AI Coder Tool
Wing Pro's AI Coder tool lets you write new code or modify existing code by describing its intended functionality and design. This tool will operate on the code that is indicated by the Target and any selection in the current editor. The target may be one of:
- Current Selection transforms only the current selection, or if there is no selection then it will add code at the current insertion point according to your instructions.
- Current Block restricts changes to the current like-or-greater indented block of code.
- Current Scope limits code changes to the innermost named scope (a class or def) at the current caret position in the editor.
- Whole File allows the AI to change code anywhere in the current file.
The Target popup menu also includes Use Request Config, which uses the target configured in the current saved request configuration, or the most recently used target type if the saved xsrequest does not specify one. See Saved Requests for more information on setting up and using saved AI requests.
Once you have selected a target and entered your instructions, press AI Transform to initiate the process. AI transformation requests may take quite a while to complete, but they are capable of producing changes that would take far more time to make manually.
You can cancel AI transformation requests by pressing the Abort button in the AI Coder tool. If you do not cancel and the request completes, then Wing will enter the AI-generated code into the editor, replacing the code in the specified Target, if any. By default code is simply replaced so that a single Undo will undo the changes if it turns out that you do not want them. Other options for how AI changes are applied are available in the AI Coder tool's Action menu, as described below.
Context
By default Wing sends only part or all of the current file with your AI request. If the code you want the AI to write needs to know about other code in your project, you can ask Wing to include that by setting up and selecting an AI context from the Context menu in the AI Coder tool. See AI Request Context for details.
Action
The Actions menu in AI Coder tool controls how to place transformation results into the editor when the request completes:
- Use Request Config uses the Result Action specified in the current request.
- `` Replace Old Code`` replaces the existing code with the AI transformation of the code, using the Replace Method configured below. This is the default option.
- Create New File creates a new untitled file of the appropriate type and pastes the new code into it.
When Replace Old Code is selected, any of the following methods for replacing code may be used. This is a preference that applies to all projects and is selected from the Action menu in the AI Coder tool:
- Overwrite Old Code replaces the old code in the editor without any other changes. This is the default. A single Undo will undo the changes and restore the previous version of the code.
- Comment Out Old Code comments out the old code and pastes in the AI generated code after the end of the comment.
- Start Review to Accept (Default=Reject) enters into Diff/Merge mode so that you
can compare the changes and selectively accept them. In this mode, changes are rejected
by default if you end the session without reviewing all of them. After the review session
starts, the new version of the code written by AI will be on the left and the initially
unaltered target file will be on the right. You can accept proposed changes with the
floating buttons that appear between the highlighted changes in the editors, or also the
buttons that appear in the AI Coder tool or the diff/merge tool group in the top-level toolbar.
Once you have reviewed all the changes, the review session ends automatically. You can also
end the session without reviewing all the changes with the Done button in the AI Coder
tool or the
icon in the top-level toolbar. - Start Review to Reject (Default=Accept) works similarly, except that the AI's changes will be applied immediately and the review session displays the old version of the code on the left and the new version on the right. In this mode, changes are accepted by default if you end the session without reviewing all of them.
Requests
The Requests menu in the AI Coder tool allows you to create, edit, manage, and load saved requests. See Saved Requests for more information.
Options
The Options menu provides the following:
Enter Key Executes Transform causes Wing to immediately execute the currently entered transformation request when Enter is pressed in the entry area. When this is enabled, you can still enter a newline into the request by pressing Ctrl-Enter.
History Previous` and History Next traverse a history of AI request strings. You can also do this by pressing Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Down while focus is in the AI Coder tool's request entry area. This just traverses the history of request strings and does not change target, context, or action.
Switch to Provider and Manage AI Providers are used to select the AI provider currently in use by Wing's AI integration. See Configuring AI Providers for details.
Revoke Upload Permission revokes earlier permission for Wing to upload content to the AI provider, so that no content of any kind will be uploaded until permissions is once again granted for Wing to do so.
Reset Costs resets the stored AI request costs that are shown at the bottom of the AI Coder tool for the most recent request and all requests made so far. The accuracy of the costs displayed relies on the correctness of model pricing in the AI provider configuration.
Show Console shows a diagnostic console in the AI tool, which can be used to inspect the AI requests that are made and their results. This should only be needed when there are problems with the AI integration or if you want to see what data is being sent to the AI provider.
Show Documentation displays this documentation.
Key Binding
If you prefer a different key binding for this feature, you can bind the command ai-coder to any key sequence with the User Interface > Keyboard > Custom Key Bindings preference.
