CodeLumeAI

Read, navigate, and edit any codebase in plain English — powered by Claude AI.

CodeLumeAI puts a plain-English layer over your source code. Hover any line to see what it does. Open the side panel to read the whole file as a document. Explore how every file connects in a live dependency graph. Edit code by describing the change you want in English. Ask your codebase questions in plain language.

⚠ Beta. Bring your own Anthropic API key. Free to install — you pay Anthropic only for the API calls you make.

Features at a glance

Hover mode

Move your mouse over any line. A tooltip appears with two sections:

• This line — what this exact line does, in plain English
• This chunk — the surrounding block's title, summary, and a bullet per line

Confidence badges (✓ high, ~ medium, ? low) tell you how literal the translation is. Low-confidence chunks include a note explaining why (regex, framework magic, ambiguity).

The first translation of a file takes ~25 seconds. Subsequent hovers are instant — translations are cached until the file is saved.

Always-on mode

Switch to Always-on from the status bar (CodeLumeAI: hover → click to cycle). A one-line summary appears as an inlay hint at the end of every chunk, directly in your editor — no hovering required.

Side panel — read your file

CodeLumeAI: Open Side Panel opens a readable document view on the right:

• A language primer explains the syntax constructs the file uses (classes, decorators, type hints…) so non-engineers aren't lost
• Each chunk card shows: title, line range, confidence badge, summary, and a bullet per line
• Cross-file connections — each chunk shows what symbols it calls (outgoing) and what other files call it (incoming), all clickable to navigate directly to the source
• Impact warnings — after you apply a code edit, files that reference the changed code are flagged in amber so you know what else to check
• Bidirectional sync — hover a card → matching lines highlight in editor. Move cursor in editor → matching card highlights in panel. Scroll either pane → the other follows.

Side panel — edit by English

Click the ✎ pencil on any English bullet, or double-click it → the English becomes editable. Describe what you want changed. Press Ctrl+Enter.

CodeLumeAI sends your description to Claude, which proposes the corresponding code change. A diff editor opens showing original vs proposed side-by-side. A confirmation modal asks Apply or Discard — nothing is written until you confirm.

Safeguards built in:

• Low-confidence edits are refused (regex, framework magic, ambiguous instructions)
• Medium-confidence edits show a warning before applying
• Per-workspace opt-in — edit mode is off by default; a modal asks to enable it the first time

Dependency graph

CodeLumeAI: Show Dependency Graph opens a live, interactive canvas. Every file in your workspace is a node. Every cross-file import is an edge. Nodes are sized by how many files depend on them.

Controls:

• Scroll to zoom, drag canvas to pan
• Hover a node → tooltip shows file path, incoming refs, outgoing deps, symbol count
• Click a node → opens the file in the editor
• Drag a node → pins it; double-click to unpin
• Toolbar: Graph / Documents toggle, Fit view, Reset layout

Documents view — switch to a searchable, sortable file list with language indicators, ref counts, and a foundational-score bar showing how central each file is to the codebase.

Architecture clusters

The graph automatically groups nodes by their top-level directory. Each cluster gets a labelled, colour-coded halo — so auth, api, graph, and utils regions are instantly readable without any manual tagging.

Health dashboard

Node colour is risk-tinted based on incoming references:

• Cluster colour — safe to change, few things depend on it
• Amber — moderately depended on; be careful
• Red — heavily depended on; changing this will ripple widely

A legend in the bottom-left of the canvas explains the signals at all times.

Blast-radius preview

Hover any chunk in the side panel and the graph reacts instantly:

• All unrelated nodes dim to near-invisible
• Nodes connected to that chunk glow amber with a bright ring
• Edges between highlighted nodes illuminate

Move the mouse away — the graph fully restores. See the full impact of a change before you touch a single line of code.

Developer guide

CodeLumeAI: New Developer Guide generates an AI briefing of your codebase:

• Headline — one sentence describing what the project does
• Architecture overview — how the major layers fit together
• Foundation files — the files everything else depends on (read these first)
• Feature modules — the middle layer of the codebase
• Entry points — where execution starts
• Key concepts — the domain terms and data structures you need to know
• Start-here file — the single best file to open first as a new dev

Briefings are cached across sessions so reopening is instant.

Codebase chat

Inside the Developer Guide panel, ask your codebase questions in plain language:

"What does the graph store do?" "Where is authentication handled?" "Which files are most dangerous to change?" "What calls the indexFile function?"

Answers are grounded in the real structure of your code — not generic AI guesses.

Guided first-run setup

On first install, CodeLumeAI walks you through everything automatically:

1. A welcome notification appears — click Get Started
2. Paste your Anthropic API key (stored in VS Code's SecretStorage — never in settings.json)
3. Workspace indexing runs automatically with a progress bar
4. The Developer Guide opens so you understand the codebase immediately

Future sessions skip all of this — setup runs exactly once.

Quick start

1. Install the extension
2. Open any code file — the guided setup starts automatically
3. Paste your Anthropic API key when prompted (sk-ant-…)
4. Wait ~60 seconds for indexing
5. Hover any line → see plain-English translation
6. Ctrl+Shift+P → CodeLumeAI: Open Side Panel → full-file reading view
7. Ctrl+Shift+P → CodeLumeAI: Show Dependency Graph → explore connections

Languages supported

Python · JavaScript · TypeScript · JSX · TSX · Go · Rust · Java · C# · Ruby · PHP · HTML · CSS · SCSS

Configuration

Privacy & security

• API key — stored in VS Code's SecretStorage, encrypted by your OS. Never written to settings.json, never committed to a repo.
• Your code — sent to Anthropic when you trigger a translation, edit, briefing, or chat. Governed by Anthropic's Commercial Terms. CodeLumeAI does not store, log, or transmit your code anywhere else.
• No telemetry — all logs stay local in the CodeLumeAI Output channel.

Cost

CodeLumeAI is free to install. You pay Anthropic for API calls.

Switch to claude-sonnet-4-6 for higher quality at roughly 5× the cost.

Issues & feedback

github.com/Nicolas4485/codelumeai/issues

License

MIT — see LICENSE.