CodeLens AI for VS Code

Easily collect, organize, order, and format content from files, directories, and other VS Code resources within your editor! Perfect for creating context for LLMs, assembling documentation, sharing code snippets, viewing scoped Git diffs, or copying directory structures.

CodeLens AI interface showing sessions with multiple files and directories

Why CodeLens AI? 🤔

Tired of manually copying and pasting code, running separate git diff commands, or generating tree outputs? CodeLens AI streamlines these processes:

• 🧠 LLM Prompting: Quickly gather relevant code snippets and file contents (including from library sources) into a single, ordered, formatted block to provide maximum context for AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, or Copilot Chat.
• 📚 Documentation: Assemble code examples from different parts of your project or dependencies effortlessly, maintaining a logical order.
• 💬 Code Sharing: Share context-rich snippets in issues, pull requests, or team chats without hassle.
• ✅ Code Review: Generate focused git diff outputs for specific files, directories, or logical groups (sessions) directly within VS Code.
• 📋 Structure Overview: Copy clean, text-based directory tree structures for documentation or sharing, with configurable exclusions.
• 📂 Organization: Use independent Sessions to group resources for different tasks, features, or bug reports. Your sessions and their contents persist across VS Code restarts!

Features 🚀

• 💾 Full Session Persistence: Your sessions, the resources within them (identified by URI), their hierarchy, and their custom order are saved and restored automatically when you restart VS Code.
• ✨ Multiple Sessions: Create, rename, and manage independent sessions to organize different sets of resources logically.
• ➕ Add Active Editor: Quickly add the currently focused editor tab to a session using an inline button.
• 🪟 Add All Open Editors: Add all unique open editor tabs to a specific session using an inline button (excludes duplicates and the session's own generated document).
• 🖱️ Drag & Drop: Add standard files or entire directories just by dragging them from the VS Code Explorer onto a session.
• ↕️ Reorder Items: Easily drag and drop resources within a session's level to change their order. This order is saved and used when generating output.
• 🌲 Hierarchical View: Added directories retain their structure within the session view.
• 👓 Improved Display: Resources in the tree view show their base name (e.g., MyClass.java) as the primary label and the contextual path (e.g., my-library.jar!/.../mypackage) as the description. Full path visible in tooltip.
• 🖱️ Click to Open: Single-click any file or resource item in the tree view to open it directly in the editor.
• ⚙️ Configurable Exclusions:
  • Define glob patterns (codelensai.exclude) to ignore unwanted files/folders during drag-and-drop from the Explorer.
  • Define glob patterns (codelensai.excludeFromTree) to ignore items when using the Copy Directory Structure feature.
• ⚡ Per-Item Actions: Quickly perform actions directly on items:
  • Inline Icons (Hover):
    • Session: ➕ (Add Active Editor), 🪟 (Add All Editors), 📄 (Generate), 📋 (Copy Content), 🗑️ (Clear).
    • Directory: 📄 (Generate Content), 📋 (Copy Content), list-tree (Copy Structure), ❌ (Remove).
    • File: ❌ (Remove).
  • Right-Click Context Menu:
    • Session: Git Diff options, Undo Last Removal, Expand All Subdirectories, Copy Directory Structure, Rename, Remove Session.
    • Directory/File: Git Diff options, Remove Item.
• 🔄 Undo Functionality: Easily restore recently removed files or directories using the "Undo Last Removal" option in the session's right-click menu.
• 📂 Directory Management: Expand all subdirectories within a session using the session's right-click menu options for better navigation.
• 📄 On-Demand Generation: Create clean, editable documents for session content or Git diffs when needed.
• 📋 Easy Copying: Copy formatted Markdown content, Git diffs, or directory structures to your clipboard with single clicks.
• ❌ Fine-Grained Removal: Remove individual resources or directories (and their children) from a session easily via an inline icon.
• 🌳 Copy Directory Structure (tree): Copy a text-based tree view of the hierarchical structure within a session or a specific directory item (respecting excludeFromTree settings).
• ↔️ Git Diff Integration: Generate diffs (git diff HEAD) for tracked files within sessions, directories (file:// scheme only, recursive), or individual files. View diffs in a document or copy directly to the clipboard. Requires the built-in vscode.git extension.
• 💨 Asynchronous & Responsive: Built with async operations to keep your editor snappy.

Installation 💻

1. Open VS Code.
2. Go to the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X).
3. Search for CodeLens AI.
4. Click Install on the entry by Mahesh Doiphode.
5. (Recommended) Ensure the built-in Git extension (vscode.git) is enabled for Diff features.

(Alternatively, download the .vsix from Releases and install via Extensions View > ... > Install from VSIX...)

Getting Started & Usage 📖

1. Open the View:

   • Click the CodeLens AI icon in the Activity Bar.
   • You'll see the "CodeLens AI Sessions" view (or similar, based on internal naming). A "Default Session" is created if none exist.

