🦎 What is Chameleon?

Chameleon is more than just another AI chat window. It's a powerful, open-source VS Code extension that transforms your editor into a professional-grade, multi-CLI AI launcher and intelligent agent marketplace.

Designed for developers, writers, and researchers, Chameleon puts you in control with its Universal Multi-CLI Launcher that seamlessly integrates Claude Code and Gemini CLI with extensive third-party AI model support. It features a comprehensive Agent Marketplace with hundreds of specialized AI agents, allowing you to connect to any AI provider, manage local and remote models, and build your own private AI toolchain—all within the familiar environment of VS Code.

Universal Multi-CLI Launcher - Navigate between Claude Code and Gemini CLI seamlessly

✨ Core Features

🚀 Universal Multi-CLI Launcher

• Claude Code Integration: Native support for Claude Code CLI with official and third-party AI routing
• Gemini CLI Support: Full integration with Gemini CLI including extensive third-party AI model compatibility
• Unified Interface: Single dashboard to manage multiple CLI tools and AI providers seamlessly

🛒 Agent Marketplace

• 500+ Specialized Agents: Discover and download from our comprehensive marketplace of AI agents
• Category-Based Organization: Architecture, Programming, Infrastructure, Quality & Security, Data & AI, Documentation, and Business agents
• One-Click Installation: Download agents directly to Claude Code or Codex with automatic format conversion
• Community-Driven: Constantly expanding collection of community-contributed specialized agents

Agent Marketplace - Browse and download 500+ specialized AI agents

🌍 Multi-Language Support

Our Agent Marketplace supports 12 languages with localized interfaces:

Japanese Interface - Complete localization for Japanese developers

Chinese Interface - Native Chinese language support

🎯 Advanced AI Engine Support

• 6 AI Engines, 20+ Selected Models: Break free from vendor lock-in! Support for OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Google, Volcengine, Azure, Ollama and other 6 major AI engines, covering 20+ carefully selected models, including the latest GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, DeepSeek V3, etc.
• Third-Party Model Integration: Extensive support for third-party AI models through both Claude Code and Gemini CLI
• Intelligent Model Routing: Automatic selection of the best AI model based on task complexity and requirements

💼 Professional Development Features

• Professional Notebook Interface: Move beyond simple prompts. Structure your AI-driven tasks in a rich notebook format that combines Markdown, code snippets, and AI prompts. Perfect for complex tasks like code reviews, architectural design, and in-depth document analysis.
• Intelligent Document Processing: Supercharge your writing and analysis with AI-powered summarization, optimization, and translation.
• Deep IDE Integration: Chameleon feels like a native part of VS Code. Access powerful AI tools directly from the context menu, code lenses, and a dedicated sidebar panel.
• Privacy-First: Run your AI tasks in a local, secure environment. Chameleon is designed to work with local models and gives you full control over your data.
• Fully Customizable: From themes to model routing rules, you can tailor every aspect of Chameleon to fit your exact needs.

🚀 Installation and Setup

Choose the path that's right for you:

Option 1: For End Users (Recommended)

Follow these steps to install and use the Chameleon extension from the VS Code Marketplace.

Step 1: Install Multi-CLI Dependencies

Chameleon's Universal Multi-CLI Launcher requires Claude Code and Gemini CLI with their routers to function. We've made this easy:

1. Install the Chameleon extension (see Step 2).
2. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P).
3. Run the Chameleon: Open Installation Guide command.
4. Follow the step-by-step instructions in the guide to install Node.js, Git, and other required components.

Step 2: Install the Extension

1. Open Visual Studio Code.
2. Go to the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X).
3. Search for "Chameleon - 智能文档助手".
4. Click "Install".

Step 3: Configure AI Providers

1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).
2. Run the Chameleon: Open AI Settings command.
3. Select an AI provider and enter your API key.
4. You're all set! Click the Chameleon icon in the activity bar to start.

Option 2: For Developers (From Source Code)

Follow these steps if you want to run the extension from the source code or contribute to the project.

Prerequisites:

• Git
• Node.js (v16 or higher recommended)
• All dependencies from the Installation Guide (Claude Code, Claude Code Router, etc.) must be installed and running.

Steps:

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/chameleon-nexus/claude-code-vscode.git
   cd claude-code-vscode
   

2. Install Dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Compile the Code:

   • To compile once: npm run compile
   • To watch for changes and compile automatically: npm run watch

4. Run the Extension:

   • Open the project folder in VS Code.
   • Press F5 to open the Extension Development Host window with the Chameleon extension running.

