DGC for VS Code & Cursor

Run the DGC coding agent inside your editor — a docked chat panel, native menus, streaming tool calls and diffs — driven by your own model: Ollama, llama.cpp, LM Studio, vLLM, Anthropic, OpenAI, or another compatible endpoint. Your code stays on your machine unless you choose a cloud provider.

Use DGC CLI 0.47.2 or newer; this extension requires editor protocol v14. Run dgc setup, then use DGC: Restart Backend after changing the executable or its configuration.

What it does

• Where you want it — the chat is offered in the activity bar and in the secondary side bar; open it in either and the same conversation follows. The copy you leave behind says where it went.
• Several chats, several folders — open another chat beside one that is working, or one in a different folder (Open a chat in another folder). Each has its own project, trust, MCP servers, permission rules and mode, all on one dgc serve, the way Codex runs its threads. While a turn runs you can switch chats, rename one, open a saved session beside it, or install a plugin.
• Chat panel — CommonMark responses with headings, lists, quotes, tables, safe file/source links, syntax-highlighted code and exact-source copy. Reasoning and tool batches collapse into compact rows, with visible failures and a separate final response. Surfaces follow your Cursor/VS Code theme with DGC purple accents.
• Live controls — browse skills and change permission mode during a turn. Enter steers native-model work at the next boundary; Alt+Enter or Queue submits a later turn. A separate Stop button remains available while drafting. Subscription CLI follow-ups queue, and their mode changes apply on the next turn. Unapplied steering, and turns still queued when you press Stop, come back marked not sent and can be restored.
• Turn ETA and walk-away notifications — while a native turn runs, the timer shows a calibrated range such as ~2–4 min left · 3/5 tasks, learned from this project's own history and the turn's task list (CLI 0.30.0, additive protocol-v6 turn_eta event). Enable DGC: Notify On Turn End for a notification when a turn longer than 20 seconds finishes while the panel is hidden.
• Goals — start an objective with /goal <objective> or <objective> /goal. The card supports pause, resume, edit, delete and review of evidence, work time, cycles and reported tokens. Native and subscription routes continue until completion, pause or a blocker. Optional token budgets are checked between requests or vendor turns.
• Changed files — the composer card shows changes recorded during the current chat, using actual pre-run file contents. Workspace changes opens the separate Git review. Saved chat previews exclude pre-existing edits and later manual changes; native diffs run through bounded inspection workers without executing repository filters.
• Editor-aware — each prompt carries bounded typed resources for the focused file, open tabs, diagnostics (for the focused file and every file this chat has touched), explicit mentions, and the current selection. Editor content stays in an untrusted data channel instead of being concatenated into the user's instructions.
• In-composer controls — model, permission mode and thinking level live in the prompt box: a compact model picker with a reasoning slider, a permission-mode picker, native VS Code (codicon) icons, and a context-usage pill that compacts on click. Model/thinking controls follow the active native or subscription route; subscription pickers use vendor hints or a free-form vendor model id without querying the native endpoint. Shift+Tab cycles permission modes (default / acceptEdits / plan / auto).
• Composer commands and skills — type / or $ after a word boundary anywhere in the draft. Pick commands, skills and templates without losing surrounding text. /plan, /review and /init prepare shared CLI/editor workflows. Select up to eight skills/templates, including 22 bundled skills, and attach the same inputs to a goal.
• Draft recovery — per-chat drafts and attachments survive panel reloads and backend restarts. Rejected or uncertain deliveries stay available for review; recovered prompts are never sent automatically.
• Feature browsers instead of transcript dumps — /skills, /docs, /mcp, /permissions, /memory, and /hooks open searchable, keyboard-accessible surfaces. Skills show their winning project/user/bundled source and instructions; documentation renders in place; none of these catalogs pollutes chat history.
• MCP manager — add, edit, remove, enable, disable and reconnect local STDIO or remote servers. Browse resources, templates and prompts, preview text, and attach bounded snapshots to a draft or goal. Safe server metadata is persisted in DGC configuration while environment values and remote bearer tokens stay in VS Code SecretStorage and never enter the webview again.
• Categorized Settings page (gear icon) — General, Models, Agents, Security, and Extensions cover provider routes, reasoning display, suggestions, permission/sandbox/network scope, plan/artifact behavior, tool profile, parallelism, and feature-manager shortcuts. Model credentials stay in endpoint-scoped VS Code SecretStorage; non-secret provider defaults can also be set in Settings UI → DGC.
• Keyboard and assistive access — semantic buttons, menus, live status, non-color tool outcomes, dialog focus trapping, reduced-motion and forced-colors behavior, WCAG text-palette checks, and keyboard navigation cover the composer, tool/reasoning disclosures, approvals, attachments, and settings.
• Permission prompts inline — each card shows what the step will do (its summary and, for an edit, the diff it would apply), then allow once / always-allow (saves a rule) / deny, with an optional note the model reads when you deny. Permission, plan, option, and MCP cards are request-correlated and single-use; Stop/expiry/backend exit disables them immediately, and decision traffic stays ahead of queued prompts under transport pressure.
• Session resume & rewind — resuming pages through saved context with expandable tool arguments/results; long messages and very large histories have explicit display limits. Rewind restores your code and conversation to an earlier checkpoint.
• Your model, your machine — the extension drives the local dgc CLI via dgc serve over stdio: same models, same config (~/.dgc/config.json), local-first. Model requests follow your selected local, cloud or subscription route. Enabled web tools and MCP servers can also contact their configured services.

