Jarvis — Personal Assistant for VS Code
Jarvis Core 0.32.0 is the actor harness for Visual Studio Code. This is the first release with Actors, messaging and Kanban in the Agents window, where several Actor chats can be open side by side, as well as in the editor. Actor definitions, memory and scheduling live in folders you control.
Features
- Actors — Persistent personas with their own
context.md and agent file; Jarvis creates or repairs the agent file with the Actor name and memory path when needed
- Messaging — Actor inboxes with automatic or manual announcements through VS Code's Agent Host; message content is read by a tool, never inserted into a prompt
- Reminders — Set cron-based or one-off reminders with VS Code notifications
- Heartbeat — Periodic background jobs with a live status view in the activity bar
- Engine API — Extension point for add-ons (PIM, Recorder, MCP) to register tools and to self-provision their bundled Copilot Skills/Instructions into
.github/ via provisionModuleAssets
Add-ons
| Extension |
Description |
| Jarvis PIM |
Categories and task editing |
| Jarvis Recorder |
Meeting recording with local speech recognition (Windows only) |
| Jarvis MCP |
Model Context Protocol server exposing Jarvis tools to AI agents |
| Jarvis Message Flow |
Interactive D3 chord-diagram visualization of inter-agent message traffic |
| Jarvis Kanban |
Convention-based kanban boards — read-only webview renderer with chat-driven updates |
| Jarvis Syspilot |
syspilot install/update lifecycle detection and actor-guided setup |
Getting Started
- Install Jarvis from the VS Code Marketplace
- Open the Jarvis view in the activity bar (sidebar icon)
- Configure the data folder paths in Settings → Extensions → Jarvis:
jarvis.actors.folder — workspace-relative or absolute root for the dedicated ACTORS tree (default .jarvis/actors). Only direct child folders containing actor.yaml appear; nested folders are not scanned. Move or delete folders using the filesystem; there is no Jarvis archive feature.jarvis_listActors() returns Actor names and short descriptions. Each Actor's own agent file carries its identity; its persona is referenced from context.md. Creating an Actor does not prompt for an agent.
- Jarvis will scan your folders and populate the tree views automatically
Actor Chats and Messaging
Actor chats require an available, authenticated VS Code Agent Host; there is no fallback to the old chat UI. Click an Actor in ACTORS or choose Open to find its chat or create it. Messages and Message Flow open an existing Actor chat only; delivery never opens a tab. Jarvis reuses an existing editor tab or opens a pinned tab in the first editor group. In the Agents window, tick Created In > jarvis-core to show Jarvis-created chats. Mark done archives a chat; Jarvis restores it on opening or delivery. Only Delete removes it.
The Jarvis client publishes and approves its own four tools:
| Call |
Purpose |
jarvis_sendMessage(session, text) |
Queue a message for the recipient Actor; the sender comes from the calling chat. |
jarvis_receiveMessage() |
Read and remove the calling Actor's oldest message; repeat until remaining is 0. |
jarvis_listActors() |
List Actor names and short descriptions. |
jarvis_createActorSession(actor) |
Find or create an Actor chat and return its session address. |
Remove senderSession and destination from send and receive calls in existing instructions and skills. These tools are not exposed through MCP. The old session-list, read-message, send-to-session and prompt-injection tools, the Inject Prompt command and jarvis.messages.notificationTemplate are removed. Provisioning refreshes bundled instructions when enabled; project-owned copies require manual updates.
Extension tools retain references such as #jarvis_core_listJobs and reach an Actor chat while it is open in a window running Jarvis. The client serves the first workspace folder only; cross-workspace routing is outside this MVP. Remote windows (WSL, SSH, Dev Tunnels) are not served. The same workspace in two windows is not tested and probably does not work. While disconnected, announcements wait.
In the editor window, activity icons come from the Agent Host: red cross for Error, blue question mark for Waiting, spinner for Working, none for Idle. Activity takes priority over the recording mark, then the mail icon.
Agents Window in 0.32.0
The User observed Actor chats, messaging and the Kanban board working in the Windows Sandbox on 2026-11-03. Flow (message view and log) cannot be opened there yet. Jarvis features offered through the status bar or a tree do not work there: ACTORS activity/mail markers, the PIM mail notification in the tree, and Recorder, which has no UI that can be triggered there. Tree markers, Flow, PIM and Recorder support there is on the roadmap; there is no plan yet. Syspilot was not checked in the Agents window.
The manual Agent Host scenarios and upgrade cleanup with old hook files (US_UAT_MSG T-22) were not run in validation of the included changes. See the Core guide for the full limitations.
Upgrading from a Hook-Based Version
Agent hooks and the hook-based Recently Touched Files category, its diff/remove/cleanup actions and the time-window setting are removed without replacement in 0.32.0; Recently Touched Files is on the roadmap for a future version. Actor activity still comes from the Agent Host; recording and mail indicators in the editor window are unchanged. Actor tool calls need no external node command; Node/npm are still used to build and package the extensions.
On activation, Jarvis removes only .github/hooks/jarvis-hooks.json, jarvis-bridge.mjs, jarvis-port, bridge.mjs and port in that directory in the first workspace folder. No setting is needed. The directory, other files and old .jarvis/state/touched-files/ data remain; that data is no longer read. Cleanup failures are logged and retried at the next activation. Existing jarvis.hooks.autoInstall and jarvis.touchedFiles.windowDays values are ignored.
Full migration details are in the Getting Started guide.
The MCP server is off by default in 0.32.0, including for upgrades without an explicit setting. Set jarvis.mcp.enabled to true to opt in.
Requirements
- VS Code 1.95.0 or later (manifest minimum); Actor chats additionally require Agent Host support. Live evidence covers Windows on 1.143.1 and clean Actor startup on 1.144.0, not older versions.
Source & Issues
