MicroPython Studio - VS Code Extension

Write, Deploy, Live Debug, and Simulate MicroPython & CircuitPython Applications

🎉 Welcome to Version 2.0.0 (The Hardware Simulator & Co-Pilot Release)

MicroPython Studio v2.0.0 brings hardware emulation directly into your coding editor, enabling a complete test environment without physical boards.

What's New in v2.0.0:

• Integrated Hardware Simulator: Run and test MicroPython code on an emulated Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W (MPS2 AN385 Cortex-M3 target) powered by portable QEMU binaries.
• Dynamic Status Bar Controls: Toggle the simulator with a single click in your status bar. When running, the button turns Vibrant Green (✔ Sim Active) and lets you stop the emulator cleanly.
• Automatic Execution Routing: When the simulator is active, clicking the main Run button automatically routes code execution to "Run on MCU" (direct socket REPL stream), bypassing serial limits.
• Filesystem Write Guards: Clear dialog warnings guide you on simulator constraints (filesystem is read-only VfsRom) and suggest placing missing files (like asyncio or custom modules) inside a local lib/ directory.
• TCP Connection Robustness: Upgraded socket adapters in mps_backend.py with automatic retry logic to prevent race conditions during QEMU boot.

🚀 Key Features

• Bytecode-Level Live Debugger: Set breakpoints, step through lines, view the call stack, and inspect local variables directly on your board (or simulator) over USB with a rich VS Code debugger UI. No JTAG or complex wiring required.
• Local Private AI Co-Pilot: Context-aware AI assistant powered by Ollama (micro_ai models). Keeps your code 100% private, automatically reads your active file contents, and understands your connected hardware.
• Device File Explorer: Browse, read, delete, create, and rename files directly on the micro-controller filesystem.
• Digi XBee Support: Full project templates, serial execution, and filesystem routing for XBee3 cellular/mesh modules.
• Unified Telemetry Dashboard: Telemetry status, Wi-Fi manager configuration, WebREPL configurations, and interactive Pinout Diagrams (RP2040, ESP32, STM32, etc.) at a glance.

💻 Working with the QEMU Simulator

The simulator provides a great workspace to prototype application logic without needing physical hardware.

1. Launching and Stopping

• Click the Simulator button on the bottom status bar.
• The extension automatically downloads a lightweight, portable QEMU binary (cross-platform for Windows, macOS, Linux) and the emulator firmware.
• The button turns green and shows ✔ Sim Active. Click it again to terminate the emulation.

2. Execution Target

• Keep your run target on the default settings. Clicking Run while the simulator is enabled will automatically execute your code via raw REPL memory streaming.

3. Read-Only Filesystem Alert

• The simulated board uses a read-only ROM filesystem (VfsRom).
• Direct file uploads or package downloads (via mip / package manager) will be blocked with a warning dialog.
• How to use libraries: If your code requires libraries (such as asyncio), simply create a lib/ directory inside your local PC workspace and place them there. When you click Run, the directory is temporarily mounted, making the libraries available to your code in RAM.

🧠 Setting Up Local AI Assistant (Ollama)

1. Install Ollama on your computer.
2. Click the AI Assistant icon in the VS Code sidebar.
3. The assistant will detect your Ollama installation and download the optimized micro_ai coding model automatically.
4. Ask questions, insert code snippets directly into your files, or run them with a single click.

🛠️ Quick Commands

📋 Release History

2.0.0 (The Hardware Simulator & Co-Pilot Release)

• QEMU Simulator Integration: Full emulation support for Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W targets directly in VS Code.
• Dynamic Simulator Control: Interactive, colorized status bar buttons to start, stop, and monitor emulator state.
• Auto-Routing: Automatically directs execution requests to direct REPL streaming when the simulator is enabled.
• VfsRom Guards: Warnings intercepting write attempts on the read-only simulator filesystem and explaining local lib/ directory fallbacks for files like asyncio.
• TCP Connection Robustness: Retry loops in the socket backend to ensure clean connections on slow device boot.

1.0.0 (Live Debugger Release)

• Bytecode-Level Debugging: Support for breakpoints, call-stack inspection, and locals analysis directly over serial/USB.
• Conditional Breakpoints: Pause debugger execution when specific evaluations are met.

0.9.0 (Backend Refactoring)

• mpremote to mps migration: Migrated all core operations to a dedicated, high-performance mps_backend to eliminate port locks and busy conflicts.
• Enhanced File Operations: Folder rename, mkdir, and targeted folder uploads added.

0.8.x (Local AI Assistance)

• Ollama Integration: Multi-turn chat assistant with deep hardware context sensitivity and file awareness.

Acknowledgements

MicroPython Studio is open source (MIT License) and builds on the following open source projects:

A special piece of project history: This extension has been a work in progress for approximately three years. Early on, many complex implementation hurdles for hardware interactions seemed insurmountable. AI development tools provided the critical support, documentation insights, and breakthroughs needed to finally bring these concepts to life. AI is at the very heart of how MicroPython Studio was built.

All bundled files retain their original license headers.

For More Information

• MicroPython Documentation
• Extension GitHub Repository
• Contributing Guide
• Code of Conduct
• Submit Issues
• MicroPython Community Forum

Support & Contact

Have a question, found a bug, or need help getting started?

• Email: niwantha33@gmail.com
• GitHub Issues: github.com/niwantha33/micropython-studio/issues
• YouTube: youtube.com/@NiwanthaDev

Enjoy developing with MicroPython, CircuitPython and XBee! 🚀

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see LICENSE.md for full details.

XBee MicroPython typehints and libraries are sourced from Digi International's xbee-micropython repository, also under the MIT License. All third-party dependencies retain their original licenses as listed in the Acknowledgements section above.