AI Colab

AI Colab combines compact status bar metrics with problem context commands for AI-assisted development.

Status bar

24w87L~420t  G+156−42 9f  🤖 3

• 24w: words in all non-empty editor selections.
• 87L~420t: lines and estimated tokens in the active AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, or SKILL.md.
• G+156−42 9f: combined added lines, removed lines, and changed files across workspace Git repositories.
• 🤖 3: workspace-linked Codex, Claude Code, Cursor Agent, and Pi sessions. Hover for the per-agent breakdown.

Editor and Git updates are event-driven and debounced. Git results are cached per repository, at most two repositories are scanned concurrently, agent scans never overlap, and commands stop when VS Code loses focus.

Commands

Diagnostic context contains severity, source, a full source range, and a bounded raw-code preview:

Error (source: Pylance): `"(" was not closed`
Location: /Users/example/project/hello.py:4:1 - 5:26
Diagnostic location: /Users/example/project/hello.py:5:10 - 5:11

Preview:
"""
if __name__ == "__main__":
    print("Hello, World!"
"""

Locations use absolute/path:startLine:startColumn - endLine:endColumn. Lines and UTF-16 columns are 1-based; the start is inclusive and the end exclusive. The space before the hyphen keeps the starting location separate for VS Code link detection. The primary range covers the full preview source after removing blank boundary lines, not just the displayed beginning and end. A differing diagnostic range is labeled separately.

Copy Context uses the diagnostic plus surrounding lines. Copy Context and Run uses the selected range when present, or the current non-empty line without a selection. Without a nearby diagnostic, Copy Context and Run copies only the location and preview, without a suffix.

Previews default to at most 200 UTF-16 characters, preserving the beginning and end with ... between them when truncated. The marker counts toward the cap; quote delimiters, locations, diagnostic messages, source notes, and the configured suffix do not. This bounds the code preview, not the complete clipboard or terminal text. Both commands remove empty or whitespace-only lines at the beginning and end before limiting the preview. Indentation, trailing spaces on non-empty lines, and internal blank lines are preserved, and surrogate pairs are not split. Large ranges are read only at their beginning and end; no large-selection confirmation is required. The model can read the full range from the file when needed. Unsaved or editor-only sources include a note because the CLI may not have the same content.

When a diagnostic is present, Copy and Run appends the configured suffix as a separate paragraph. It always writes the final text to the clipboard before checking workspace trust or active-terminal availability, then focuses the terminal and invokes VS Code's normal paste action. This uses bracketed paste when supported and otherwise follows VS Code's multiline-paste warning settings. The extension does not append Enter, but execution prevention depends on the receiving program and paste settings; it is not guaranteed for every terminal.

Settings

Interval changes apply without reloading VS Code.

Themes by VS Code build

Set separate synced theme choices in User Settings:

"aiColab.themes.stable": "Dark Modern",
"aiColab.themes.insiders": "Solarized Dark"

Use each theme's exact workbench.colorTheme value and install its extension in the corresponding app. These settings sync like other user settings; to share them between Stable and Insiders, configure both apps to use the same Settings Sync service.

When the running build's choice is non-empty, AI Colab applies it on startup and setting changes. It overwrites the active user theme, removes workspace theme overrides, and disables automatic OS color-scheme and high-contrast switching. Manual theme setting changes are overwritten. Custom UI colors, syntax colors, and icon themes are preserved.

AI Colab adds workbench.colorTheme to settingsSync.ignoredSettings and removes an opposing -workbench.colorTheme entry, preserving other exclusions. Only this generated active value is local; both AI Colab theme choices remain synced unless you explicitly exclude them.

Empty choices leave theme settings untouched. Clearing a choice stops enforcement but does not restore overwritten settings or remove the sync exclusion. In local windows, unknown or missing themes produce a warning without changing settings. SSH windows are supported: build detection uses the local client identity, while Git and agent metrics still run remotely. Install the selected theme in the local client. Remote extension hosts cannot validate locally installed themes, so a missing theme may fall back to VS Code’s default. Existing remote-user theme overrides are overwritten; Stable and Insiders normally use separate server settings directories. Do not configure the two builds to share remote-user settings directories, which would let their theme overrides conflict.

Integrated browser links

Enable this user setting to route normal HTTP/HTTPS link clicks to VS Code's integrated browser:

"aiColab.browser.openLinks": true

Requires a recent VS Code desktop build with the integrated browser and the built-in Simple Browser extension enabled. AI Colab replaces user-level workbench.externalUriOpeners rules while enabled, saves the previous value locally, and restores it when you turn the setting off. Existing internal-browser routing, including rules previously received through Settings Sync, is preserved on disable; remove those rules manually if you want external routing instead. Turn it off before uninstalling AI Colab if you want the previous routing restored. No proposed extension APIs or OS default-browser changes are needed.

This covers links routed through VS Code's contributed link openers, including normal editor and terminal web links. Remote windows (SSH, containers, WSL) are not managed because the extension API merges local and remote user routing without exposing separate values for safe restoration. Local user routing may still apply there. Workspace-level opener rules can override user rules. Extensions that explicitly bypass contributed openers, explicit external-browser actions, and non-HTTP/HTTPS links are not intercepted. Authentication links may require an external browser. The setting applies after AI Colab activates on startup.

Trust and platform limits

Editor selection/instruction-file metrics and clipboard copying work in Restricted Mode. Git commands, agent process scans, and terminal submission require Workspace Trust. Git and agent metrics require trusted local-file workspace folders; multi-root results are combined.

Git metrics use VS Code's Git API when available and otherwise scan top-level workspace folders. Untracked files count as changed files but not added lines; binary changes add no line totals. Command output is limited to protect the extension host.

Agent detection uses ps and /proc on Linux, ps and lsof on macOS, and PowerShell on Windows. Processes that cannot be linked to a workspace folder are ignored.

Install

Node.js 22 or newer is required to build the extension.

npm ci
npm run package:vsix -- --out /tmp/ai-colab.vsix
code --install-extension /tmp/ai-colab.vsix

Development

npm ci
npm run check
npm run build