Ghostwriter for VS Code

AI-assisted content creation tool powered by GitHub Copilot for interviews and writing workflows. This extension provides an in-editor experience for conducting AI-driven interviews and generating polished articles from transcripts.

Screenshots

Home View

Interview Mode

Writer Mode

Voice Generator Mode

Features

AI-Powered Interview Mode

• Interactive AI Interviews: Conduct dynamic interviews with GitHub Copilot asking relevant questions
• Smart Conversation Flow: AI adapts questions based on your responses
• Instant Transcript Creation: Transcripts are created immediately when you provide the interview topic and saved to .ghostwriter/transcripts/
• Real-time File Updates: Each question and answer is written to the transcript file as it happens, preventing data loss
• Resume Interrupted Interviews: Resume an interview from where it left off by selecting an existing transcript file
• Auto-completion Detection: Automatically detects when the interview is complete
• Model Selection: Choose from available GitHub Copilot models (GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, etc.)
• Multi-Language Support: Conduct interviews in over 20 languages including Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, and more
• Interviewer Agents: Create, manage, and select custom interviewer prompts stored in .ghostwriter/interviewer
• Transcript Management: Automatically saves formatted transcripts to the .ghostwriter folder
• Hot Module Replacement: Fast development with HMR support

Advanced Writer Mode

• Transcript Selection: Browse interview transcripts from your workspace or select custom files
• Voice File Integration: Apply writing style from voice files for consistent tone
• Model Selection: Choose specific GitHub Copilot models for content generation
• Multi-Language Support: Generate content in over 20 languages including Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, and more
• Writer Agents: Create, manage, and select custom writer prompts stored in .ghostwriter/writer
• Writing Style Options:
  • Formal, Casual, or Conversational tone
  • Automatic heading generation
  • SEO optimization
• Keyword Optimization: Define target keywords for improved search engine visibility
• Frontmatter Templates: Create reusable YAML frontmatter templates for consistent article metadata
• Real-time Streaming: Watch your article being generated in real-time
• Direct File Save: Save generated articles directly to your workspace
• Save Settings Templates: Configure default save locations and filename templates with placeholders like {{slug}} and {{date|yyyy-MM-dd}}
• Image Support: Attach and embed images during writing with automatic markdown reference insertion
• Image Remapping for Production: Configure production image paths (e.g., /uploads/2026/02) when saving articles for deployed environments
• Draft Iteration Mode: Refine your articles conversationally with iterative improvements

Draft Iteration Mode

• Conversational Refinement: Instead of one-shot generation, refine your articles with natural language prompts
  • "Make the intro more engaging"
  • "Add more technical depth to section 3"
  • "This sounds too formal, make it more like my other posts"
• Revision History: Track all changes with automatic revision management
• Version Navigation: Browse through previous versions with prev/next controls
• Side-by-side History: View revision history sidebar showing all refinement prompts
• Persistent Drafts: Drafts saved to .ghostwriter/drafts/ and accessible from home page
• Smart Draft Titles: Drafts automatically use interview topics as titles for easy identification instead of timestamps
• Export Options: Export final version as markdown with optional image remapping for production environments at any time

Voice Generator Mode

• Writing Style Analysis: Automatically analyze your existing writing to create a personalized voice profile
• Smart Content Discovery: Recursively searches for markdown files in your selected folder
• Recent Content Priority: Analyzes your most recent writing (up to 20 files) to capture your current style
• Comprehensive Voice Profile: Generates detailed analysis including:
  • Voice characteristics (tone, pacing, formality)
  • Style rules and guidelines
  • Lexicon (favorite phrases, words to avoid)
  • Structure patterns
• Automatic Storage: Voice profiles saved to .ghostwriter/voices/ folder
• Easy Integration: Use generated voice files in Writer mode for consistent content

Image Management

• Interview Image Capture: Attach and embed images during interviews with automatic markdown reference insertion
• Configurable Storage: Choose where images are stored with VS Code workspace setting or per-session override
• Automatic Organization: Images automatically saved to .ghostwriter/attachments/ (or custom folder) with unique filenames
• Production Deployment: Remap image paths for production environments
  • Configure production image path prefix (e.g., /uploads/2026/02)
  • Automatic path replacement in markdown when saving articles
  • Ensures proper formatting without double slashes
• MarkdownRenderer Integration: Properly displays embedded images in preview with async loading and error handling

State Persistence

• Model Preferences: Selected GitHub Copilot model persists across sessions
• Language Preferences: Selected content language persists across sessions
• Frontmatter Templates: Save and reuse frontmatter templates for all articles
• Agent Selection: Selected interviewer and writer agents persist across sessions
• Prompt Configuration: Selected prompt configuration persists across sessions
• Image Settings: Attachment folder and image production path preferences persist across sessions

Getting Started

1. Install the extension
2. Ensure you have GitHub Copilot subscription and extension installed
3. Open a workspace folder in VS Code
4. Use the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P) and run Ghostwriter: Open Ghostwriter
5. Choose between Interview, Writer, or Voice Generator mode

Usage

Conducting an AI Interview

1. Open the Ghostwriter panel
2. Click on "Start Interview"
3. (Optional) Select an attachment folder for images captured during interview
4. (Optional) Select or create an interviewer agent to shape the interview
5. Select your preferred GitHub Copilot model
6. The AI will first ask you for the interview topic
7. Once you provide the topic, a transcript file is immediately created in .ghostwriter/transcripts/ along with a session file
8. Answer the AI's questions in the chat interface
9. Attach images during the interview using the image button (optional)
10. Each question, answer, and image reference is saved to the transcript file in real-time
11. The AI will automatically detect completion and save the final transcript
12. If the editor closes unexpectedly, your progress is saved in the transcript file

