and licensed under the MIT License — Copyright (c) 2026 Zeesu Royalist.