What open source AI extension would you recommend for someone using VS Code?

1 point

9 months ago

I used to use Continue for the longest time, it was incredible. Unfortunately, its just gotten too buggy. I lost the ability to copy paste images into the chat so I lost a way to communicate with the AI I was using (usually an openai GPT model). A nasty copy paste bug (yes, a different copy paste bug) also occurred where occasionally my editor would refuse to let me copy paste content anymore until I rebooted VS Code. You can imagine how deleterious that is to your workflow. I was pretty angry at Continue when I discovered that the bug instantly went away when I disabled the extension

I uninstalled it and tried Cline, but I can't even get Cline to reliably open the chat on a simple CTRL+' (their default keybinding to pop open cline chat). So I promptly uninstalled that too. Curious if anyone here has tried something that has stood the test of time and could recommend it to me?

Really, all I want is an extremely streamlined AI chat experience that lets me stay in the drivers seat. I hate agents, I hate watching agents slowly process a task that I gave it that was designed to be extremely granular and small and still somehow the agent screws something up that I'll have to go in and fix anyways. I'd much rather just take the original experience I have with AI (chatgpt.com) and sort of answer the question of "How can I make the QnA/pair programming experience I get on chatgpt.com as fast and as embedded as possible in my own existing workflow so I can move as quickly as possible while staying in the driver's seat?" For me, continue's snappy CTRL+L keybinding to pop open chats with the highlighted context and typing @... to mention a file or two was the fastest thing that accomplished my requirements of staying in charge of what happens to the code (keeping the AI confined to a chat box).