None of these editors natively render RTL script in their AI chat panels —
a Persian question shows up left-aligned, punctuation scrambled, numbers
flipped. RTL for AI Chats patches the chat itself so it just reads
correctly, everywhere you use it, without you doing anything after setup.
- Persian/Arabic replies render left-aligned, punctuation and numbers scrambled
+ Every RTL message snaps right-aligned, reading in the correct direction
- Code snippets inside an RTL answer get mirrored along with the text
+ Code blocks, diffs, and terminals always stay left-to-right, untouched
- An editor or extension update silently undoes any manual fix you made
+ The patch watches for updates and re-applies itself automatically
Features
Detects direction per message, not per panel. Each chat element is
checked for RTL script on its own — mixed Persian/English messages,
inline numbers, and punctuation all render correctly instead of the whole
panel just being blanket-mirrored.
Two detection modes. ratio (smart — flips once enough of a
message's letters are RTL, tunable by threshold) or first-strong
(matches the browser's native dir="auto" behavior).
Code never flips. Code blocks, inline code, diffs, and terminal panes
are explicitly excluded, so a Persian question followed by a JS snippet
doesn't turn the snippet backwards.
Runs across 7 editors out of the box: VS Code, VS Code Insiders,
Cursor, Windsurf, Windsurf Next, Devin Desktop, and Google Antigravity —
it scans ~/.vscode, ~/.cursor, ~/.windsurf, etc. and patches
whichever ones are actually installed on your machine.
Patches 4 AI chat surfaces:
| Target |
How |
| Claude Code |
webview/index.js in anthropic.claude-code-* |
| ChatGPT / Codex |
hashed bundle in openai.chatgpt-*/webview/assets/ |
| Gemini Code Assist |
webview/app_bundle.js in google.geminicodeassist-* |
| Copilot Chat / Antigravity's built-in agent |
the editor's own workbench.html |
Self-healing. Watches every installed editor's extensions/ folder
live — the moment an update overwrites the patch, it's silently
re-applied and you just get a one-click "Reload Window" prompt.
Fully configurable, from a settings panel in the Activity Bar or the
standard Settings UI — font, size, line-height, detection mode and
threshold, per-message override toggle, and more. See
Settings.
Safe by design. Every file is backed up to <file>.rtl-backup before
the first patch, and one command restores everything, everywhere.
No extension required, if you'd rather not install one. Every part of
what the extension does is also a standalone script you can run by hand.
Install
From Open VSX (Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium, and other Open VSX-backed
editors): search "RTL for AI Chats" in Extensions, or open the
listing
directly and click Install.
VS Code Marketplace listing is pending review — until then, use Open VSX
or install the .vsix manually below.
One-shot script — builds the .vsix once and installs it into every
editor found on your machine:
./install.sh
Manual, per editor:
npm install -g @vscode/vsce
vsce package
Then in each editor: Extensions → … menu → Install from VSIX... →
select the generated rtl-ai-chats-*.vsix, then run
Developer: Reload Window.
No-install alternative — run the patch script directly, no extension
needed:
node fix-rtl.js # apply
node fix-rtl.js --dry-run # preview only, no changes
node fix-rtl.js --restore # undo everything
Commands
Open the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P) and run:
- RTL: Re-inject into All AI Agents — force a re-patch right now, across
every installed editor and chat surface.
- RTL: Show Injection Status — see what's patched vs. broken, per
editor, with a one-click "Fix Now" if anything's out of date.
- RTL: Restore Original (Undo All Patches) — revert every patched file
from its backup. Run this before uninstalling.
- RTL: Turn On / Off — toggle everything without opening Settings.
- RTL: Show / Hide Sidebar Panel — show or hide the Activity Bar icon.
- RTL: Open Settings — jump straight to this extension's settings.
Settings
Click the RTL icon in the Activity Bar for a settings panel, or open
Settings → Extensions → RTL for AI Chats. Changing any setting that
affects the patch re-applies it automatically across every installed
editor.
| Setting |
Default |
What it does |
rtl-ai-chats.enabled |
true |
Master on/off switch. Turning it off restores every patched file to its original state. |
rtl-ai-chats.autoApplyOnStartup |
true |
Re-apply automatically on startup and after updates. |
rtl-ai-chats.showInActivityBar |
true |
Show/hide the Activity Bar panel. |
rtl-ai-chats.showStatusBar |
true |
Show/hide the on/off item in the status bar. |
rtl-ai-chats.font.family |
Vazirmatn |
Font for RTL text — Vazirmatn and Sahel are bundled and work out of the box, System default uses whatever the chat already renders with. |
rtl-ai-chats.font.scale |
1 |
Size of RTL text relative to the chat's default. |
rtl-ai-chats.font.lineHeight |
1.85 |
Line spacing for RTL text. |
rtl-ai-chats.detection.mode |
ratio |
ratio (smart: flips once enough of a message's letters are RTL) or first-strong (flips based on the first strong-directional character, like the browser's native dir="auto"). |
rtl-ai-chats.detection.threshold |
0.3 |
ratio mode only — minimum share (0.1–0.7) of RTL letters needed to flip a message. |
rtl-ai-chats.applyToInput |
true |
Also flip the message box to RTL as you type. |
rtl-ai-chats.showMessageToggles |
true |
Show a small ⇄ button on each message to override its direction by hand. |
rtl-ai-chats.keepCodeLeftToRight |
true |
Keep code blocks, diffs, and terminals left-to-right. |
Staying patched after updates
The extension activates on startup and also watches every installed
editor's extensions/ folder live — if an editor or AI-agent extension
update overwrites the patch (which happens on auto-update, since it
overwrites the webview bundle), it's detected and re-applied automatically.
You just get a prompt to reload the window; no manual steps needed.
Uninstalling
Run RTL: Restore Original (Undo All Patches) (or node fix-rtl.js --restore) first to revert every patched file to its pre-extension state,
then uninstall the extension normally from each editor.
Credits
The bundled Vazirmatn and Sahel fonts are by Saber Rastikerdar,
licensed under the SIL Open Font License.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Not affiliated with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or Microsoft — an unofficial community patch.
