Overview

Natural language interface for exploring, editing, and managing code with contextual AI assistance in Chat mode

What is Chat?

Chat is Codebolt AI assistant that lives in your sidebar, letting you interact with your codebase through natural language. You can ask questions, request code edits, get terminal command suggestions, and more - all without switching context.

Core Capabilities

📄

Understand Code

Ask questions about unfamiliar code, get explanations, or explore your codebase

💾

Edit Code

Make small tweaks or large multi-file changes without manually navigating files

⚡

Run Commands

Get terminal command suggestions for your specific use case

∞

Automate workflows

Let Codebolt search, reason and execute to automate your workflows

Getting Started

Access Chat in the sidebar with ⌘+L (Mac) or Ctrl+I (Windows/Linux). Type your request in natural language, and the AI will respond accordingly.

What can I do with Chat?

Build Features

Chat has the ability to learn your codebase and make changes to it on your behalf. This is a powerful way to implement new features, and is the perfect tool for feature requests.

Simply explain to the chat, using Agent mode, what feature you would like it to implement. Chat will look at your codebase, and any relevant files, and suggest any necessary changes across these fields.

In addition to code edits, Chat may suggest other changes, like adding new files, or adding packages with a package manager.

Refactor code

Need to clean up messy code or reorganize your project? Codebolt can help make your code better and easier to maintain.

Just describe what you want to improve, like "Make this code faster" or "Organize these files better." Codebolt will understand your project and make the changes safely.

Setup new projects

Starting a new project from scratch? Codebolt makes it super easy!

Tell it what kind of app you want to build - like a website, mobile app, or API. Codebolt will create all the folders, install the right tools, and write starter code so you can begin coding right away.

Modes

Chat offers different modes optimized for specific tasks:

• Auto: Acts as a universal agent—Codebolt will autonomously understand your codebase and make broad, codebase-wide changes as needed.
• Ask: Get explanations, answers, and feature planning help from the AI about your codebase.
• Act: Make targeted edits using only the specific context you provide.
• Local Agent: Create a custom agent tailored to your unique workflows.

Context

Chat understands your codebase by analyzing:

1. Open files: What you're currently viewing
2. @ Symbol: Use @ to select specific files, folders, and docs you want to reference
3. # Symbol: Used to select a specific agent from the agent marketplace

Using @ to Select Content

The @ symbol lets you precisely choose what Chat should focus on:

• @filename.js - Select a specific file
• @foldername/ - Include an entire folder
• @docs/ - Reference documentation files

Checkpoints

Sometimes you may want to revert to a previous state of your codebase. Codebolt helps you with this by automatically creating checkpoints of your codebase at each request you make, as well every time the AI makes changes to your codebase.

To revert to a previous state, you can either:

• Click the Restore Checkpoint button that appears within the input box of a previous request
• Click the + button that shows at the left of a message in the chat history when hovered

Model Selection

Codebolt gives you flexible control over which AI model processes your requests. You can either let Codebolt automatically choose the best model or manually select one based on your specific needs.