Microsoft releases GitHub coding assistant for VS Code:MIT license in the future
The complete AI functions for VS Code are to become open source. As a first step, Microsoft is releasing the chat extension.
(Image: Zakharchuk/Shutterstock.com)
Microsoft is disclosing the sources of the Copilot chat extension for Visual Studio Code and placing it under an MIT license. According to Microsoft, this is a first step towards developing VS Code into an open AI editor.
Users can now use the sources on GitHub to understand how the extension processes prompts in chat and what context it sends to the LLM. The sources show the complete implementation, the system prompts and the telemetry data. The blog post with the announcement recommends: “Why not use the agent mode itself to get help exploring and understanding the codebase!”
Microsoft will not publish the sources of the original extension with the code completion functions, but intends to transfer the capabilities to the now disclosed extension in the coming months.
No more secret sauce
In the long term, the complete extension is to become an integral part of VS Code, and the sources of the extension will then also move to the main VS Code repository. With the open-source strategy, Microsoft is pursuing the goal of improving its AI functions with the community on the one hand and making it easier for the ecosystem to build extensions with AI capabilities on the other. The sources also make it transparent which data Microsoft sends.
Videos by heise
The manufacturer now sees the secrecy that was previously considered necessary as superfluous: “The large language models have improved significantly, which reduces the need for prompt strategies with 'secret sauce'”.
(who)
