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Quickstart

This guide walks you through your first CodeBuddy interaction — from opening the chat panel to reviewing and applying code changes.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • CodeBuddy installed in your editor (Installation)
  • An API key configured for at least one AI provider

Open the chat panel

Section titled “Open the chat panel”

Click the CodeBuddy icon in the activity bar (left sidebar) to open the chat panel, or use the keyboard shortcut:

  • macOS: Cmd+Shift+B
  • Windows/Linux: Ctrl+Shift+B

Send your first task

Section titled “Send your first task”

Type a task in natural language. For example:

Create a utility function that validates email addresses and write tests for it

CodeBuddy will:

  1. Analyze your project structure, language, and framework
  2. Create an execution plan using the think tool
  3. Write the utility function using edit_file
  4. Generate test cases and run them with run_tests
  5. Present a diff for you to review

You’ll see real-time progress as the agent works — tool calls, file reads, terminal output, and reasoning steps are all streamed to the chat panel.

Review and apply changes

Section titled “Review and apply changes”

CodeBuddy shows proposed changes in a diff view powered by the DiffReviewService. Each change displays added lines (green) and removed lines (red) with 3 lines of context around each hunk.

ActionDescription
Accept allApply every proposed change
Accept fileApply changes for a specific file only
RejectDiscard all changes and optionally ask CodeBuddy to try again
EditModify the proposed changes before applying

All changes are tracked. You can undo the last set of changes with CodeBuddy: Undo Last Changes from the command palette.

Try multi-agent delegation

Section titled “Try multi-agent delegation”

For more complex tasks, CodeBuddy automatically delegates to specialized subagents:

Refactor the authentication module to use JWT tokens. Design the new architecture,
implement it, write tests, and create documentation.

This task triggers multiple agents:

  • architect — Designs the JWT architecture
  • Developer Agent — Implements the changes
  • tester — Writes and runs tests
  • doc-writer — Creates documentation
  • reviewer — Reviews the final implementation

Use memory

Section titled “Use memory”

Ask CodeBuddy to remember project-specific knowledge:

Remember that we always use Zod for input validation in this project

This saves a Rule memory entry in the project scope. CodeBuddy will follow this convention in all future conversations in this workspace.

What’s next?

Section titled “What’s next?”