ThinCoder for VS Code

Full AI coding agent, inside your editor. Zero bloat.

ThinCoder VS Code gives you the complete ThinCoder agent — multi-turn tool-calling, subagents, plan mode, task tracking — in a side panel. It reads your project, writes code, runs commands, searches the web, and explains its work as it goes.

Like the CLI, it's pure .mjs, zero npm dependencies, and connects directly to top-tier models via OpenAI-compatible APIs.

Features

• Full agent loop — multi-turn reasoning, tool execution, context compaction
• 20+ built-in tools — read, write, edit, bash, glob, grep, git (diff/status/log), websearch, fetch, checkpoint, question, syntax_check, and more. Tools grouped for parallel execution (consecutive readonly tools run concurrently).
• Subagents — explore (codebase search) / plan (architecture design) / coder (implementation), dispatched with role-specific prompts
• Plan Mode — read-only exploration → design proposal → user approval → implement
• Task tracking — task tool breaks down multi-step work with pending/in_progress/done status
• Verify guard — file changes without verify get pushed back; syntax check must pass before claiming completion
• Context compaction — automatically summarizes old messages when conversation grows too long
• Repo outline — scans project import/export dependencies so the agent understands your codebase structure
• Multi-session — save and switch between conversation sessions with session bar; LLM auto-generates titles
• Image input — paste or drag images into chat, or use read_image tool; supported on vision models (Kimi K3, Qwen3.7, MiniMax M3)
• Reasoning display — collapsible "Thinking..." block shows the model's reasoning process in real-time
• 17 provider presets — DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM, Qwen, MiniMax, OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Mistral, Volcengine, Hunyuan, SiliconFlow, OpenRouter, Groq + custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint
• Vector search — semantic code search with BAAI/bge-m3 embeddings via SiliconFlow (configurable in Settings)
• Model selection — choose from all available models per provider, with reasoning effort control
• Permission control — session-level AUTO mode (off by default): every file-modifying tool prompts for approval until you click the AUTO toolbar button or "Approve All"; the flip takes effect immediately, even mid-turn
• Right-click — select code in editor, right-click → "Ask ThinCoder"

Requirements

• VS Code >= 1.85.0
• An API key for at least one supported provider

Quick Start

1. Install the extension from VS Code Marketplace (or vsce package + sideload)
2. Press Ctrl+Alt+T (Mac: Cmd+Alt+T) — the ThinCoder panel opens in the sidebar
3. First run shows a welcome panel: pick a provider, paste your API key, save (the key is verified on save). You can add more providers later via ⚙ (Settings) in the toolbar
4. Start chatting — ThinCoder reads your workspace and responds

Commands

Configuration

All settings under thincoder.* in VS Code settings:

Auto-approve is not a VS Code setting — it is a session-level flag stored in the shared session slot (~/.thincoder/sessions/), same as the CLI. Toggle it with the AUTO toolbar button in the chat panel or via a prompt's "Approve All" button; each session remembers its own state.

Web search (optional Tavily)

The websearch tool defaults to Bing HTML extraction (zero-config, no key). To use Tavily's structured search API — stable JSON results, no HTML scraping, resilient to page-structure changes — add this to ~/.thincoder/config.json (shared with the CLI):

{
  "websearch": {
    "provider": "tavily",
    "apiKey": "tvly-..."   // https://tavily.com — free monthly tier available
  }
}

No key (or a bad key) → the tool silently falls back to Bing, so agents never lose search.

Supported Providers

Chat panel shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts inside the chat panel (CLI parity):

Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  VS Code Extension Host                  │
│  ┌────────────┐  ┌────────────────────┐  │
│  │ ChatPanel  │  │  Agent Loop        │  │
│  │ (session   │  │  (agent.mjs)       │  │
│  │  mgmt,     │  │  - tool execution  │  │
│  │  settings) │  │  - context compact │  │
│  └─────┬──────┘  │  - subagent spawn  │  │
│        │         └────────┬───────────┘  │
│   postMessage            │               │
│        │         ┌───────┴───────────┐   │
│        │         │  Provider         │   │
│        │         │  (fetch + SSE)    │   │
│        │         └───────────────────┘   │
│  ┌─────┴──────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  Webview (iframe)                  │  │
│  │  - chat.js (orchestration)         │  │
│  │  - ui.js (DOM rendering)           │  │
│  │  - md.js (Markdown)                │  │
│  └────────────────────────────────────┘  │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

• Extension host runs the agent loop, manages sessions, and talks to LLM providers
• Webview handles the chat UI — message display, model selector, session history, settings panel
• Communication is one-way message passing: webview sends userMessage/abort/setup etc., extension sends token/toolCall/complete/error etc.

Development

# No build step — the extension runs directly from source
# Edit extension.mjs, src/*.mjs, webview/*.{js,css,html}

# Package for distribution
npx @vscode/vsce package

Project Structure

thincoder-vscode/
├── extension.mjs         # VS Code entry point
├── package.json          # Extension manifest
├── AGENTS.md             # Developer guide
├── README.md             # This file
├── src/
│   ├── agent-tools/       # Meta-tools — task, subagent, plan, goal, verify, skill
│   ├── agent-tools.mjs    # Re-export shim
│   ├── tools/             # File/system/git/web/bash tools (20+)
│   ├── tools.mjs          # Re-export shim
│   ├── provider/          # Provider rate gate
│   ├── provider.mjs       # LLM provider with retry + re-exports rate
│   ├── mcp/               # MCP transport (stdio, http)
│   ├── mcp.mjs            # Re-export shim
│   ├── extension/         # Extracted modules — presets, session-io, settings
│   ├── context.mjs        # Context compaction + repo outline + injection
│   ├── config.mjs         # Model capability specs (self-contained)
│   ├── memory.mjs         # Long-term memory (FTS5)
│   ├── repomap.mjs        # Repository dependency graph
│   ├── specs.mjs          # Re-export from config.mjs
│   └── prompts/           # System prompts
├── webview/
│   ├── chat.js           # Frontend orchestration
│   ├── ui.js             # DOM helpers
│   ├── md.js             # Markdown renderer
│   ├── index.html        # Webview shell
│   ├── base.css          # Reset, variables, layout
│   ├── chat.css          # Messages, markdown, tool calls
│   ├── controls.css      # Input area, controls, dropdown
│   ├── session.css       # Session bar
│   └── settings.css      # Settings panel
└── docs/
    └── design/           # Design docs

vs. ThinCoder CLI