RoboPilot

RoboPilot is a lightweight VSCode extension for the RoboPilot no-ROS-required static engineering toolchain for ROS-style projects.

The extension wraps the installed robopilot CLI, consumes documented JSON outputs where available, and shows results in VSCode. It does not reimplement RoboPilot logic in TypeScript. The Python CLI remains the source of truth.

Requirements

• RoboPilot CLI installed and available on PATH, or configured with robopilot.executablePath.
• No ROS or ROS2 installation is required.

Install RoboPilot:

pip install robopilot

For local development from this repository:

pip install -e ".[dev]"

Development

cd vscode-extension
npm install
npm run compile
npm test

Open this folder in VSCode and run the extension in an Extension Development Host.

Settings

• robopilot.executablePath: path to the RoboPilot CLI executable. Default: robopilot.
• robopilot.outputDirectory: directory for extension-generated migration plans, scaffold files, and reports. Default: .robopilot_vscode.

Commands

• RoboPilot: Detect Workspace
• RoboPilot: Inspect ROS1 Package
• RoboPilot: Analyze Dependencies
• RoboPilot: Generate Migration Plan
• RoboPilot: Preview Migration
• RoboPilot: Preview Migration Scaffold
• RoboPilot: Generate Migration Scaffold
• RoboPilot: Validate Migration Scaffold
• RoboPilot: Generate Scaffold Report
• RoboPilot: Open Scaffold Report
• RoboPilot: Validate ProjectSpec
• RoboPilot: Show Output

Local VSIX Packaging

This repository supports local VSIX generation for testing. It does not publish to the VSCode Marketplace.

cd vscode-extension
npm install
npm run compile
npm test
npm run package

The package command runs the VSCode prepublish compile step and creates a .vsix file in this directory.

Install a local VSIX with:

code --install-extension robopilot-vscode-0.5.0.vsix

Uninstall with:

code --uninstall-extension j1angjj.robopilot-vscode

Marketplace Preparation

Marketplace publishing is prepared. The extension id is:

j1angjj.robopilot-vscode

The publisher field is currently j1angjj; confirm that it matches the Visual Studio Marketplace publisher id before publishing.

See docs/vscode_marketplace.md in the repository root for the publishing checklist, token safety guidance, and manual workflow notes.

Troubleshooting

• If robopilot is not found, install the CLI with pip install robopilot or configure robopilot.executablePath.
• If a conda environment is not visible to VSCode, start VSCode from the activated environment or configure an absolute executable path.
• If scaffold generation reports existing output conflicts, review .robopilot_vscode/ros2_scaffold or choose a different robopilot.outputDirectory.
• If a report is missing, run RoboPilot: Generate Scaffold Report before RoboPilot: Open Scaffold Report.

Safety

The extension calls static RoboPilot commands. It does not run ROS, ROS2, catkin, colcon, launch files, generated nodes, or external APIs.

Migration workflow commands write only to the configured extension output directory. The scaffold report command writes .robopilot_vscode/scaffold_report.md by default.

The migration scaffold workflow is not a full automatic ROS1-to-ROS2 migration. Manual review is still required for source code, QoS, parameters, dependencies, interfaces, launch behavior, build system details, and runtime validation.