2. Manage Sessions:

   • Create: Click the ➕ (New Session) icon in the view's title bar.
   • Rename: Right-click a session name -> "Rename Session".
   • Remove: Right-click a session name -> "Remove Session" (requires confirmation).

3. Add Resources:

   • Method 1: Drag & Drop (Files/Folders):
     • Drag files or directories from the VS Code Explorer.
     • Drop them onto the desired Session item or into the view's empty space (adds to the first session).
     • Exclusions defined in codelensai.exclude settings will apply here.
   • Method 2: Add Active Editor (Single Resource):
     • Open the file or resource you want to add in a VS Code editor tab.
     • In the CodeLens AI view, hover over the desired Session item.
     • Click the ➕ (Add Active Editor) icon that appears inline.
     • (codelensai.exclude settings do not apply here).
   • Method 3: Add All Open Editors (Multiple Resources):
     • Have multiple relevant files open in editor tabs.
     • In the CodeLens AI view, hover over the desired Session item.
     • Click the 🪟 (Add All Open Editors) icon that appears inline.
     • All unique open editors (excluding duplicates, items already in the session, and the session's generated document) will be added to the session root.
     • (codelensai.exclude settings do not apply here).

4. Interact with Items:

   • Expand/Collapse Session or Directory: Click ▶/▼ or the item label.
   • The primary label shows the resource name (e.g., MyClass.java).
   • The grey text description next to it shows context (e.g., my-library.jar!/.../mypackage or relative path).
   • Open Item: Single-click any file or resource item (non-directory) to open it in the editor.
   • Reorder: Drag an item within the same level (Session root or inside a Directory) and drop it above/below another item to change the order used for content generation.

5. Session Actions:

   • Inline Icons (Hover):
     • ➕ (Add Active Editor)
     • 🪟 (Add All Open Editors)
     • 📄 (Generate Code Block Document)
     • 📋 (Copy Code Block Content)
     • 🗑️ (Clear Session - Immediately removes all items)
   • Right-Click Context Menu:
     • Generate Git Diff Document vs HEAD
     • Copy Git Diff vs HEAD
     • Undo Last Removal (restores recently removed files)
     • Expand All Subdirectories
     • Copy Directory Structure
     • Rename Session
     • Remove Session

6. Resource Item Actions:

   • Directory Items (resourceDirectory) - Inline Icons (Hover):
     • 📄 (Generate Code Block for Directory Content)
     • 📋 (Copy Code Block for Directory Content)
     • list-tree (Copy Directory Structure)
     • ❌ (Remove Directory and its children from session - inline)
   • Directory Items - Right-Click Context Menu:
     • Generate Git Diff Document for Directory vs HEAD
     • Copy Git Diff for Directory vs HEAD
     • Remove Directory and its children from session
   • File Items (resourceFile) - Inline Icons (Hover):
     • ❌ (Remove File from session - inline)
   • File Items - Right-Click Context Menu:
     • Generate Git Diff Document for File vs HEAD
     • Copy Git Diff for File vs HEAD
     • Remove File from session

7. Advanced Directory Management:

   • Expand All Subdirectories: Right-click on a session and select this option to expand all directories to show their full content (up to 3 levels deep as per VS Code limitations).
   • Undo Last Removal: Accidentally removed files or directories? Right-click on the session and select "Undo Last Removal" to restore the most recently removed items.

8. Using Git Diff:

   • Requires the built-in vscode.git extension to be enabled.
   • Operates on resources with the file:// scheme that are tracked by Git.
   • Compares the state of tracked files against HEAD.
   • Session Scope: Diffs all tracked file:// resources within the session.
   • Directory Scope: Recursively diffs all tracked file:// resources under that directory within the session.
   • File Scope: Diffs the single tracked file.
   • Untracked files or non-file:// resources are skipped.
   • Generate Diff opens the output in a new .diff editor tab.
   • Copy Diff copies the output directly to the clipboard.

9. Copying Directory Structure (list-tree on Directory/Session):

   • Generates a text-based tree representation similar to the tree command.
   • Copies the structure to the clipboard.
   • Files/folders matching patterns in codelensai.excludeFromTree (based on their path relative to the copied root) will be omitted from the output.
   • Available via inline icon on Directory items and context menu on Session items.

10. Edit Generated Code/Diff (Optional):

    • Documents opened by "Generate Code Block" or "Generate Diff" are standard editor tabs. Edit them freely before copying/saving. Changes here don't affect the session or your Git history.

Configuring Exclusions 🚫

There are two types of exclusions:

1. Content Exclusions (Drag & Drop - codelensai.exclude)

Prevent unwanted files/folders from being added when dragging from the Explorer.

