Sophie AI

Sophie AI brings two AI learning assistants directly into VS Code for Big Blue Academy students. Both participants live inside the GitHub Copilot Chat sidebar.

Participants

@sophie-tutor

A Socratic tutor that guides you to the answer rather than giving it directly. Sophie Tutor asks probing questions, points out what to look at, and helps you think through problems yourself.

@sophie-tutor  why is my for loop not working?
@sophie-tutor /explain     ← walks through your selected code

@sophie-coder

A coding assistant that writes, improves, and explains code.

@sophie-coder  write a function that removes duplicates from a list
@sophie-coder /explain     ← explains selected code clearly
@sophie-coder /improve     ← rewrites selected code with improvements

Features

• Conversation memory — both participants remember your previous messages in the session
• Notebook-aware — in .ipynb files, Sophie Coder shows:
• Insert as new cell — adds a new cell below the active one
• Overwrite active cell — replaces the current cell's content
• Editor-aware — in .py files, buttons adapt:
• With a selection: Insert below selection / Replace selection
• Without a selection: Insert at cursor / Replace entire file
• Isolated histories — Tutor and Coder have completely separate conversation contexts
• Auto code context — highlight code before asking and Sophie uses it automatically

Prerequisites

• VS Code 1.94 or later
• GitHub Copilot extension (free tier works)
• A Sophie API key — provided by Big Blue Academy

Setup

1. Install GitHub Copilot from the VS Code Marketplace
2. Install this extension from the Marketplace
3. A prompt will appear asking you to enter your Sophie API key (sk-sophie-…) — paste the key your instructor gave you and press Enter
4. Open Copilot Chat (Ctrl+Alt+I) and type @sophie-tutor or @sophie-coder

Privacy

All messages are sent to Big Blue Academy's secure Sophie backend. No data is sent to third-party AI services directly from the extension.