Resuming an Interrupted Interview

1. Open the Ghostwriter panel
2. Click on "Start Interview"
3. Click the "Resume Interview" button in the header
4. Select the transcript file you want to continue from the dialog
5. Click "Resume"
6. The interview will continue from where it left off, with all previous Q&As loaded

Generating Content from Transcripts

1. Open the Ghostwriter panel
2. Click on "Write Article"
3. (Optional) Select or create a writer agent to guide generation
4. Select a transcript from your workspace or browse for a custom file
5. (Optional) Select a voice file to maintain consistent writing style
6. Configure writing options:
   • Choose writing style (Formal/Casual/Conversational)
   • Select content language (English, Spanish, French, German, etc.)
   • Enable/disable headings and SEO optimization
   • Add target keywords for SEO
   • Configure frontmatter template
7. Select your preferred GitHub Copilot model
8. Click "Start Writing"
9. Watch the article generate in real-time
10. (Optional) Attach images to the article using the image button
11. Choose to either:
    • Click "Iterate Draft" to enter Draft Iteration Mode for refinement
    • Click "Save Article" to save directly to your workspace
12. If the article contains images, configure the production image path (or leave empty for relative paths)

Using Draft Iteration Mode

1. After generating an article in Writer mode, click "Iterate Draft"
2. The draft is automatically saved to .ghostwriter/drafts/ with the interview topic as the title (easy to identify related drafts)
3. Use the refinement input to conversationally improve your content:
   • Example: "Make the intro more engaging"
   • Example: "Add more technical depth to section 3"
   • Example: "This sounds too formal, make it more conversational"
4. Each refinement creates a new revision with full history
5. Navigate between revisions using prev/next buttons
6. View all revisions in the history sidebar (toggle with History button)
7. Export the final version using the "Export" button
   • If images are present, configure the production image path (optional)
8. Access saved drafts anytime from the "My Drafts" card on the home page

Managing Drafts

1. From the home page, click "My Drafts"
2. View all saved drafts with preview and metadata
3. Click on any draft to continue working on it
4. Delete drafts you no longer need

Setting Up Frontmatter Templates

1. In the Writer view, expand "Writing Options"
2. Click "Add Frontmatter Template"
3. Enter your YAML frontmatter template:

   ---
   title: ""
   date: ""
   tags: []
   draft: false
   ---
   

4. Click "Save Template"
5. The template will be applied to all future articles

Generating a Voice Profile

1. Open the Ghostwriter panel
2. Click on "Generate Voice"
3. Select your preferred GitHub Copilot model
4. Click "Generate Voice Profile"
5. Select a folder containing your writing samples (blog posts, articles, etc.)
6. Wait for the AI to analyze your writing style
7. Voice profile is automatically saved to .ghostwriter/voices/voice-YYYY-MM-DD.md
8. Review and customize the generated profile if needed
9. Use the voice file in Writer mode to maintain your unique style

File Structure

The extension creates a .ghostwriter folder in your workspace root:

.ghostwriter/
├── transcripts/     # Interview transcripts (.md files)
│                   # Also stores .json session files with interview metadata
├── voices/          # Voice files for writing style (.md files)
├── interviewer/     # Interviewer agents (.md files)
├── writer/          # Writer agents (.md files)
├── drafts/          # Draft iterations (.json) with revision history
└── attachments/     # Images and files captured during interviews and writing

Note: The attachment folder location can be customized via the vscode-ghostwriter.attachmentFolder workspace setting or per-interview via UI selection. The transcript session files (.json) contain interview metadata including the interview topic, which is automatically used as the draft title.

Commands

• Ghostwriter: Open Ghostwriter - Open the main editor panel

Requirements

• VS Code 1.108.1 or higher
• GitHub Copilot subscription
• GitHub Copilot extension installed
• An open workspace folder

Extension Settings

This extension provides the following configuration options:

Workspace Settings

• vscode-ghostwriter.attachmentFolder - Custom folder path for saving image attachments, relative to the workspace root. When empty, defaults to .ghostwriter/attachments.
• vscode-ghostwriter.defaultSaveLocation - Default folder path template for saving articles, relative to the workspace root. Example: articles/{{year}}/{{month}}.
• vscode-ghostwriter.filenameTemplate - Filename template for saving articles. Supported variables: {{fileName}}, {{slug}}, {{title}}, {{year}}, {{month}}, {{day}}, {{date|yyyy-MM-dd}}.

State Persistence (Workspace Local State)

• Selected GitHub Copilot model ID - Persists across sessions
• Selected content language - Persists across sessions
• Frontmatter template - Persists your reusable article templates
• Selected interviewer and writer agents - Persists agent preferences
• Attachment Folder Override - Per-interview override for custom image storage locations
• Image Production Path - Production image path prefix for deployment environments (e.g., /uploads/2026/02)

Development

Building

• npm run compile - Compile TypeScript
• npm run watch - Watch mode for TypeScript
• npm run build:webview - Build webview with Vite
• npm run dev - Start Vite dev server with HMR
• npm run clean - Remove build artifacts

Contributing

This extension is part of the Ghostwriter ecosystem:

• ghostwriter-app - Electron app
• ghostwriter-agents-ai - AI agent services

License

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

Enjoy writing with Ghostwriter and GitHub Copilot!