Local Garden Girl

This extension is intentionally simple:

• one prompt box
• one model field
• one Ask button
• one Edit Current File button
• one response panel
• a lightweight connection to your current VS Code context
• native VS Code chat support through @local

It sends your prompt plus best-effort VS Code context to OpenRouter and shows the model response.

What it does

• stores your OpenRouter API key in VS Code SecretStorage
• lets you choose any OpenRouter model by name
• lets you switch between OpenRouter and Garden
• reads VS Code context in a best-effort way
• shows the model response as plain text or markdown
• never requires JSON
• works in the built-in VS Code chat surface with @local
• keeps short built-in chat memory by sending recent turns back to OpenRouter
• can apply AI edits directly to the active file

Context modes

• Auto (best effort): uses the current file if one is open, otherwise falls back to a project summary
• Current file: prefers the active file, but falls back instead of hard-failing
• Project summary: sends a lightweight workspace summary
• Selected text: prefers your current selection, but falls back instead of hard-failing
• No context: sends only your prompt

Run locally

cd extension
npm install
npm run compile

Open the extension/ folder in VS Code and press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host.

Package as a shareable extension

To build a VSIX that can be installed in VS Code or published to the Marketplace:

cd extension
npm install
npm run package:vsix

The resulting .vsix file can be installed with:

code --install-extension ./local-garden-girl-0.1.0.vsix

If you want it available to other users online, publish it through the Visual Studio Marketplace or Open VSX using the generated VSIX and your publisher account.

Open the sidebar

Use any of these:

1. Click the Local Garden Girl icon in the Activity Bar.
2. Run Local Garden Girl: Open Sidebar from the Command Palette.
3. Run View: Open View... and search for Local Garden Girl.

Use it

1. Save your OpenRouter API key.
2. Leave the model as openrouter/auto or enter a specific model name.
3. Leave context on Auto (best effort) unless you want something specific.
4. Type a prompt.
5. Click Ask.
6. To have the model rewrite the active file, click Edit Current File.

Use Garden instead of OpenRouter

1. Run Local Garden Girl: Set Provider
2. Choose Garden
3. Set localCodeAssistant.gardenChatCompletionsUrl in Settings
4. If your Garden endpoint requires a key, run Local Garden Girl: Set API Key
5. Set the model name with Local Garden Girl: Set Model

Garden currently expects an OpenAI-compatible chat/completions HTTP endpoint. If your Garden project exposes a different API shape, we can adapt this extension to it next.

Use it in built-in chat

The extension also plugs into VS Code chat.

1. Open the normal VS Code chat panel.
2. Type @local followed by your prompt.
3. The extension sends your prompt plus best-effort VS Code context to OpenRouter.

To change the model used in chat, run Local Garden Girl: Set Model.

Control cost

Two settings matter most:

• localCodeAssistant.contextMaxChars
• localCodeAssistant.chatHistoryTurns

Open Settings and search for Local Garden Girl to change them.

Suggested starting values:

• contextMaxChars: 4000 to 8000
• chatHistoryTurns: 4 to 8

Lower values cost less. Higher values remember more and include more code context, but use more tokens.