AI Git Assistant

AI Git Assistant is a VS Code extension that can turn a selected git diff, or the staged diff from the current workspace, into conventional commit message suggestions and can also create or update a README.md by scanning the repository code.

Preview

What The Extension Does

• Uses the active text selection when it looks like a diff
• Falls back to git diff --staged from the workspace root
• Supports both OpenAI and Ollama backends
• Generates one primary conventional commit message
• Generates three alternative messages
• Explains why the primary type was chosen
• Shows results in a focused webview panel
• Supports copying any message
• Supports inserting a message into the active editor when possible
• Scans the workspace and creates or updates README.md

How To Run In Extension Development Host

1. Install dependencies:

npm install

2. Compile the extension:

npm run compile

3. Open this folder in VS Code.

4. Press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host.

5. In the Extension Development Host, open the Command Palette and run:

AI Git Assistant: Generate Commit Message

To create or refresh project documentation from the current workspace, run:

AI Git Assistant: Create or Update README

Provider Setup

Open VS Code settings and set:

• aiCommitMessageGenerator.provider
• aiCommitMessageGenerator.useSelectionFirst if you want to prefer staged diff lookup over editor selection

Ollama

Default provider is ollama.

1. Install Ollama
2. Start the local Ollama service
3. Pull a model, for example:

ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:7b

4. In VS Code settings, confirm:

• aiCommitMessageGenerator.provider = ollama
• aiCommitMessageGenerator.ollamaModel = qwen2.5-coder:7b
• aiCommitMessageGenerator.ollamaBaseUrl = http://127.0.0.1:11434

OpenAI

If you want to use OpenAI instead:

• aiCommitMessageGenerator.provider = openai
• aiCommitMessageGenerator.apiKey = <your key>
• aiCommitMessageGenerator.model = gpt-5-mini

Example Workflow

1. Stage a set of changes in a git repository.
2. Run AI Git Assistant: Generate Commit Message.
3. The primary message is copied to the clipboard automatically.
4. Review the primary suggestion, alternatives, and reasoning in the webview.
5. Click Insert to place a message in the active editor when available, or Copy to place it on the clipboard.

Example Output

{
  "primary": "feat(prompt): add structured commit message instructions",
  "alternatives": [
    "refactor: tighten commit message prompt rules",
    "fix: return valid JSON commit suggestions",
    "chore: improve AI commit generation flow"
  ],
  "reasoning": "The diff introduces new user-facing commit generation behavior, so feat best matches the main impact."
}

Project Structure

• src/extension.ts: command registration and orchestration
• src/git.ts: staged diff lookup via git diff --staged
• src/project.ts: repository scanning and README context collection
• src/ai.ts: OpenAI/Ollama requests, validation, and safe parsing
• src/prompt.ts: reusable commit and README prompt builders
• src/webview.ts: webview rendering and message actions
• src/types.ts: shared types and constants

Local Testing Notes

• Use a real git repository in the Extension Development Host.
• Test with selected diff text first.
• Test again with no selection and staged changes present.
• Test README generation in a small and medium project to confirm the produced markdown matches the codebase.
• Test Ollama with the local service running.
• Test missing API key, no workspace, Ollama not running, and no staged changes to verify friendly error handling.