Literate
Generate intelligent, context-aware documentation for your code
Literate is a VS Code extension that automatically generates comprehensive documentation for your code. It adapts to your skill level and provides explanations that range from beginner-friendly to advanced architectural insights.
Inspiration
This extension is inspired by Donald Knuth's Literate Programming, a programming methodology that treats programs as literature meant to be read by humans. Knuth's vision was that code should be written for human understanding first, with the computer as a secondary audience.
Because most traditional programming has forgone literacy for the sake of productivity, this extension brings that philosophy to existing codebases by automatically generating the "literate" documentation that explains not just what the code does, but why it was written that way.
Features
- 🎯 Adaptive Documentation: Choose from beginner, intermediate, or advanced explanations
- 📖 Interactive Panel: Click documentation to highlight code, select code to highlight documentation
- 🔐 Secure: API keys stored securely in VS Code's secret storage
- Multi-language: Supports 50+ programming languages
Use Cases
🎓 Learning & Education
- New to Programming: Get beginner-friendly explanations of complex code
- Learning New Languages: Understand unfamiliar syntax and patterns
- Code Reviews: Learn from others' code with detailed explanations
- Tutorial Creation: Generate educational content from existing codebases
👥 Team Collaboration
- Onboarding: Help new team members understand legacy code
- Knowledge Transfer: Document complex algorithms and business logic
- Code Reviews: Provide context for why code was written a certain way
- Documentation: Automatically generate comprehensive code documentation
🔧 Development Workflow
- Legacy Code: Understand old codebases without original authors
- Debugging: Get insights into code behavior and potential issues
- Refactoring: Understand code before making changes
- API Integration: Learn how to use complex libraries and frameworks
📚 Documentation & Maintenance
- Technical Writing: Generate documentation for technical blogs or wikis
- Code Audits: Create comprehensive reports for code quality assessments
- Compliance: Generate documentation for regulatory requirements
- Architecture Documentation: Understand system design and patterns
🌟 Advanced Use Cases
- Algorithm Analysis: Deep dive into complex algorithms and data structures
- Performance Optimization: Understand performance implications of code choices
- Security Audits: Identify potential security issues through code analysis
- Best Practices: Learn industry standards and coding conventions
Before You Start
- Get an OpenAI API key from OpenAI Platform
- The extension will prompt you to enter it on first use
- Keys are stored securely in VS Code's secret storage
Quick Start
- Install from the VS Code Marketplace
- Open any code file
- Click "📖 Generate Literate Documentation" at the top of your file
- Choose your skill level (beginner/intermediate/advanced)
- Explore the documentation in the side panel
Commands
Generate Literate Documentation - Analyze current file and generate documentationChange Documentation Detail Level - Switch between skill levelsReset OpenAI API Key - Manage your API key
Requirements
- VS Code 1.103.0 or higher
- OpenAI API key
- Internet connection
Development
# Install dependencies
make install
# Build the extension
make build
# Launch development environment
code .
Contributing
We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guidelines for details.
License
This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.
Support
💝 Dedication
This extension was inspired by my wife's journey into programming. Watching her learn to code reminded me of the importance of making complex concepts accessible and understandable.
