📝 Commentary

Inline comments for rendered Markdown in VS Code. Select text, add comments, and send feedback to your AI agent—without touching the source file.

📹 Watch Demo Video (downloads when clicked)

Why Commentary?

Stay in flow while reviewing your Markdown. Commentary brings Google Docs-style commenting to rendered previews in VS Code. Review documentation as readers will see it, annotate without editing source files, and send feedback directly to your AI agent.

Perfect for:

📖 Documentation writers reviewing drafts
✍️ Technical writers collecting feedback
👥 Content reviewers annotating without commits
🤖 AI-assisted workflows with Claude Code, Cursor Agent, Codex, or Gemini

✨ Features

Non-Destructive Comments

Text selection — Highlight any text to comment
Document-level — Comment on entire files
Floating bubble UI — Google Docs-style comment interface
Keyboard shortcuts — ⌘Enter / Ctrl+Enter to save, Esc to cancel
Visual highlights — See exactly what's commented

AI Agent Integration

CLI Tools (Send) — Recommended

Claude Code — Terminal integration, stays open for continued interaction
Cursor Agent — Terminal integration, stays open for continued interaction
Codex CLI — Terminal integration with automation mode
Gemini CLI — Terminal integration with Google's AI

Manual (Copy)

Claude IDE — Clipboard copy, paste into Claude chat
Cursor IDE — Clipboard copy, paste into Cursor chat
VS Code Chat — Clipboard copy, paste into built-in chat

💡 CLI methods pipe comments to agentic tools that automatically apply edits and stay open for follow-up. Manual methods copy to clipboard for you to paste—useful when CLI isn't available.

Beautiful Themes

Choose from 20 professional themes:

Water.css — Modern, clean (light/dark)
Sakura — Elegant (5 variants)
Pico CSS — Professional with accents (8 colors, auto light/dark)
Simple.css — Minimalist (auto light/dark)
Matcha — Code-focused with syntax highlighting
LaTeX.css — Academic paper styling
Tufte CSS — Edward Tufte design principles
New.css — Modern minimal (4k+ GitHub stars)

Quick switcher: ⌘⇧P → Commentary: Select Theme

Smart Storage

Workspace mode (default) — Comments in VS Code state (git-ignored)
Sidecar mode — Comments in .comments/ folder (git-tracked, shareable)

Reliable Anchoring

Comments survive document edits with 3-layer fallback:

Exact quote + context (100 chars before/after)
Character offset for fast recovery
Nearest heading + fuzzy search

🚀 Quick Start

Install from VS Code Marketplace
Open any Markdown (.md) file
Right-click the file in Explorer → "Open with Commentary"
Select text in the rendered preview → floating comment bubble appears
Type comment → Press ⌘Enter (Mac) / Ctrl+Enter (Windows/Linux) to save
View all comments in the Commentary sidebar → ⌘⇧C / Ctrl+Shift+C

Pro tip: After adding comments, send them to your AI agent! Automatic methods apply edits directly; manual methods copy to clipboard.

Configure AI Agent

⌘⇧P → Commentary: Configure AI Agent

CLI Tools (Recommended):

Claude Code — Enter command: claude (default, installs automatically)
Cursor Agent — Enter path: cursor-agent (requires installation)
Codex CLI — Enter path: codex (requires installation)
Gemini CLI — Enter path: gemini (requires installation)

For Manual Copy-Paste:

Claude IDE — Choose "Claude" provider (uses clipboard when CLI unavailable)
Cursor IDE — Choose "Cursor" provider (uses clipboard when CLI unavailable)
VS Code Chat — Built-in chat (uses clipboard)

Advanced:

Custom — Your own API endpoint

📦 Installation

From Marketplace

Install directly from the VS Code Marketplace:

Open VS Code
Go to Extensions view (⌘⇧X / Ctrl+Shift+X)
Search for "Commentary"
Click Install

Or install via command line:

code --install-extension jaredhughes.commentary

From Source

git clone https://github.com/jaredhughes/commentary
cd commentary
npm install
npm run compile

Press F5 in VS Code to launch Extension Development Host.

Usage

Creating Comments

Text Selection Comments:

Select any text in the rendered Markdown preview
A floating comment bubble appears
Type your comment
Press ⌘Enter (Mac) or Ctrl+Enter (Windows/Linux) to save
Press Esc to cancel

Document-Level Comments: You can comment on an entire document without selecting text:

In the preview: Click the note icon button in the top-left corner of the preview
In the sidebar: Click the note icon in the Commentary sidebar toolbar
Command Palette: Press ⌘⇧P (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux), then type "Add Document-Level Comment"

Managing Comments

View All Comments:

Open the Commentary sidebar: ⌘⇧C / Ctrl+Shift+C
Comments are organized by file
Click a comment to navigate to its location in the document

Edit a Comment:

In the sidebar, click the edit icon next to the comment
Or click the comment text to navigate and edit in the preview

Delete Comments:

Single comment: Click the trash icon next to the comment in the sidebar
All comments: Click the trash icon in the sidebar toolbar (with confirmation)

Export/Import:

Use the export/import commands to backup or share comments as JSON

Sending Comments to AI Agent

Commentary supports two types of agent integration: CLI tools (Send) and manual (Copy).

