Contributing to NeuralInverse CE

May 16, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

Welcome! We're glad you're here. NeuralInverse CE is open source and contributions of all kinds are welcome.

There are a few ways to contribute:

Codebase overview

NeuralInverse CE is built on VS Code. The codebase is large but most CE-specific code lives in a few folders:

  • src/vs/workbench/contrib/void/ - AI chat and agent infrastructure
  • src/vs/workbench/contrib/powerMode/ - Power Mode agentic workflows
  • src/vs/workbench/contrib/neuralInverseModernisation/ - Legacy code modernization
  • src/vs/workbench/contrib/neuralInverseFirmware/ - Firmware datasheet tooling

We recommend reading the VS Code codebase guide to get oriented.

Setting up your dev environment

Prerequisites

macOS: Python and Xcode (usually pre-installed)

Windows: Install Visual Studio 2022 with these workloads:

  • Desktop development with C++
  • Node.js build tools

And these individual components:

  • MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest)
  • C++ ATL for latest build tools with Spectre Mitigations
  • C++ MFC for latest build tools with Spectre Mitigations

Linux:

  • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install build-essential g++ libx11-dev libxkbfile-dev libsecret-1-dev libkrb5-dev python-is-python3
  • Fedora: sudo dnf install @development-tools gcc gcc-c++ make libsecret-devel krb5-devel libX11-devel libxkbfile-devel
  • openSUSE: sudo zypper install patterns-devel-C-C++-devel_C_C++ krb5-devel libsecret-devel libxkbfile-devel libX11-devel

Node version: Use Node 20.18.2 (see .nvmrc). With nvm: nvm install && nvm use

Running in developer mode

  1. Clone the repo:

    git clone https://github.com/NeuralInverse/neuralinverse
cd neuralinverse

  2. Install dependencies:

    npm install

  3. Start the build watcher (inside VS Code or NeuralInverse CE):

    • Windows/Linux: Ctrl+Shift+B
    • macOS: Cmd+Shift+B

    Or from terminal: npm run watch

    Wait until you see:

    [watch-extensions] Finished compilation with 0 errors
[watch-client    ] Finished compilation with 0 errors

  4. Open the dev window:

    • macOS/Linux: ./scripts/code.sh
    • Windows: ./scripts/code.bat

  5. After making changes, reload with Ctrl+R / Cmd+R inside the dev window.

Building a local executable

This takes ~25 minutes. Make sure you've run the dev mode steps above first.

macOS:

npm run gulp vscode-darwin-arm64   # Apple Silicon
npm run gulp vscode-darwin-x64     # Intel

Windows:

npm run gulp vscode-win32-x64
npm run gulp vscode-win32-arm64

Linux:

npm run gulp vscode-linux-x64
npm run gulp vscode-linux-arm64

Output appears in a folder outside the repo (e.g. ../VSCode-darwin-arm64/).

Common issues

  • Node version mismatch: Run nvm install && nvm use to match .nvmrc
  • Path with spaces: Make sure the repo path has no spaces
  • TypeError: Failed to fetch dynamically imported module: Check all imports end with .js
  • React build error: Run NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=8192" npm run buildreact
  • Missing styles: Wait a few seconds and reload
  • libtool error on macOS: Install GNU libtool (brew install libtool)
  • SUID sandbox error on Linux: Run sudo chown root:root .build/electron/chrome-sandbox && sudo chmod 4755 .build/electron/chrome-sandbox

Submitting a pull request

  • Fork the repo and create a branch for your change
  • Keep PRs focused - one fix or feature per PR
  • Make sure the build passes before submitting
  • Do not use non-ASCII characters in TypeScript/JavaScript string literals - this breaks the release build
  • Fill in the PR template
  • Submit against main

Questions?

Open a GitHub Discussion or email github@neuralinverse.com.