AI Code Assistant - VS Code Extension

A powerful AI coding assistant that works like Cursor — right inside VS Code. Supports Claude (Anthropic) and ChatGPT (OpenAI).

Features

• 🤖 AI Chat Sidebar — Ask anything about your code
• 📖 Explain Code — Select code → right click → explain
• 🐛 Fix Bugs — Select buggy code → right click → fix
• ⚡ Generate Code — Describe what you want → AI builds it
• 📁 Reads Your Repo — Understands your entire project structure
• 🚫 Respects .gitignore & .aiignore — Safe, no sensitive files sent
• 🔄 Infinite usage — No limits, uses your own API key

Installation

Step 1: Install dependencies

npm install

Step 2: Compile TypeScript

npm run compile

Step 3: Install vsce (VS Code Extension packager)

npm install -g vsce

Step 4: Package the extension

vsce package

This creates a .vsix file.

Step 5: Install in VS Code

1. Open VS Code
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+P
3. Type "Install from VSIX"
4. Select the .vsix file

Step 6: Setup API Keys

When VS Code starts, a popup will ask you to:

1. Choose Claude or ChatGPT
2. Enter your API key

Get Claude API key: https://console.anthropic.com Get OpenAI API key: https://platform.openai.com

Usage

Chat Sidebar

• Click the 🤖 icon in the activity bar
• Type your question
• Toggle "Include repo context" for project-aware answers

Right Click Menu (on selected code)

• Explain Selected Code — Understand any code
• Fix Bug in Selected Code — AI fixes it, shows in new file
• Generate Code from Prompt — Describe → AI generates

Commands (Ctrl+Shift+P)

• AI Assistant: Open Chat
• AI Assistant: Explain Selected Code
• AI Assistant: Fix Bug in Selected Code
• AI Assistant: Generate Code from Prompt
• AI Assistant: Set API Keys

.aiignore File

Create a .aiignore file in your project root to exclude sensitive files from AI context:

.env
secrets.json
*.key
private/

Switching Between Claude and ChatGPT

Click ⚙️ Switch AI in the chat sidebar header, or run: AI Assistant: Set API Keys from the command palette.

Project Structure

src/
├── extension.ts        # Main entry point, command registration
├── aiService.ts        # Claude + ChatGPT API calls
├── repoReader.ts       # Reads repo, respects .gitignore/.aiignore
└── chatViewProvider.ts # Sidebar chat UI
media/
└── icon.svg            # Extension icon
.aiignore.example       # Example .aiignore file