Loom — AI-assisted workflow for VS Code

Loom turns your project into a structured collaboration surface between you and AI. Instead of a chat window that forgets everything, you get a document-driven loop:

chat → idea → design → plan → implement → done

Every stage is a Markdown document. The AI reads them, writes to them, and tracks progress through them — across sessions, without losing context.

Install

1. Install the CLI (required — the extension talks to it):

npm install -g @reslava/loom

2. Install the extension from the VS Code marketplace: search reslava.loom.

3. Initialize Loom in your project:

loom install

This creates .loom/ (config), loom/ (your doc workspace), and a CLAUDE.md that wires up the AI session contract.

Connect an AI agent

Loom works best with an MCP-capable AI agent (Claude Code, Cursor). Add .mcp.json to your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "loom": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "loom",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": {
        "LOOM_ROOT": "${workspaceFolder}"
      }
    }
  }
}

The agent then has access to all Loom tools (loom_create_idea, loom_do_step, loom_complete_step, etc.) and resources (loom://thread-context/...).

The loop

1. Chat — open a chat doc, think out loud with the AI.
2. Idea — click Generate Idea to formalize what you want to build.
3. Design — click Generate Design to define how to build it.
4. Plan — click Generate Plan to get a concrete step-by-step implementation list.
5. Implement — click Do Step to have the AI implement the next step, record what was done, and mark it complete.

Each stage produces a Markdown document visible in the Loom panel. Nothing disappears between sessions.

The panel

The Loom panel (Activity Bar) shows your weaves (project areas) and threads (workstreams). Each thread holds its own idea, design, plans, and chats.

Right-click any node for context actions: new idea, new design, new plan, new chat, refine, promote, archive.

Settings

AI inference runs through the MCP server's sampling — configure your API key in your MCP host (Claude Code, Cursor), not in VS Code settings.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.85+
• Node.js 18+
• @reslava/loom CLI installed globally

Documentation

• Getting Started — install to first idea in five minutes
• How Loom works — the chat → design → plan → implement loop
• Architecture — MCP surface, doc types, frontmatter

License

MIT