Redcon - Context Budget for VS Code

Deterministic context budgeting for AI coding agents. Rank, compress, and pack repository context under explicit token limits - directly from your editor.

Features

Four dedicated panels in the activity bar:

Budget - token usage gauge, savings, quality risk, cache stats
File Ranking - files sorted by relevance score with color-coded tiers
Packed Context - compressed files with strategy pills (full/snippet/symbol/summary)
Run History - past runs with trend arrows

Status Bar

Real-time budget indicator in the bottom bar:

Token usage: 12.4k / 30k
Quality risk badge: low / medium / high
Click to open dashboard or re-pack

File Decorations

Score badges appear on files in the Explorer:

Star for high-scoring files
Checkmark for included files
Dash for skipped files
Color-coded by relevance tier

CodeLens

Above every file that's in context:

Redcon: snippet | 400/1200 tok (-67%)

Shows compression strategy, token counts, and savings percentage.

Dashboard

Full webview with:

KPI cards (tokens, savings, files, risk)
Animated budget gauge bar
Token distribution bar chart
Packed files table with strategy pills
File ranking table with score bars
Metadata (estimator, summarizer, cache)

Commands

Open Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P) and type Redcon:

Command	Description
`Redcon: Pack Context`	Build compressed context under token budget
`Redcon: Plan - Rank Files`	Score files by relevance to a task
`Redcon: Plan Agent Workflow`	Plan multi-step agent context
`Redcon: Doctor`	Check environment health
`Redcon: Initialize Config`	Generate `redcon.toml` for your project
`Redcon: Export Context`	Export packed context to clipboard or file
`Redcon: Benchmark Strategies`	Compare packing strategies side by side
`Redcon: Simulate Agent Cost`	Estimate token costs and USD spend
`Redcon: Check Token Drift`	Detect token usage growth trends
`Redcon: Open Dashboard`	Rich visualization of the latest run
`Redcon: Open Configuration`	Open `redcon.toml` in editor
`Redcon: Copy Context to Clipboard`	Copy all packed context text

Requirements

Redcon CLI installed and available in PATH:
```
pip install redcon
```
Python 3.10+
A redcon.toml config file in your project root (or run Redcon: Initialize Config)

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
`redcon.cliCommand`	`redcon`	CLI command or path to executable
`redcon.pythonPath`	`python`	Python interpreter path
`redcon.defaultMaxTokens`	`30000`	Default token budget
`redcon.defaultTopFiles`	`25`	Max ranked files
`redcon.autoRefreshOnSave`	`false`	Re-run on file save
`redcon.showStatusBar`	`true`	Show budget in status bar
`redcon.showFileDecorations`	`true`	Score badges in Explorer
`redcon.showCodeLens`	`true`	Compression info above files
`redcon.configPath`	`""`	Custom path to `redcon.toml`

Quick Start

Install the extension
Install the CLI: pip install redcon
Open a project and run Redcon: Initialize Config
Run Redcon: Pack Context with a task description
Explore results in the sidebar, status bar, and dashboard

How It Works

Redcon uses deterministic heuristics (no ML models) to:

Scan your repository for relevant files
Score each file against your natural-language task
Compress files using the best strategy (full inclusion, snippet extraction, symbol extraction, or summarization)
Pack everything under your token budget with quality risk estimation

The extension wraps the Redcon CLI, displaying results inline in VS Code with zero additional dependencies.

License

MIT

Redcon - Context Budget

Redcon