Shai VS Code Extension

A VS Code extension that integrates the Shai AI assistant directly into your editor with a chat interface, streaming responses, internal reasoning visualization, Docker deployment management, and context-aware conversations.

Features

• Chat Interface: Interactive chat panel in the VS Code sidebar with message history, markdown rendering, and actionable buttons
• Streaming Responses: Real-time response streaming via CLI or a long-running HTTP/SSE server mode
• Internal Reasoning Panel: Dedicated view that displays the model's thinking process as numbered steps in real time
• Context Management: Named conversation contexts with system prompts, auto-summarization, and a visual context editor
• Docker Deployments: Discover, deploy, and stop Docker Compose services directly from the sidebar with live log streaming
• Multi-Provider Auth: Configure and switch between AI providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Mistral, OpenRouter, Ollama, OVHcloud, OpenAI-compatible) via a built-in wizard
• WSL Support: Automatic Windows ↔ WSL path conversion and command routing

Installation

1. Install from the .vsix file:

   code --install-extension shai-vscode-0.0.3.vsix
   

2. Or build from source:

   npm install
   npm run compile
   vsce package
   

Prerequisites

• VS Code 1.74.0 or higher
• Shai AI command-line tool installed and accessible in your PATH
• Docker (for deployment features)
• WSL on Windows (Shai and Docker commands are routed through WSL by default)

Configuration

Open VS Code Settings (Ctrl+,) and search for "Shai VS Code":

Usage

Chat

1. Click the Shai icon in the Activity Bar (left sidebar)
2. Type your question or command in the chat input
3. Press Enter or click Send
4. Streaming progress appears in the Internal Reasoning panel; the final answer is displayed in the chat bubble

Context Management

Each conversation lives inside a named context. Contexts carry their own system prompt and conversation history (up to 20 turns, auto-summarized when the limit is reached).

• The active context name is shown in the status bar — click it to open the context editor
• Use the context editor to create, switch, or delete contexts and to set a system prompt
• Run Shai: Open context editor from the Command Palette

Internal Reasoning

The reasoning panel extracts <reasoning>, <resolution>, and thinking blocks from the model output and renders them as numbered steps. It clears automatically before each new request.

Open it with Shai: Show Internal Reasoning from the Command Palette.

Docker Deployments

The Deployments view in the sidebar discovers docker-compose.yml / compose.yml files at the workspace root.

• Deploy runs docker compose up -d --build
• Stop runs docker compose down
• Live logs stream into the panel during deployment
• A 10-minute timeout protects against runaway builds
• Concurrent deploys to the same file are blocked

Authentication

Run Shai: Profile configuration (auth.config) to open the auth wizard. From there you can:

• Add a new provider profile (API key, model, endpoint)
• Activate or delete existing profiles
• Supported providers: Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI, Mistral, OpenRouter, Ollama, OVHcloud AI Endpoints, OpenAI-compatible

Profiles are stored in ~/.config/shai/auth.config with 0600 permissions.

Commands

Architecture

src/
├── extension.ts            # Entry point — registers views, controllers, commands
├── chat/
│   ├── controller.ts       # Manages sessions, contexts, interaction modes
│   ├── session.ts          # Non-streaming CLI execution with history
│   └── streaming.ts        # Streaming execution (CLI + HTTP/SSE server mode)
├── context/
│   ├── contextManager.ts   # Conversation turns, summaries, system prompts
│   └── promptBuilder.ts    # Enriches user messages with context
├── views/
│   ├── chatView.ts         # Chat webview (message rendering, action buttons)
│   ├── reasoningView.ts    # Internal reasoning webview
│   ├── deploymentsView.ts  # Docker deployment UI
│   └── contextEditorPanel.ts # Context editor UI
├── auth/
│   ├── authConfig.ts       # Auth config file I/O, provider definitions
│   └── authWizardPanel.ts  # Auth wizard webview
├── docker/
│   ├── dockerController.ts # Docker Compose lifecycle (deploy, stop, discover)
│   └── types.ts            # TypeScript interfaces
└── commands/
    └── commands.ts         # Command registrations

Windows Support

The extension auto-detects Windows and routes Shai and Docker commands through WSL by default. Windows paths are converted automatically (e.g. C:\Users\user → /mnt/c/Users/user; WSL UNC paths like \\wsl.localhost\Distro\home\user → /home/user).

Prerequisites for Windows:

• WSL installed and working
• Shai AI installed inside your WSL environment
• Docker accessible from WSL (Docker Desktop with WSL 2 backend, or Docker Engine in WSL)

Set shai-vscode.useWSL to false if you want to run Docker and Shai natively on Windows.

Troubleshooting

Command not found (Windows)

• Verify WSL: wsl --version
• Install Shai in WSL, not Windows
• Test: wsl bash -c "shai hello"

Command not found (Linux/macOS)

• Ensure Shai is in your PATH
• Set the full path in shai-vscode.shaiCommand

Docker not found

• Install Docker and ensure it is on the system PATH
• On Windows, make sure Docker Desktop's WSL integration is enabled

No output / timeout

• CLI commands time out after 5 minutes; Docker deployments after 10 minutes
• Check that Shai works in your terminal first

Development

npm run compile      # Build once
npm run watch        # Rebuild on changes
vsce package         # Create .vsix

Repository

https://github.com/Sam9682/shai-vscode

License

See LICENSE file for details.

Version

0.0.3