ACP-powered AI agent chat panel for VS Code. Connect to agentao via the Agent Client Protocol.

Features

Sidebar Chat Panel — Interactive chat with markdown rendering, streaming responses, and conversation history
Syntax Highlighting — Code blocks with full syntax highlighting via highlight.js
File Path Links — Click file paths in responses to open them directly in the editor
@File Mentions — Type @ to search and reference workspace files
#Symbol Mentions — Type # to search and reference workspace symbols
Tool Permission Dialogs — Modal prompts when the agent wants to run tools (Allow Once / Allow Always / Reject)
Session Persistence — Conversations survive VS Code restarts
Model Switching — Status bar item to change the LLM model on the fly
Output Channel — Debug logging for ACP traffic (View → Output → Agentao)
Keyboard Shortcuts — Quick access to chat, new session, and more
Chat Search — Press Ctrl+F in chat to search conversation history
Quick Commands — Type / for command menu (/help, /clear, /export, /settings, /models)

Requirements

agentao installed and available on PATH, or configure the path in settings
An LLM API key (set via OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable or Agentao's own config)

Installation

From VSIX

code --install-extension agentao-0.1.0.vsix

From Source

git clone https://github.com/jin-bo/chatagent
cd chatagent
npm install
npm run build
code --install-extension agentao-0.1.0.vsix

Configuration

Open VS Code Settings (Ctrl+,) and search for "Agentao":

Setting	Default	Description
`agentao.commandPath`	`agentao`	Path to the agentao executable
`agentao.args`	`["--acp", "--stdio"]`	Additional CLI arguments
`agentao.workingDirectory`	`${workspaceFolder}`	Working directory for the agent
`agentao.env`	`{}`	Extra environment variables
`agentao.rpcTimeoutMs`	`60000`	RPC call timeout (ms)
`agentao.autoRestoreSession`	`true`	Restore session on startup
`agentao.logLevel`	`info`	Logging verbosity (debug/info/warn/error/off)
`agentao.mcpServers`	`[]`	MCP server configurations
`agentao.condaEnv`	`""`	Conda environment name for running agentao

Usage

Open the Agentao activity bar icon (left sidebar)
Type a message in the chat input
Press Enter or click Send
Watch the agent response stream in real-time
Approve or reject tool calls when prompted

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+Shift+A` / `Cmd+Shift+A`	Focus chat panel
`Ctrl+Shift+N` / `Cmd+Shift+N`	New session
`Ctrl+Shift+/` / `Cmd+Shift+/`	Ask about selected code
`Ctrl+F` / `Cmd+F` (in chat)	Search chat history

Commands

Agentao: Send Message — Focus chat panel
Agentao: Cancel — Cancel current agent turn
Agentao: New Session — Start fresh conversation
Agentao: Clear History — Clear chat display
Agentao: Switch Model — Change LLM model
Agentao: Focus Chat — Focus chat panel
Agentao: Ask About Selection — Chat about selected code
Agentao: Explain Selection — Explain selected code
Agentao: Configure Environment — Configure conda environment

Mentions

@file — Type @ followed by a filename to search and reference workspace files
#symbol — Type # followed by a symbol name to search and reference workspace symbols

Quick Commands

Type / in the chat input for the command menu:

/help — Show help information
/clear — Clear chat history
/export — Export current session as JSON
/settings — Open Agentao settings
/models — Show available models

Architecture

This extension communicates with agentao via the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) v1 — a stdio-based JSON-RPC 2.0 protocol. The extension spawns agentao --acp --stdio as a subprocess and exchanges NDJSON messages over stdin/stdout.

Project Structure

src/
├── acp/
│   ├── client.ts          # ACP client implementation
│   ├── types.ts           # ACP type definitions
│   └── json-types.ts      # JSON-RPC base types
├── chat/
│   ├── chat-view-provider.ts  # Webview provider
│   ├── message-list.ts    # Message list management
│   └── webview/
│       └── chat.ts        # Webview frontend code
├── persistence/
│   └── session-store.ts   # Session and state persistence
├── ui/
│   ├── output-channel.ts  # Output channel logging
│   ├── status-bar.ts      # Model status bar item
│   └── tool-permission.ts # Tool permission handling
└── extension.ts           # Main extension entry point

License

MIT

Agentao