• Operates on full file system paths.
• Does not apply when using "Add Active Editor" or "Add All Open Editors".

Example settings.json:

{
  // ... other settings ...
  "codelensai.exclude": {
    "**/.git": true,          // Ignore .git folders anywhere
    "**/node_modules": true,  // Ignore node_modules anywhere
    "**/target": true,
    "**/build": true,
    "**/*.log": true,         // Ignore all .log files
    "**/.DS_Store": true,
    "**/dist": true,          // Ignore dist folders
    ".vscode/**": true       // Ignore files inside .vscode folder at root
  }
}

2. Structure Copy Exclusions (codelensai.excludeFromTree)

Prevent specific files/folders from appearing in the output of the "Copy Directory Structure" action.

• Operates on paths relative to the root of the structure being copied (either the session root or the selected directory).
• Use standard glob patterns.

Example settings.json:

{
  // ... other settings ...
  "codelensai.excludeFromTree": {
    // Common patterns (often match defaults in .gitignore)
    ".git": true,
    "node_modules": true,
    "target": true,
    "build": true,
    "dist": true,
    "*.log": true,         // Exclude log files at any level within the copied structure
    "__pycache__": true,
    ".DS_Store": true,
    "*.lock": true,        // Exclude lock files
    "temp/**": true       // Exclude everything inside a 'temp' folder within the structure
  }
}

Glob Pattern Tips:

• ** : Matches multiple directory levels (**/node_modules matches it anywhere).
• * : Matches zero or more characters except /.
• Use / as the path separator in patterns.
• Patterns in excludeFromTree match relative to the item you clicked "Copy Structure" on.

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code version 1.97.0 or higher.
• Git Extension (vscode.git): The built-in Git extension must be enabled for Git Diff functionality.

Known Issues & Considerations

• External Resource Changes: If a resource added to a session is changed, moved, or deleted externally, the link in the CodeLens AI view becomes stale. Generating content, diffing, or opening it may fail. Remove stale items manually (❌).
• Git Diff Scope: Diff functionality only applies to file:// URIs that are part of a Git repository recognized by the vscode.git extension. Untracked files and non-file resources are ignored. Performance on very large repositories or diffs may vary.
• Structure Copy Relative Paths: The relative path calculation for excludeFromTree works best for standard file:// URIs within a workspace. Its behavior for non-file URIs or complex nested structures might be less precise.
• Binary Files: Content display/diffing for binary files may be incorrect or skipped.
• Performance: Adding huge directories or generating content/diffs for sessions with many very large files might take time.
• Reordering Scope: Drag-and-drop reordering only works between items at the same level (siblings within the session root or within the same parent directory).

Release Notes

1.0.3 (Latest)

• ⚡ Performance: Extension Optimization & Bundling!
  • Implemented webpack bundling for significantly improved performance and faster load times.
  • 📊 Size Reduction: Package size reduced by over 80%, now only 79.9 KB.
  • 🚀 Streamlined Structure: Decreased from 167 files to just 19 files in the extension package.
  • ⏱️ Faster Loading: All dependencies now bundled into a single minified JavaScript file.
  • 🧹 Cleaner Distribution: Removed unnecessary development files from the published package.
  • Update demo image

1.0.2

• 🎉 Project Renamed to CodeLens AI & Configuration Update!
  • "File Integrator" is now CodeLens AI, better reflecting its role in AI-assisted development.
  • ⚠️ IMPORTANT: Configuration settings in settings.json must be updated:
    • fileintegrator.exclude is now codelensai.exclude.
    • fileintegrator.excludeFromTree is now codelensai.excludeFromTree.
  • Update your settings if you have custom configurations. Previous fileintegrator.* settings are no longer read.

1.0.1

• 🎉 Project Renamed to CodeLens AI!
  • The extension has been renamed from "File Integrator" to "CodeLens AI" to better reflect its capabilities in assisting AI-driven development workflows.
  • Configuration Update: Settings have been updated:
    • fileintegrator.exclude is now codelensai.exclude.
    • fileintegrator.excludeFromTree is now codelensai.excludeFromTree.
    • Please update your settings.json if you have custom configurations.
• ✨ Feature: Undo Last Removal!
  • Added "Undo Last Removal" functionality to restore recently removed files or directories. Accessible via the session's right-click context menu.
• ✨ Feature: Expand All Subdirectories!
  • Introduced "Expand All Subdirectories" option for sessions, allowing easier navigation of nested structures (up to 3 levels deep). Accessible via the session's right-click context menu.
• 🎨 UI: Improved Actions and Context Menus!
  • Refined user interface by reorganizing actions. Many common operations are now available as inline hover icons on tree items (Sessions, Directories, Files).
  • More comprehensive actions remain in right-click context menus, providing a cleaner and more intuitive user experience.
• 🛠️ Fix: Copy Directory Structure Accuracy!
  • Improved the "Copy Directory Structure" feature to more reliably copy the entire intended tree structure.

