Codeep for VS Code

AI coding assistant sidebar for VS Code — powered by the Codeep CLI.

Requirements

Install the Codeep CLI first:

npm install -g codeep

Features

• Chat sidebar — ask questions, get explanations, request changes, all within VS Code
• Streaming responses — see the AI reply as it's being generated, with rich markdown rendering (links, tables, blockquotes, code blocks, lists)
• Live agent plan — when the agent works on a multi-step task, watch its plan update in real time (○ pending, ◐ in progress, ● done)
• Reasoning stream — collapsible "Thinking" card shows the model's reasoning before the answer (when the model exposes it)
• @file and @symbol mentions — type @ in the chat input to attach a workspace file or jump to a function/class/method via VS Code's symbol index. Arrow keys + Enter to pick; for files the full contents are inlined, for symbols the definition range (plus a few lines of context) is embedded
• Inline edit — select code, press Cmd+Shift+I, type a one-line instruction ("make this async", "extract to a function"), and the agent rewrites it in place. Cmd+Z to undo
• Send selection — highlight code and send it directly to chat (Cmd+Shift+X)
• Attach active file — Cmd+Shift+A (or right-click → "Attach Active File to Chat") prepends @<path> to the chat input without auto-sending. Type your question and the file is included as context.
• Review file — right-click any file to run an AI code review
• Session browser — list, load, and delete past conversations
• Settings panel — switch AI model, provider, and permission mode without leaving the editor
• Inline permission prompts with diff preview — see exactly what the agent wants to write, edit, or run before approving (no surprises)
• Native diff editor for proposed edits — when the agent asks permission to write or edit a file, a real vscode.diff tab opens alongside the inline card. Full syntax highlighting, gutter markers, your editor settings. Closes automatically once you click Allow or Deny.
• Accept / Reject from inside the diff — CodeLens links at the top of the proposed-change side let you resolve the permission without leaving the editor. The inline chat card auto-resolves to stay in sync.
• New session — start a fresh conversation at any time
• Auto-reconnect — if the CLI crashes, the extension reconnects on its own with exponential backoff (1s → 30s, max 6 tries)
• Status bar item — always-visible indicator (bottom right) showing connection state and current model. Click to open chat. Turns yellow during reconnect, red on hard failure.

Usage

Open the Codeep panel from the activity bar (red bracket icon), or press Cmd+Shift+C.

The extension connects to the Codeep CLI automatically on startup. Once connected, type your message and press Enter to send (Shift+Enter for a new line).

Commands

Command	Shortcut	Description
Codeep: Open Chat	Cmd+Shift+C	Open the chat sidebar
Codeep: Edit Selection (Inline)	Cmd+Shift+I	Rewrite the selected code with a natural-language instruction
Codeep: Send Selection to Chat	Cmd+Shift+X	Send selected code to chat
Codeep: Attach Active File to Chat	Cmd+Shift+A	Prepend @<path> of the active file to the chat input (no auto-send)
Codeep: Review Current File	—	AI review of the active file
Codeep: New Session	—	Start a new conversation

Sessions

Click Sessions in the toolbar to browse past conversations. Click a session to load it (history is restored in the chat). Use the × button to delete a session.

Settings

Click Settings in the toolbar to change the AI model, provider, and permission mode. Changes take effect immediately.

Permission prompts

When the agent wants to write a file or run a shell command, an inline card appears in the chat asking you to Allow once, Allow always, or Deny. No popups.

For write_file and edit_file tools the extension also opens a native VS Code diff editor in the side group so you can review the full proposed change with syntax highlighting and gutter markers before approving. The diff closes itself once you respond — your other tabs are not touched.

The card now shows a preview of what would happen:

• Edit file → side-by-side - / + diff of the change
• Write file → full content preview (first 200 lines for large files)
• Run command → the exact $ command and cwd that would execute

Truncated payloads are marked so you know you're not seeing the full thing.

Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
codeep.cliPath	codeep	Path to the Codeep CLI executable
codeep.provider	(CLI default)	Override AI provider
codeep.model	(CLI default)	Override AI model
codeep.requestTimeoutMinutes	5	Idle timeout in minutes for an in-flight prompt. Resets on every signal from the CLI (chunks, tool calls, thoughts), so it only fires when the agent is genuinely wedged. Bump to 15+ for slow reasoning models.

If codeep is not on your PATH, set the full path in settings:

{
  "codeep.cliPath": "/usr/local/bin/codeep"
}

How it works

The extension communicates with the Codeep CLI via the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) — a JSON-RPC protocol over stdio. Each VS Code workspace gets its own CLI session, so the agent has full context of your project.

License

MIT