🎯 Supported AI Engines & Models

Chameleon supports 6 major AI engines through Claude Code Router, covering 20+ carefully selected models for professional-grade AI capabilities:

🔥 Text AI Engines

OpenRouter

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: Most powerful reasoning capability
• Claude 3 Haiku: Fast and lightweight version
• GPT-4o: Latest multimodal model
• GPT-4o-mini: Lightweight version with excellent cost-performance
• Llama 3.1 405B: Open-source large model
• Gemini Pro 1.5: Long context expert

DeepSeek

• DeepSeek Chat: General conversation model
• DeepSeek Coder: Professional code generation

Google Gemini

• Gemini Pro: General reasoning model
• Gemini Pro Vision: Image understanding model

Volcengine

• DeepSeek V3: Volcengine version (128K tokens long context)

Azure OpenAI

• GPT-4: Classic advanced reasoning model
• GPT-4 Turbo: High-performance reasoning model
• GPT-3.5 Turbo: Fast response model

Ollama (Local Deployment)

• Llama 3.1: Open-source conversation model
• CodeLlama: Code-specialized model
• Mistral: Efficient reasoning model
• Gemma: Lightweight model

🎨 Multimodal AI Engines

Image Understanding Engine - Seedream

• Professional image analysis, OCR recognition, chart understanding
• Supports multiple image formats and complex visual tasks

Video Processing Engine - Seedance

• Professional video content analysis and summary generation
• Supports long video understanding and action recognition

⚙️ Smart Model Configuration

Chameleon supports 5 specialized model configurations to choose the most suitable AI model for different scenarios:

1. Short Text Model (Fast Response)

• Suitable for: Simple Q&A, code completion, quick translation
• Recommended: GPT-3.5-turbo, Claude 3 Haiku, DeepSeek Chat

2. Long Text Model (Large Context)

• Suitable for: Long document analysis, code review, complex reasoning
• Recommended: GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, DeepSeek V3

3. Thinking Model (Deep Reasoning)

• Suitable for: Complex problem solving, architecture design, mathematical calculations
• Recommended: Claude 3.5 Sonnet, GPT-4, Llama 3.1 405B

4. Image Model (Visual Understanding)

• Suitable for: Image analysis, OCR, chart understanding
• Recommended: Seedream engine

5. Video Model (Video Processing)

• Suitable for: Video summarization, content analysis, action recognition
• Recommended: Seedance engine

🚀 Model Routing Strategy

Chameleon's intelligent routing system automatically selects the best model based on:

• Task Complexity: Simple tasks → fast models, complex tasks → reasoning models
• Content Length: Short text → lightweight models, long documents → large context models
• Modality Type: Text → language models, images → Seedream engine, video → Seedance engine
• User Preference: Manual specification of specific models
• Cost Optimization: Perfect balance between performance and cost

🌍 Internationalization

Chameleon supports 12 languages:

• English (en)
• 简体中文 (zh)
• 日本語 (ja)
• Deutsch (de)
• Français (fr)
• Español (es)
• Português (pt)
• Tiếng Việt (vi)
• हिन्दी (hi)
• 한국어 (ko)
• Русский (ru)
• العربية (ar)

🔧 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Extension Not Activating:

   • Check VS Code developer console (Help > Toggle Developer Tools)
   • Verify extension is enabled
   • Check for conflicting extensions

2. AI Provider Connection Issues:

   • Verify API keys are correctly configured
   • Check network connectivity
   • Review API timeout settings
   • Test connection using the built-in connection test

3. Installation Guide Not Working:

   • Ensure you have administrator privileges (Windows)
   • Check if Node.js and Git are properly installed
   • Try manual installation following the guide steps

Debug Mode

Enable debug logging:

1. Open VS Code settings
2. Search for "chameleon.debug"
3. Enable debug mode
4. Check Output panel for "Chameleon" logs

🤝 Contributing

Chameleon is an open-source project built for the community. We welcome all contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details on how to get involved.

Development Setup

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests if applicable
5. Submit a pull request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🆘 Support

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions
• Documentation: Wiki

📝 Changelog

v0.1.0 (Initial Release)

• Universal AI provider support
• Professional notebook interface
• Deep IDE integration
• Privacy-first design
• Full internationalization (12 languages)
• Comprehensive installation guide

Made with ❤️ for the developer community