Kin for Visual Studio Code

Software that remembers itself.

Exact context, not more.

kin-editor brings Kin's graph into Visual Studio Code: entity explorer, natural-language semantic search, trace, go-to-definition, graph-backed review, and semantic rename, with live daemon and graph health in the status bar.

The extension does not implement a second index. It delegates queries to the local Kin runtime over MCP and falls back to the kin CLI when that connection is unavailable. Start with Kin, the semantic system of record for AI-written software.

Install, set up, query

1. Install Kin and initialize the repository

On macOS or Linux:

curl -fsSL https://get.kinlab.dev/install | sh
exec "$SHELL" -l
kin setup --intent editor

cd /path/to/your/repository
kin init .
kin embed
kin status

Use the Kin quickstart for Homebrew, npm, Windows, installer options, and platform limitations. kin status should report an initialized graph and complete embedding coverage before the natural-language query path is considered ready. Embedding time scales with repository size; graph overview, entity browsing, and name search remain available without vectors.

2. Install the extension

Install from the VS Code Marketplace, search for extension ID firelock.kin-editor, or run:

code --install-extension firelock.kin-editor

The same published extension is available from the Open VSX Registry. Open VSX is a distribution channel, not a claim that every editor fork is a supported client. The documented and tested editor surface here is Visual Studio Code 1.85 or newer.

To build a local VSIX from source:

npm install
npm run package:vsix
# In VS Code, run: Extensions: Install from VSIX...

3. Run the first graph query

1. Open the initialized repository in VS Code and reload the window after the first kin init.
2. Open the Command Palette and run Kin: Setup Workspace. The panel checks the real kin setup status health report rather than fabricating editor-only readiness.
3. Run Kin: Semantic Search (Cmd+Shift+K S on macOS or Ctrl+Shift+K S elsewhere).
4. Enter a question such as where are webhook retries handled and choose a graph entity from the result picker.
5. Put the cursor on a returned symbol and run Kin: Trace Entity to inspect its related and calling entities.

Semantic Search calls Kin's semantic_locate MCP tool when the persistent MCP connection is healthy. Its CLI fallback is graph-backed name-pattern search, not equivalent vector/natural-language retrieval. The status surface labels the active path as MCP or CLI, and the extension never searches files on its own.

Features

• Entity Explorer: semantic entities from the graph rather than another filesystem tree.
• Semantic Search (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+K S): natural-language retrieval through semantic_locate, with results in a navigable picker. Workspace symbol search (Cmd/Ctrl+T) uses Kin's name-pattern graph search.
• Trace (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+K T): focal entity and nearby semantic context. The same graph data supports go-to-definition (F12) and hover.
• Graph Overview (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+K O): indexed language, entity, and graph summary for the active workspace.
• Review (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+K V): report-only Kin review surfaced as gutter decorations, diagnostics, and the Kin Review output channel.
• Rename (F2): a Kin rename plan for the selected entity and its graph references.
• Status Bar: MCP/CLI connection, indexed entity count, graph state, and health warnings such as a mass-deletion safety block.
• Multi-root workspaces: commands resolve the active file's owning workspace before selecting its Kin client.

Runtime behavior and settings

On activation, the extension launches kin mcp start for each initialized workspace. That process starts or reuses the repository daemon; there is no separate daemon-start step. If no workspace contains .kin/, every Kin command still appears and guides the user to Kin: Initialize Repository or Kin: Setup Workspace.

The extension requires the local Kin CLI and daemon. It does not require a hosted KinLab login, and it does not make the still-upcoming hosted repository connection flow available early.

Ecosystem

Support

• Kin Discussions
• kin-editor issues
• Kin security policy

License

Apache-2.0.