QuizGate

Stop your AI agent from guessing. Make it ask inside your IDE.

QuizGate gives MCP-compatible AI agents a structured way to ask you clarifying questions directly in VS Code. Instead of guessing on architecture, implementation details, or user preference, the agent can open a quiz panel in your editor, wait for your answer, and continue with actual input.

What It Is

QuizGate is made of two runtime pieces:

• packages/mcp-server: an MCP server that exposes the ask_user tool to AI agents
• packages/vscode-extension: a VS Code extension that receives questions over localhost HTTP and renders the quiz UI

There is also one shared workspace package:

• shared: shared types and Zod schemas used by both packages

How It Works

1. Your AI agent encounters ambiguity.
2. It calls the ask_user MCP tool with structured questions.
3. The MCP server forwards that payload to the local VS Code extension.
4. The extension opens an interactive quiz panel in VS Code.
5. You answer the quiz.
6. The response flows back to the agent so it can continue with your actual preference.

Why Use It

• Reduces AI guesswork in real coding workflows
• Keeps clarification inside the editor instead of chat context switching
• Supports structured answers instead of vague free-form back and forth
• Adds guardrails like timeouts, error classification, and a circuit breaker

Repo Layout

.
├── DOCs/documentation.md          # Developer documentation and architecture notes
├── shared/                        # Shared types and schemas
└── packages/
    ├── mcp-server/                # MCP server package
    └── vscode-extension/          # VS Code extension package

Quick Start

1. Install dependencies

npm install

2. Build the workspace

npm run build

3. Run the VS Code extension

Open the repository in VS Code and launch the extension host with F5.

4. Configure your AI agent to use the MCP server

Example MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quizgate": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "quizgate-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Or install globally

npm install -g quizgate-mcp

If you want to run the local repository build instead of the published package, build the workspace first and point your MCP client at packages/mcp-server/dist/index.js.

Core Features

• ask_user tool for structured clarification flows
• Multiple-choice questions with optional descriptions and context
• Free-text answers when the user wants to write their own response
• Configurable timeout via quizgate.timeout
• Port discovery starting from quizgate.port
• Three-tier error model: transport, protocol, and application failures
• Circuit breaker to avoid repeatedly interrupting the user

Documentation

• Developer documentation
• MCP server README
• VS Code extension README

Development Notes

• Node.js 18+ is required
• The MCP server is bundled with esbuild so the published package can inline the local @quizgate/shared workspace package
• The VS Code extension builds into packages/vscode-extension/out
• Shared types build into shared/dist

License

MIT