Commands

• Chat: Focus Chat (Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+D), Open Command Menu, Add Selection (Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+I), Add File to DGC (explorer and tab context menus — or drag a file into the chat), Cycle Mode (Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+M). Palette entries that need a running backend appear once it is connected.
• Runtime: Select Model, Connect Provider, Set/Cycle Permission Mode, Set Thinking, Restart Backend.
• Sessions: New, Resume, Rewind, Name, Compact, Generate Handoff.
• Work: View Saved Plan, Artifact Previews, Show Goal, Retained Sub-agent Tasks.
• Extensibility: Skills, MCP Servers, Documentation, Permission Rules, Memory, Lifecycle Hooks.
• Context notes: Show Context Notes — what this project already learned, across sessions. The agent searches the same trace itself.
• Maintenance: Settings, Update CLI to Latest, Check for Extension Updates. If the CLI is older than the extension, DGC offers to update it and then reconnect — the extension drives the DGC you installed rather than shipping its own copy of it.

The in-composer / menu is generated from the CLI's canonical editor command registry. Commands that need structured editor state are routed through protocol frames rather than sent to the model.

MCP setup

Open DGC: MCP Servers or run /mcp:

• Local STDIO: executable, one argument per line, optional environment variable names and secret values. Existing ambient variables may be referenced by name without copying their values.
• Remote: HTTPS URL (or loopback HTTP for local development) and an optional bearer token. The current bridge uses npx -y mcp-remote@0.8.3; Node/npm must therefore be available for remote entries. The token is expanded from a process-local environment variable rather than placed in argv.

Removing a server removes its extension-managed secrets. Disable preserves its definition; Reconnect refreshes one server or all enabled servers. A server with SecretStorage-only credentials waits for editor setup instead of starting once without its secrets; use a KEY ambient reference when the same server must also start in the standalone CLI. Tool execution still passes through DGC's permission boundary.

Use Resources, Resource templates, or Prompts to preview and attach server text. Browser sign-in is cancellable. Remote desktop editors request callback forwarding before opening the browser; if the mapping changes its port or origin, DGC explains same-port forwarding and reconnect. See the MCP guide for provider and remote-editor limits.

Updating

Keep the CLI and extension current. An older CLI is updated to the version required by this extension when dgc.autoUpdateCli is enabled. If the CLI is newer, DGC offers an extension update. DGC: Check for Extension Updates checks the official release directly, including when Cursor's catalog lags. It offers a checksum-verified installation and then Reload Window. Background checks cover gallery and manual installs and respect dgc.checkForUpdates. Enable the editor's per-extension Auto Update setting if you also want gallery updates after installing a VSIX. See the upgrade guide.

Settings

• dgc.command — path to the dgc executable (default dgc).
• Native DGC settings provide provider-route defaults. The in-panel page owns live agent behavior, sandbox, artifact, and extension-manager settings exposed by protocol v6.

Local verification

npm test                 # transport + webview interaction/accessibility checks
npm run check-types      # TypeScript contract check without writing output
npm run compile          # TypeScript + development bundle
npm run test:host        # installed VS Code: activation, commands, handshake, roots/secrets, decisions

test:host never downloads or installs VS Code and opens only disposable test workspaces. Set DGC_VSCODE_EXECUTABLE to the editor's real Electron executable when it is not available at /usr/share/code/code.

Built by Mohit Kalra · vibedgc.com · Apache License 2.0.

File changes in a chat

A fresh chat starts without a changed-file card. Changes in this chat records the deltas observed while that chat runs, using actual pre-run contents even when files were already modified. Saved reviews survive reloads; later manual edits do not change the saved preview. Workspace changes opens the separate Git review, including work that predates the chat. Tracking covers that chat's folder; concurrent external edits during a run may be included. Older chats have no retroactive baseline.