CodeAssist

Features

It has a natural language interface, so you can talk to it like you talk to a human.
It can see your code and make changes in the file that is open in the editor.
It can generate a completion of the code (use ALT+X for that). It generates that being aware of the code in other files, so it can use the functions/classes from other places in the codebase in the generated code.
It works with all popular programming languages.

Current limitations

It doesn't always give correct answers, sometimes might interpret the user intention incorrectly or say that it's doing something when not doing anything (solution: use "edit" command).
It might be very slow, when many users use it at the same time.

Demo

FAQ

How is it different from ChatGPT? And how is it similar?

Differences:

CodeAssist can directly read and write code from/into your editor. You don't have to copy and paste it in your browser.
CodeAssist gives more concise answers.
At the moment, CodeAssist is slightly more stupid that ChatGPT (that might change soon, it is also probable that CodeAssist will be based on ChatGPT soon).

Similarities:

Both programs are chatbots - they have natural, human-like interface.

How is it different from Github Copilot? And how is it similar?

Differences:

You can talk to it (like you talk to ChatGPT).
CodeAssist doesn't hide your standard completions from IDE. It completes the code when you press a keyboard shortcut or run an action. It doesn't suggest the changes.
CodeAssist takes more time to generate the change in your code or to generate a completion, but it gives better results (since it uses the largest Codex model and Copilot uses the second-largest Codex model). But I don't have complete confidence about what model Copilot uses, so I might be wrong.

Similarities:

Both Copilot and CodeAssist can generate completion of your code.
Both of them takes context from other files into account, when generating the completion.

Does it send the code that it works with to an external server? How is the code processed or stored (if at all)?

When you work with CodeAssist plugin/extension, the code that CodeAssist works with is sent to the CodeAssist API. Your code is processed there to generate CodeAssist response (in the form of code change or message). Currently, the processed code is not stored on the server. If there are any changes to that, I'll let you know.

If you don't use "Complete" feature (ALT+X shortcut), then it only processes the file that you have open in the editor. If you use "Complete" feature, then it processes other files in your codebase as well.

As part of generating response, CodeAssist sends the code to OpenAI API. OpenAI stores the code for 1 month to provide and maintain their services, comply with applicable law, and enforce their policies. The code is not used by OpenAI for improvement of their services or training of their models.

Get started

Installation in Visual Studio Code

CodeAssist in Visual Studio Code marketplace

To install CodeAssist in Visual Studio Code, you need to do the following steps:

Open Visual Studio Code.
Go to View -> Extensions.
Type "CodeAssist" in the search field.
Click on the "Install" button.
You should have a new option "CodeAssist" (comment icon) in the activity bar on the left. Click it and it will open a chat window. Say "hello" and say what you want it to do for you.
Consider moving the "chat" window to the secondary sidebar (View -> Appearance -> Secondary sidebar, and then drag and drop the CodeAssist window into the secondary sidebar).

Installation in a JetBrains IDE

CodeAssist in JetBrains marketplace

JetBrains IDE is for example: PyCharm, PHPStorm, IntelliJ IDEA, WebStorm and so on...

To install CodeAssist in Jetbrains IDE, you need to do the following steps:

Open your IDE.
Go to File -> Settings -> Plugins.
Click on the "Install JetBrains plugin..." button.
Type "CodeAssist" in the search field.
Click on the "Install" button.
Click "CodeAssist" tab on the right side.