This extension provides the CodeChat Editor's capabilities within the Visual Studio Code IDE.
First, install Visual Studio Code. Next:
- Install the CodeChat Editor extension.
- (Recommended) switch to a light theme, since the CodeChat Editor only provides a light theme.
-
Open a file that the CodeChat Editor supports (many source files, along with Markdown files).
-
Open the Visual Studio Code command palette by pressing
Ctrl+Shift+P. TypeCodeChat, select "Enable the CodeChat Editor", then press enter to run the extension. After a moment, the rendered file should load. If it doesn't:- Open the Visual Studio Code settings for the CodeChat Editor by navigating
to
File>Preferences>Settingsthen typingCodeChatin the search box. Change the port from its default of 8080 to some other value. - Run the extension again (close the existing window, type
Ctrl+Shift+Pthen select Enable the CodeChat Editor).
- Open the Visual Studio Code settings for the CodeChat Editor by navigating
to
Participants who have registered in the capture portal receive a capture token by email. To use it, run Manage CodeChat Editor Capture or CodeChat Editor: Enter Capture Token from the command palette, paste the token, then turn on consent and recording. The capture status item shows whether the token is accepted, rejected, unavailable, or disabled by the portal.
For the student-facing walkthrough, see the CodeChat Capture Token Setup Guide.
The token is imported through the VS Code UI and persisted only in VS Code SecretStorage. It is never written to settings, workspace files, or a JSON configuration file. The participant identity used in capture events comes from CaptureWebService token status, not from the token text.
CodeChat sends capture events only to CaptureWebService and does not connect
directly to the capture database. The old JSON database-secret configuration
path is not used by the extension. Events are sanitized and written to a local
FIFO spool under VS Code's global extension storage before upload, so extension
upgrades do not remove queued events. Events recorded offline after the token
has been accepted and capture-enabled upload automatically when the matching
service is reachable again. If the service endpoint changes, update the
user-level
CodeChatEditor.Capture.ServiceBaseUrl setting. Workspace values are ignored
for this token-bearing endpoint. Token-bearing service requests must use HTTPS,
except for localhost development endpoints.
Developer builds must compile the bundled Rust server with minreq
https-rustls-probe and proxy support. Capture HTTPS requests validate with
the host platform certificate store and honor standard proxy environment
variables. The AWS capture endpoint uses HTTPS, so a build without HTTPS support
will show token validation and capture upload as unavailable.
See the user manual.
