ClawAI Coding Agent for VS Code
ClawAI Coding Agent is the secure VS Code client for a ClawAI backend. It brings
streaming chat, backend-owned AUTO routing, manual model selection, model
comparison and judging, project-aware code workflows, explainable context
receipts, and preview-before-apply edits into the editor.
The extension remains a thin client. Authentication, entitlements, quotas,
thread history, provider credentials, routing, inference, and audit records stay
in the ClawAI platform.
Highlights
- Stream responses from local or hosted ClawAI deployments.
- Use backend AUTO routing or choose an entitled model manually.
- Compare two to five models and optionally request a judge response.
- Ask about a selection, active file, or bounded workspace context.
- Generate, fix, review, test, document, plan, and audit code.
- Inspect every proposed file in VS Code diff editors before a modal approval.
- Undo the most recent ClawAI edit made during the current extension session.
- Keep project rules in
.clawai/ and profile-wide rules in extension storage.
- Use the interface in 13 locales, including RTL Arabic and Persian.
Requirements
- VS Code 1.98 or newer.
- A reachable ClawAI backend and a ClawAI account.
- Workspace Trust for workspace-wide collection or any file modification.
Node.js is only required when developing or packaging the extension.
Quick start
- Install the VSIX or Marketplace release.
- On first launch, enter the ClawAI app origin, such as
https://claw.local or https://localhost. The extension adds /api/v1
automatically.
- Choose Connect, then approve VS Code in the ClawAI web app. Credentials
are entered only in the web app; the extension receives a one-time
authorization code and stores the resulting tokens in VS Code
SecretStorage.
- Keep AUTO selected or choose an entitled model from Model & Route.
- Ask a question, compare models, or run a ClawAI command from the Command
Palette.
Use Ctrl+Shift+A (Cmd+Shift+A on macOS) to open chat and
Ctrl+Shift+Enter (Cmd+Shift+Enter) to ask about a selection.
You can also open VS Code Chat and address the stable @clawai participant.
Local and hosted backends
The extension adds /api/v1 to the configured backend origin. A pasted
trailing /api/v1 is removed automatically. Do not include
credentials, tokens, query strings, or fragments in the URL.
Plain HTTP is accepted only for localhost, 127.0.0.1, ::1, or
claw.local. Every non-local backend must use HTTPS. The extension validates
every backend response at runtime and refreshes an expired session once before
retrying the request.
Coding workflows
Read-only workflows return analysis in chat. Edit workflows require the backend
to return a bounded, validated edit plan. The extension rejects absolute paths,
parent traversal, .git, environment files, credential-like paths, malformed
operations, and oversized plans.
For every valid plan, the extension:
- opens before/after diff previews;
- asks for explicit modal approval;
- checks Workspace Trust again;
- applies one atomic
WorkspaceEdit;
- offers a session-scoped undo.
Approval cannot be disabled by a setting.
Context and .clawai
Workspace context is size- and file-bounded, excludes binary content, applies
VS Code and .clawai/ignore patterns, and always denies common secret paths.
The Context view shows exactly what was included, excluded, and truncated.
Run ClawAI: Initialize .clawai to create the documented project structure
without overwriting existing files. Use Open Global Rules and
Open Global Skills for profile-wide guidance. Global guidance is read before
project rules.
See the .clawai specification for the complete
layout.
Configuration
| Setting |
Scope |
Default |
clawAI.backendUrl |
machine |
prompted on first launch |
clawAI.requestTimeoutMs |
machine |
60000 |
clawAI.routingMode |
workspace |
AUTO |
clawAI.selectedModel |
workspace |
empty |
clawAI.maxContextBytes |
workspace |
200000 |
clawAI.maxContextFiles |
workspace |
40 |
clawAI.exclude |
workspace |
generated, build, secret, and VCS globs |
clawAI.historyLimit |
window |
50 |
Secrets are deliberately not settings.
Development
npm ci --ignore-scripts
npm run check
npm run test:host
npm run package
Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host. CI runs formatting, lint,
strict typechecking, unit/integration coverage, bundling, package security
invariants, runtime dependency audit, VSIX creation, and a real VS Code
activation test.
Architecture, API, security, test, publishing, UX, and UAT references live in
docs/.
Status
Version 0.1.1 implements the production-ready extension surface from
the ClawAI VS Code coding-agent plan. See CHANGELOG.md and
ROADMAP.md.
License
MIT
