Code Web Chat

Code Web Chat (CWC) is a free and open-source, privacy-first AI coding toolkit for VS Code. It helps construct zero-overhead, XML-formatted prompts for:

chatbots—ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.
APIs—remote and local model providers

...and apply multi-file edits, code at cursor, relevant files for context, and more!

Elevate your workflow with smart workspaces (called projects, gems, or spaces).

Select context files, type instructions...

Send API request or autofill in chatbot...

Preview response in the editor...

Introduction

In the world of AI coding, agents like Claude Code or Codex rely on "Function Calling" (where the AI asks "the harness" to read a file, waits for the tool to respond, then reads another). CWC flips this by letting you provide context files upfront for quality outputs in a matter of seconds.

Zero-overhead, XML-formatted prompt types:

Edit context

<files>[current file tree selection]</files>
<system>[edit format instructions]</system>
[user-typed prompt]

Ask about context

<files>[current file tree selection]</files>
[user-typed prompt]

Code at cursor

<files>
[current file tree selection]
<file path="[active file]">
[code before cursor]<missing_text>[user-typed prompt]</missing_text>[code after cursor]
</file>
</files>
[instructions for the missing text]

Find relevant files

<files>[current file tree selection]</files>
<system>[response format instructions]</system>
Find all files building modules of the following task's scope:
[user-typed prompt]

No context

[user-typed prompt]

Prompt caching

With its static context approach, prompt caching is utilized across tasks via smart file ordering based on update and selection recency.

Make your chatbot quotas last longer or lower token costs by up to 90% when calling APIs. Minimize latency of self-hosted models.

Enabling autofill

Install the browser extension and never copy and paste again.

Supported chatbots:

AI Studio
Arena
ChatGPT
Claude
Copilot
DeepSeek
Doubao
Gemini
GitHub Copilot
Grok
HuggingChat
Kimi
Mistral
Open WebUI
OpenRouter
Qwen
Together
Yuanbao
Z AI

The Apply response button placed under responses is not a means of automatic output extraction, it's an alias for the original copy to clipboard button. Review the content script to learn about implementation details.

Use forwarding of port 55155 when using remote machine via SSH.

Calling APIs

CWC includes all the essential API tools. Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) for a model provider of choice. Use self-hosted model provider like Ollama or LM Studio.

Intelligent Update—Integrate changes from malformed responses.
Edit Context—Pair-programming using natural language instructions.
Code at Cursor—Accurate inline code from reasoning models.
Find Relevant Files—Find files using natural language description.
Commit Messages—Meaningful summaries of changes in your style.
Voice Input—Transcribe speech to text in the prompt field.

Enterprise security

Zero function calling. This design choice eliminates the risk of dangerous command executions and prompt injections.

Operates exclusively on your machine. When using the browser extension for prompt autofill, data is moved via editor-browser communication channel run on local Websockets. For API tools, model providers are called directly.

Zero telemetry. No usage data is collected and sent to third-party servers.

Commands

Code at Cursor

Code at Cursor - Get an inline snippet while using the current context.
Code at Cursor using... - Inline snippet with configuration selection.
Code at Cursor with Instructions - Inline snippet with instructions.
Code at Cursor with Instructions using... - Inline snippet with instructions and configuration selection.

Checkpoints

Checkpoints - Restore the overall workspace state to the saved checkpoint.
Create New Checkpoint - Save the current state of the workspace.

Context

Apply Context - Apply a saved context or save the current file selection.
Add File to Context - Search and add file (or parent folder via file action) to the context.
Remove File from Context - Search and remove file (or parent folder via file action) from the context.
Search Files for Context - Search and add files containing specific keywords to the context.
Copy Context - Copy XML-formatted checked files from the Workspace view to the clipboard.
Copy Context of Open Editors - Copy XML-formatted checked files from the Open Editors view to the clipboard.

Commit messages

Commit Changes - Generate commit message and commit.

Misc

Copy Edit Format Instructions - Copy XML-formatted edit format instructions to the clipboard.

Contributing

All contributions are welcome. Feel free to submit pull requests, feature requests and bug reports.

Robert Piosik