1.0.0

• 🚀 Feature: Git Diff Integration!
  • Added actions to generate Git diffs compared to HEAD.
  • Available for Sessions, Directories (recursive, tracked file:// items), and individual Files.
  • Options to view diff in a document ($(git-compare)) or copy to clipboard ($(clippy)).
  • Actions appear as inline icons on hover for Sessions and Files, and inline/context menu for Directories.
  • Requires the built-in vscode.git extension.
• ✨ Feature: Copy Directory Structure!
  • Added action ($(list-tree)) to copy a text-based tree representation of a Session or Directory's contents.
  • Output respects exclusions defined in the new codelensai.excludeFromTree setting (formerly fileintegrator.excludeFromTree).
  • Available as inline icon on Directories and via context menu on Sessions.
• ⚙️ Feature: New excludeFromTree Configuration!
  • Added codelensai.excludeFromTree setting (formerly fileintegrator.excludeFromTree) to control which files/folders (by relative path) are omitted from the "Copy Directory Structure" output.
• UI: Moved Git Diff actions for Sessions and Files to be inline icons instead of context menu items for quicker access.
• Fix: Corrected logic for Git diff calculation, especially for repository root diffs and reporting of "No Changes" vs "No Trackable Files".
• Build: Added explicit dependency on vscode.git extension in package.json.
• Refactor: Improved internal diff calculation logic and user feedback messages.

0.0.8

• ✨ Feature: Add All Open Editors! New inline button 🪟 on session items adds all unique open editor tabs to that specific session. Skips duplicates, already included items, and the session's own generated document.
• Refactor: Moved "Add All Open Editors" command from view title to session item context menu (inline).
• Refactor: Code comment cleanup for better readability.

0.0.7

• 🚀 Feature: URI Support! Can now add resources beyond simple files (e.g., files inside JARs/archives, untitled files) using the "Add Active Editor" button. Core logic updated to use URIs as primary identifiers.
• ✨ Feature: Add Active Editor! New inline button ➕ on session items to quickly add the current editor's content without prompts.
• ✨ Feature: Click to Open! Single-clicking file/resource items in the tree view now directly opens them in the editor.
• 💾 Feature: Full Session Persistence! Sessions now save and restore their complete state, including the list of resources (identified by URI), their hierarchy, and their user-defined order, across VS Code restarts. Persistence layer updated to store URIs; includes migration from older path-based versions (v1/v2). Storage key version bumped to v3.
• 👓 UI: Improved Display: Enhanced display for non-file URIs (like archives) in the tree view description and generated Markdown headers for better readability.
• UI: No Clear Confirmation: Removed the confirmation dialog when clearing a session for faster workflow.
• Fix: Tree view now reliably updates immediately when adding items via "Add Active Editor".
• Fix: Compilation Errors:** Resolved TypeScript compilation errors related to persistence loading.
• Refactor: Async Content Generation: Content generation (generateMarkdownContent) is now fully asynchronous and reads resource content on demand using VS Code APIs if not already loaded (e.g., after restart).
• Perf: Lazy Activation: Changed activation event to onView:fileIntegratorView (internal ID, may change to onView:codeLensAiView) for faster VS Code startup.

0.0.6

• Added: Drag-and-Drop Reordering (sibling level).
• Changed: Internal storage switched to Array for order preservation.

0.0.5

• Added: File & Directory Exclusion! Configure glob patterns via codelensai.exclude setting (formerly fileintegrator.exclude) to ignore unwanted items (e.g., node_modules, .git).
• Added: Notification when items are skipped due to exclusion rules.
• Improved: README updated with comprehensive usage and exclusion configuration details.

0.0.4

• Added: Multiple Session Support! Create, rename, and remove independent file collections (Fixes #2).
• Added: Session-specific actions (Generate, Copy, Clear) via inline icons and context menus.
• Changed: Dragging files now only adds to the session list; the Markdown document is only created/updated/shown via the explicit "Generate" action.
• Improved: Switched to asynchronous file operations for better performance.
• Added: Session names and IDs are now persisted between VS Code restarts (content was not persisted in this version).
• Fixed: Corrected issues with file and directory removal logic.

0.0.3

• Removed webview in favor of document-based editing.
• Added support for dynamic updates (behavior changed in 0.0.4).
• Improved code block generation.

0.0.2

• Initial release.
• Drag and drop files.
• Generate and copy markdown code blocks.

Feedback & Contributions

Found a bug or have a feature request? Please open an issue on the GitHub repository! Contributions are welcome.

Development

• npm run webpack
• npx vsce package

Enjoy streamlining your code aggregation and review workflow! 🎉