VS Code Extension

Run Alveare specialists directly from your editor. Select text, pick a specialist, and see results inline.

Installation

Open VS Code
Go to the Extensions panel (Cmd+Shift+X on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+X on Windows/Linux)
Search for "Alveare"
Click Install

Or install from the command line:

bash

code --install-extension alveare.alveare-vscode

Configuration

Set your API key in VS Code settings. Open settings (Cmd+,) and search for "Alveare", or add directly to settings.json:

json — settings.json

{
  "alveare.apiKey": "alv_live_abc123...",
  "alveare.baseUrl": "https://api.alveare.ai",
  "alveare.defaultTemperature": 0.7,
  "alveare.defaultMaxTokens": 512
}

For team use, set alveare.apiKey in your User settings (not Workspace) so it is not committed to version control. You can also use the ALVEARE_API_KEY environment variable.

Features

Right-click context menu
Select text in any file, right-click, and choose "Alveare: Run Specialist". A quick-pick menu lets you choose which specialist to run. The result appears in the Alveare Results panel.
Command palette
Open the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P) and type "Alveare" to see all available commands: "Alveare: Summarise", "Alveare: Classify", "Alveare: Extract", "Alveare: Code", and more. Each runs the corresponding specialist on the selected text.
Results panel with syntax highlighting
Results open in a dedicated Alveare panel on the right side of the editor. Code results get syntax highlighting based on the detected language. JSON results are pretty-printed.
Inline diff view for code suggestions
When using the Code specialist on selected code, the extension shows a diff view comparing your original code to the AI-generated version. Accept changes with one click or review line-by-line.

Usage: Right-click menu

Screenshot: Context menu

A dark VS Code editor with Python code selected. The right-click context menu is open, showing "Alveare: Run Specialist" near the bottom. A sub-menu shows the specialist options: Classify, Summarise, Extract, Q&A, Chat, Code.

Select any text in your editor, right-click, and choose a specialist. The extension sends the selected text to the API and displays the result.

Usage: Command palette

Screenshot: Command palette

The VS Code command palette is open with "Alveare" typed. The dropdown shows: "Alveare: Summarise Selection", "Alveare: Classify Selection", "Alveare: Extract from Selection", "Alveare: Ask Question", "Alveare: Generate Code", "Alveare: Run Custom Specialist".

Available commands:

Alveare: Summarise Selection — summarise the selected text
Alveare: Classify Selection — classify the selected text
Alveare: Extract from Selection — extract structured data from the selection
Alveare: Ask Question — use selected text as context, prompts for your question
Alveare: Generate Code — generate code from a natural language description
Alveare: Run Custom Specialist — run any specialist (prompts for name)

Results panel

Screenshot: Results panel

VS Code with a split view. On the left, a document with text. On the right, the "Alveare Results" panel showing a summarisation result. The result text has a header showing "summarise - 142 tokens - 312ms". Below is the formatted summary text. A "Copy" button is in the top-right corner of the panel.

The results panel shows:

Which specialist was used
Token count and latency
The formatted result (with syntax highlighting for code, pretty-printed JSON for extract)
Copy to clipboard button
Insert at cursor button (replaces selection or inserts at current position)

Inline diff view

Screenshot: Diff view

VS Code showing a side-by-side diff. The left side shows the original Python function with a bug. The right side shows the Alveare-suggested fix with the corrected line highlighted in green. At the top of the diff, buttons read "Accept Changes" and "Dismiss".

When you run the Code specialist on selected code (refactor, fix bugs, add types), the extension opens a diff view so you can review changes before accepting them. This is similar to VS Code's built-in merge editor.

Keyboard shortcuts

Default keybindings (customisable in Keyboard Shortcuts settings):

Cmd+Shift+A — Open specialist quick-pick (run on selection)
Cmd+Shift+S — Summarise selection
Cmd+Shift+E — Extract from selection

The extension requires VS Code 1.80 or later. It works with VS Code, VS Code Insiders, and Cursor.