CLI Tools (Send) — Recommended

These methods pipe comments to agentic tools via terminal, automatically apply edits to your files, and stay open for follow-up interaction:

Claude Code — Opens terminal with claude command, session stays open after processing
Cursor Agent — Opens terminal with cursor-agent command, session stays open after processing
Codex CLI — Opens terminal with codex exec command for automation mode
Gemini CLI — Opens terminal with gemini -p command for non-interactive prompts

Behavior:

Comments are piped to the CLI tool via stdin
Agent reviews the full document context and applies edits automatically
Sessions stay open for continued conversation and refinement
Comments are deleted from the sidebar after successful delivery (they've been processed)

Manual Methods (Copy)

These methods copy comments to your clipboard for you to paste manually:

Claude IDE — Copies to clipboard, paste into Claude chat (fallback when CLI unavailable)
Cursor IDE — Copies to clipboard, paste into Cursor Composer/Chat (fallback when CLI unavailable)
VS Code Chat — Copies to clipboard, paste into built-in VS Code Chat

Behavior:

Comments are formatted and copied to clipboard
You paste them into your agent's chat interface
Comments remain in the sidebar for tracking (you manually apply edits)

How to Use

Send a Single Comment:

In the sidebar, click the send/copy icon next to any comment
Icon varies by method: send (CLI providers), copy (clipboard mode)

Send All Comments:

Click the send/copy icon in the sidebar toolbar
All comments are sent together with full document context

Which Method is Used?

Commentary automatically chooses the best available method based on your configuration
CLI/API methods are preferred (automatic editing)
Clipboard methods are used as fallback (manual paste required)

⚙️ Configuration

Theme

{
  "commentary.theme.name": "water-dark"
}

Storage

{
  "commentary.storage.mode": "workspace"  // or "sidecar"
}

AI Agent

{
  "commentary.agent.enabled": true,
  "commentary.agent.provider": "claude",
  "commentary.agent.claudeCliPath": "claude",
  "commentary.agent.cursorCliPath": "cursor-agent",
  "commentary.agent.cursorInteractive": true,
  "commentary.agent.codexCliPath": "codex",
  "commentary.agent.geminiCliPath": "gemini",
  "commentary.agent.contextLines": 6
}

Settings scope: All settings default to global/user but can be overridden per-workspace.

🔒 Security Considerations

When you send comments to AI CLI tools, those tools need permission to modify files in your workspace. Each tool handles this differently:

CLI Tool	Permission Model
Claude Code	Uses `--permission-mode bypassPermissions` flag to skip interactive prompts
Cursor Agent	Inherits app-level settings (Auto-run, Auto-apply edits) from Cursor
Codex CLI	Uses `exec` subcommand for automation mode
Gemini CLI	Uses `-p` flag for non-interactive prompts

Best practices:

Review all changes in git before committing (git diff)
Use workspace-level git to track and revert unwanted changes
Consider running in a separate branch for large refactoring tasks
Keep your AI CLI tools updated for latest security patches

Why this is necessary: CLI tools require non-interactive mode to process comments programmatically. Interactive permission prompts would cause the terminal to hang waiting for input that never comes.

📋 Commands

Command	Action
`Commentary: Configure AI Agent`	Set up Claude, Cursor, Codex, Gemini, or custom
`Commentary: Select Theme`	Choose from 20 themes
`Commentary: Add Document-Level Comment`	Comment on entire file
`Commentary: Send All to Agent`	Batch send all comments
`Commentary: Delete All`	Clear all (with confirmation)
`Commentary: Export / Import`	Backup or share comments

🏗️ Architecture

src/
├── extension.ts         # Activation & provider detection
├── preview/             # Webview + overlay integration
├── sidebar/             # Tree view + commands
├── agent/               # AI provider abstraction
└── storage/             # Workspace + sidecar persistence

media/
├── overlay.js           # Selection UI + comment bubbles
├── overlay.css          # Visual styles
└── themes/              # 20 CSS themes (copied from NPM)

Design principles:

Pure provider logic (no VS Code APIs in core)
Testable AI integrations (208 passing tests)
Pluggable storage backends
Non-destructive annotations

🧪 Development

Build & Test

npm install              # Install deps + theme packages
npm run compile          # Copy themes + compile TypeScript
npm run watch            # Auto-recompile on changes
npm test                 # Run all tests (208 passing)
npm run validate         # Lint + type check

Debug

Press F5 to launch Extension Development Host with debugger attached.

CI/CD

✅ Automated linting, type checking, tests on every PR
✅ Pre-push hooks catch issues before pushing
✅ Multi-platform testing (macOS, Linux, Windows)

🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please open an issue first to discuss changes.

Workflow:

Fork & create feature branch
Make changes
Run npm run validate && npm test
Submit PR

📄 License

See LICENSE for details.

🙏 Credits

Themes powered by:

Water.css (MIT)
Sakura (MIT)
Pico CSS (MIT)
Simple.css (MIT)
Matcha (MIT)
LaTeX.css (MIT)
Tufte CSS (MIT)
New.css (MIT)

Special thanks to the VS Code extension API and markdown-it ecosystem.

Inline comments for rendered Markdown, without touching your files.