ExecAI for VS Code and Cursor

The execai agent in your editor sidebar: a streaming chat, tools with confirmations, the context of the active file. The whole agent loop runs in the CLI on your own machine — the extension only draws it.

What it does

Chat in the sidebar — streamed answers, a collapsible reasoning block, tool cards with live output (Bash streams lines as they appear)
Confirmations exactly like the TUI and the web chat — five buttons: "Once", "This tool for the session", "This command for the session", "FOREVER" (written to permissions.json), "Reject". Silence never widens permissions
Agent questions (AskUser) — when the call is yours, the options arrive as buttons
Editor context — the active file and selection are attached to your message (execai.attachContext)
Changed files — chips under the turn, click to open the file
Stop ends the current turn; New chat resets the history and the session permissions
Terminal escape hatch — the "ExecAI: Open in a terminal" command gives you the full TUI

Sources (ExecAI / Z.ai / Kimi / Anthropic / OpenAI / Ollama…), models, memory and permissions are all configured in the CLI itself — the extension uses your current configuration.

Interface languages

The panel and the commands follow the editor's display language: English and Russian ship today, English is the fallback for every other locale. Adding a language means two files and no code — package.nls.<lang>.json for the manifest, l10n/bundle.l10n.<lang>.json for the runtime, plus a bundle in STRINGS inside src/webviewHtml.ts. A unit test keeps every bundle in key parity with English.

Install

Install the extension:
- VS Code — Marketplace: ExecAI
- Cursor / VSCodium / Windsurf — Open VSX: ExecAI
- or by hand: download the .vsix from Releases → Extensions: Install from VSIX…
Open a project folder — the ExecAI icon appears on the left.
On first run the extension offers to download the agent (~6 MB). It lands in the extension's storage, no sudo involved. If execai is already in PATH and recent enough (R6.49+), that one is used instead.

Then sign in or connect your own subscription right in the chat: >_ → "Open execai in a terminal".

Installing the agent by hand is optional but supported:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/execai/execai-agent/main/install.sh | bash

Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
`execai.binaryPath`	`execai`	Path to the binary. Empty or `execai` — found in PATH or fetched by the extension.
`execai.maxIterations`	`0`	Tool iteration limit per turn (0 — take it from the execai config).
`execai.attachContext`	`true`	Attach the active file and selection to the message.
`execai.autoInstall`	`true`	Offer to download the agent when it is missing or outdated.

How it works

The extension starts execai ide --cwd <project folder> and talks to it in JSON lines over stdin/stdout. The protocol is versioned: when the versions drift apart the extension asks you to update instead of breaking silently. A question left unanswered (you closed the editor) is treated by the agent as a refusal — the same principle as background mode in execai serve.

Development

npm install
npm test          # unit tests: protocol, version comparison, webview markup, i18n
npm run build     # esbuild → dist/extension.js
npm run package   # .vsix via @vscode/vsce

License

Business Source License 1.1 — free for internal and production use; commercial hosting as a service requires a separate license (it@velesbsd.com).

Support

Bugs and feature requests: github.com/execai/execai-vscode/issues
The agent itself: github.com/execai/execai-agent

ExecAI — terminal AI agent

ExecAI